Digital literacy means having some knowledge of the full scope of digital media. To be digitally literate is to have an understanding, or at least awareness, of all the digital forms of communication, entertainment and also of ways to locate information. One should have some knowledge of Google, Youtube, Twitter, Wikipedia, gamer terms, text lingo, and the general rules of forums, not to mention certain key applications like Microsoft Word and Itunes to name a few important ones. This does not mean that the digitally literate person must actually use all the forms of digital media. Their knowledge can be limited to a basic awareness of what the system does and how people use it.
With this general idea, that literacy is not merely the ability to use an aspect of a medium but a general understanding of all the parts and forms of the entire medium, we can easily see why there is a gap between the generations on the digital front. We likely all have parents that have learned some part of the digital medium. Our fathers may know how to email with ease and our mothers may be able to Facebook and Myspace like the best of us, but that might be the extent of their digital literacy. They might know nothing of gaming, or virtual worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft. Therefore they turn to their children, who are more likely to be digitally literate, for help. I think that if our parents wanted to they could learn to become more digitally literate; certainly Microsoft and other companies think so, since they teach classes on the subject matter, but like all illiteracies it is a skill that maybe not everyone can grasp instantly. Time must be taken to learn how to plug in a computer of course...
links to
Microsoft
and
ITC Digital Literacy
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I like the fact that you pointed out our parent's generation and their digital literacy, or lack there of. Often times we become the ones with more experience and knowledge, even if it is in select few areas such as this. If I had a dime for every time my mom has asked me question in regards to facebook, then I would have a much easier time paying my tuition.
ReplyDeleteI like the point you made the digital literacy isn't necessarily the ability to use all digital technology to the fullest extent, but is at least "a basic awareness of what [a] system does and how people use it." Very few people effectively use all forms of digital media, but the fact that one simply chooses not to Tweet or have a MySpace profile does not make them difitally illiterate. A basic knowledge of what Twitter and MySpace and how they are used suffice for literacy in these realms.
ReplyDeleteI like how you split the explanation into three parts: first you gave a basic definition for digital literacy, then you gave examples of programs through which you can use the knowledge, and finally you showed how it is a relatively new subject as the youth are more digitally literate than their own parents. It was especially important that you stated how knowing how to use a few mediums of technology does not make one digitally literate, but rather one should have a basic understanding of all forms of technology.
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