My experiences so far of digital literacy are limited (or perhaps I know more than I do and don’t realise it) and somewhat confused. What exactly is digital literacy? Is web 2.0 technology such as blogs, YouTube and social media etc considered digital literacy?
Based on my experiences so far I believed digital literacy to be:
- Reading traditional text that has been digitised (e-books)
- Listening to audio books
- Accessing pdf or html documents from databases for readings
- Apps or programs to help students ‘read’ and understand a book via animations, voice overs and music.
However, further reading has drawn to my attention that digital literature is much more than that. Even being able to use the internet effectively is considered digital literature. Digital literature has additional skills to traditional literature. These include finding and evaluating information on line, combining information from different sources and communicating information. (Leu, McVerry, O’Byrne, Kiili, Zawilinski, Everett-Cacopardo, Kennedy and Forzani, 2011, p.7). These are valuable skills for all, particularly students to possess. Many student’s online literacy skills are poor despite the student’s opposing beliefs. One area in which students are weak is in analysing search results, particularly clicking on the first search result (Leu, Forzani, Timbrell & Maykel, 2015). I have seen this myself. When questioning year six students about search engine results many responded they choose the first result. On further questioning the majority did not know that many top results are sponsored ads. They certainly did not check for reliability and validity of websites, with many readily agreeing that they did not check the author or credentials of the website.
Walsh (2013, p.181) introduces the idea of digital texts being multi modal, incorporating images, music, and speech to support communication. Whilst I had seen digital stories on websites such as Story Time Online with the stories being read aloud along with some animation, I have not seen other digital narrative features Walsh outlines (p.187). These include:
- non-linear progression of the story,
- split screens, ‘mouse over’ effects,
- interactive games, and
- ‘mash up’ features.
She encourages educators to evaluate if or how these features accentuate the story and allow students to engage more with the story (2013, p.185). Students also need to be aware of fact and fiction within these features, such as websites with information that appears real but is not, it is part of the story (Lamb, 2011, p.17).
Then there are considerations of reader navigation on the page, some people have difficulty navigating interactive texts (Lamb, 2011, p. 15) or indeed traditional texts in digital format (Jabr, 2013). Whilst I prefer a traditional view of text on a page for ease of navigation, will it be the same for the younger generation? And what about those students with text learning difficulties, do digital literacy features make it easier for them to comprehend ideas better than straight text does?
From the readings thus far in the subject I can see that digital literacy involves more than I believed of reading on a screen. It includes being able to use the internet successfully as well as choosing effective digital narratives. There is a lot for me to learn about the world of digital literacy.
References:
Jabr, F. (2013) The reading brain in the digital age: The science of paper versus screens. Scientific American, April 11. Retrieved from: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/
Lamb, A. (2011). Reading redefined for a transmedia universe. Learning and leading with technology, 39(3), 12-17.
Leu, D.J, Forzani, E.,Timbrell, N. et al (2015) Seeing the forest, not the trees: Essential technologies for literacy in the primary-grade and upper elementrary-grade classroom. Reading Teacher, 69(2) 139-145
Leu, D.J., McVerry, J.G., O’Byrne, W.I., Kiili, C., Zawilinski, L., Everett-Cacopardo, H., Kennedy, C. and Forzani, E. (2011). The new literacies of online reading comprehension: Expanding the literacy and learning curriculum. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(1)5-14. Doi: 10.1598/JAAL.55.1.1
Walsh, M. (2013). Literature in a digital environment (Ch. 13). In L. McDonald (Ed.), A literature companion for teachers. Marrickville, NSW: Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA). https://doms.csu.edu.au/csu/file/863c5c8d-9f3f-439f-a7e3-2c2c67ddbfa8/1/ALiteratureCompanionforTeachers.pdf