And Yet Another Thing I Have to Learn as a Teacher!

Digital literacy is the knowledge, skills, and behaviors used in a broad range of digital devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop PCs, all of which are seen as network rather than computing devices.   –Wikipedia

Some of you might have a problem with the definition of digital literacy above I have presented above. And I am will to bet that it is because I pulled it from Wikipedia. I might hear sighs of exacerbation because I am an educated graduate student who has stooped to using Wikipedia and incorporating it into a formal class assignment. I know your reasons why you may have a problem with this and I understand why you discourage or may discourage students from using Wikipedia. I have used those same exact arguments myself when teaching class. But I utilized Wikipedia to illustrate a point about digital literacy and how we sometimes teach it to our students. Yet consider this: have you adequately explained to your students how Wikipedia operates and how entries are made? Have you demonstrated that, because it is open to the public, mistakes will occur, facts may be incorrect, and that concepts may not be well defined or explained, and that source materials may not be adequately cited. I will take it one step further: have you ever confessed that you as a teacher may have used it on occasion? I have. It is great way to get quick information about a book, a movie, or a scientific idea I may come across in a book or discussion that I know nothing about and want a quick reference about it so that I understand it immediately before moving on in my reading or discussion. It is a tool that has its place, and yet we discourage students from using it in their academic endeavors rather than explaining its strengths and weaknesses so that our students can understand when and not to use it. If we “Google” something to get an answer that may solve a conversational argument one night at a bar with friends over drinks, how do we know that the source we tap on our smartphones is in any way better than Wikipedia? It sounds like we as teachers need a little bit of training in digital literacy ourselves, and that is okay. In fact, I would encourage seeking such training. Most of our students are way more equipped than us to handle all things digital across many platforms. I have seen their strengths in this regard, and I have also seen their weaknesses.

Our heads have been in the books with teacher preparation during college to get us ready for the classroom. Our students have had their heads in digital devices (one form or another) for most of their lives. Can you see the potential for conflict in the classroom arena over lessons involving reading and writing with this last example? How can we synergize both camps on the path of digital literacy to bring focus and balance?

     Let’s not forget that it is not just digital literacy we are dealing with, but digital literacies. “From a sociocultural perspective, these different ways of reading and writing and the ‘enculturations’ that lead to becoming proficient in them are literacies.” (Lankshear & Knobel, pp 7). I have never considered before (though it should have been apparent) that how two people write blogs, emails, make social media postings, create websites, and so forth can be vastly different. Even the use of language employed will have many distinct varieties. It is daunting to think about the complexities when approaching digital literacy and incorporating it successfully into the classroom. And there are generational differences amongst teachers that present certain problems.

     For a young twenty-something teacher, the idea of employing digital literacy within the classroom may be easy for that person since s/he has grown up with digital media. I am forty-seven years old. I remember when computers were a cute novelty to be used once a year in certain classes and no more. But I did not get a cellphone until I was forty, because I did not like the behaviors people exhibited in public and social settings thanks to using the cellphone and resisted getting it lest I start exhibiting those same behaviors. I am not fluid in digital media, and when decided to catch up to the 21^st century and buy a SmartTV, it was students I turned to get their advice about which model to buy (and I wound up buying the model they had suggested and I am quite happy with it). At least I had the wisdom to turn to the experts: my freshmen students. I know they are a valuable resource and that they can teach me things about all things digital. As one article noted that I took to heart, “One way to capitalize on the synergies between digital and disciplinary literacies is to reconsider the expert/novice binary.” (Manderino & Castek, pp. 80) when it comes to the reading apprenticeship approach. Now, can I teach my students how to use all things digital properly, employing critical thinking to discern, decode, comprehend, and apply information? I think I can—at least with some proper training. But what about teachers in their fifties and sixties who have to ask me how does our new copier work, or are still using flip-phones and yearn for the “good old days” of using a mimeograph to make classroom copies? There are resources out there for teachers to learn about employing digital literacies in the classroom, but I believe school-led training is required. And what about underfunded schools with limited technological resources? What about students from families at the poverty line that may not have internet or a computer at home, but we want to assign a digital media project? The problems of bringing digital learning to the classroom have just increased. Not to mention a typical teacher complaint: “My students have problems putting together a proper sentence together on paper, but now you want me to also teach them how to use digital literacies as well?” Challenges abound, and we as teachers sometimes get lost on what to do.

http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2014/10/29/ctq_crowley_digitalliteracy.html

     This is a new age of digital learning, that, like it or not, is here to stay. And we as teachers must adapt to it and “grab the bull by its horns” and wrestle with it and learn how best to use it in in education. To paraphrase Lankshear & Knobel (pp 14) we have to: 1) become more aware of the diversity of digital media that is out there; 2) approach digital use through the lens of sociocultural understanding and understand there are multiple digital literacies out there; 3) employ practices that adopt the best strengths these literacies have to offer within the classroom (and outside) and to know their weaknesses or misuses as well.

     So who’s up for the challenge?

P.S. I apologize if some boxes come up with a question mark in them, or if the text or picture alignment is a little disjointed. This is my first time writing an entry, and I had a hell of a time trying to make my post presentable since I wrote this on a MS Word document first, then when I cut and pasted it to this blog, the "translation" between Word and this blog did not go over very well. Then on top of it, as I was trying to edit and correct everything, the pictures and text began to swim around chaotically and created something of a mess for me to decipher and learn how to correct properly. See? I'm not very digitally-literate in this regard. Another challenge for me! ;)