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Albert Martinez

Digital literacy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • This new era poses major challenges to the flow of news and information people depend on to manage their complex lives. In the context of this report, digital and media literacy is seen as a constellation of life skills that are necessary for full participation in our media-saturated, information-rich society. According to Renee Hobbs, author of the white paper, Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action, these include the ability to do the following: Make responsible choices and access information by locating and sharing materials and comprehending information and ideas Analyze messages in a variety of forms by identifying the author, purpose and point of view, and evaluating the quality and credibility of the content Create content in a variety of forms, making use of language, images, sound, and new digital tools and technologies Reflect on one’s own conduct and communication behavior by applying social responsibility and ethical principles Take social action by working individually and collaboratively to share knowledge and solve problems in the family, workplace and community, and by participating as a member of a community Digital and media literacy competencies, which constitute core competencies of citizenship in the digital age, have enormous practical value. Hobbs identifies a 10-point action plan to enable all Americans to acquire digital and media literacy competencies.
  • Digital literacy requires certain skill sets that are interdisciplinary in nature. Warshauer and Matuchniak list information, media, and technology; learning and innovation skills; and life and career skills as the three skill sets that individuals need to master in order to be digitally literate, or the 21st-century skills
  • Eshet-Alkalai contends that there are five types of literacies that are encompassed in the umbrella term that is digital literacy
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  • (1) Photo-visual literacy is the ability to read and deduce information from visuals.
  • (2) Reproduction literacy is the ability to use digital technology to create a new piece of work or combine existing pieces of work together to make it your own.
  • (3) Branching literacy is the ability to successfully navigate in the non-linear medium of digital space.
  • (4) Information literacy is the ability to search, locate, assess and critically evaluate information found on the web.
  • (5) Lastly, socio-emotional literacy refers to the social and emotional aspects of being present online, whether it may be through socializing, and collaborating, or simply consuming content.
  • Schools are continuously updating their curriculum for digital literacy to keep up with accelerating technological developments.
  • These techniques are most effective when the teacher is digitally literate as well.
  • This means that today's educators may struggle to find effective teaching methods for digital natives. Digital immigrants might resist teaching digital literacy because they themselves weren't taught that way. Prensky believes this is a problem because today's students are "a population that speaks an entirely new language"[5] than the people who educate them.
  • Research published in 2012 found that the digital divide, as defined by access to information technology, does not exist amongst youth in the United States.[18] Young people of all races and ethnicities report being connected to the internet at rates of 94-98%.[18] There remains, however, a Civic Opportunity Gap, where youth from poorer families and those attending lower socioeconomic status schools are less likely to encounter opportunities to apply their digital literacies toward civic ends
Simora Martin

Guest column: Texting, social media sites causing bad habits in our students | MLive.com - 0 views

  • However, my job has become significantly more challenging than it was when I began my career 28 years ago. Texting and social networking sites have hurt students’ literacy skills.
  • However, when students text or use social networking sites, they aren’t practicing the language and writing conventions expected of literate adults and tested on the MEAP. Instead, they are developing habits that will not contribute to academic or career success.
  • They also don’t require writing in complete sentences. Twitter, for example, only allows 140 characters. Consequently, many students write in fragments and run-ons.
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  • There also is a negative effect on punctuation, especially when texting. It ignores language and writing conventions. Many students have no idea when to use capital letters. They don’t capitalize ‘I.’ They don’t capitalize proper names. You’re/your, there/their/they’re, and its/it’s become interchangeable. Punctuation is haphazard.
  • Texting and social networking might have advanced “small talk” communication, but they don’t encourage deeper, more meaningful communication — the type of literacy necessary for academic success or a professional career.
Simora Martin

What Skills Are Employers Looking For? - 0 views

  • Employability skills are generally divided into three skill sets: (a) basic academic skills, (b) critical thinking skills and (c) personal qualities. The three skill sets are typically broken down into more detailed skill sets.
  • The ability to read with understanding, also known as reading comprehension, is critical to successful employment. If you cannot fully understand the instructions on how to apply for a job, you are at a disadvantage.
  • Employers look for people who communicate well both orally and in writing. You need communication skills to sell yourself during the interview.
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  • Listening skills involve not only hearing but understanding. The sign that you were listening is that you can act on the information that you heard. Listening means gaining information and understanding information.
  • Decision making and reasoning involve gathering information, evaluating a variety of solutions, and selecting the best option.
  • Planning and organizing are also critical thinking skills.
Simora Martin

A lament for the future of meaningful reading; Why bother with serious books when Angry... - 0 views

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    Edmonton Journal (Alberta) January 22, 2012 Sunday Final Edition A lament for the future of meaningful reading; Why bother with serious books when Angry Birds is a tap away? BYLINE: Brett Josef Grubisic, Vancouver Sun SECTION: SUNDAY READER; Pg. B9 LENGTH: 1036 words Reading the 21st Century Stan Persky McGill Queens University Press 278 pp; $29.95 In an article about the good deeds of E.D. Hirsch, the recently deceased American cultural literacy superstar Christopher Hitchens dropped alarming findings from a nationwide survey: "The chances of a 17-yearold American being able to say anything meaningful about Thomas Jefferson are disconcertingly slight. The chances of the same student knowing anything significant about Poe, or slavery, or of being able to translate the most elementary Latin . or even being able to define the word 'ironic' are slighter still." Published shortly after Allan Bloom's Closing of the American Mind and Hirsch's Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, Hitchens' New York Times piece drew references from a 1988 survey. Since the ensuing two decades have witnessed the explosive growth of the Internet and gadgets for every occasion, it is tempting to wonder about the cultural literacy of that former disappointing test-subject's teenage son. A professional philosopher at Vancouver's Capilano University for nearly three decades and the author of more than 20 books that range from sexual politics (Buddies: Meditations on Desire, On Kiddie Porn) to Canadian politics (Fantasy Government, Delgamuukw), Chicago-born Stan Persky has been studying the data. He cannot be labelled an optimist. Persky's latest work - which he calls a "jeremiad, as defined by the writer Brian Fawcett: as accurate a description as possible of the present situation" - expands his impressive range while remaining close to an ever-keen interest in the cultural landscape of the here and now. Page-wise, Reading the 21st Century is dedicated primarily to signifi
Randall Oxendine

Writing, Technology and Teens | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project - 0 views

  • Even though teens are heavily embedded in a tech-rich world, they do not believe that communication over the internet or text messaging is writing.
Albert Martinez

Digital skills of internet natives: Different forms of digital literacy in a random sam... - 0 views

  • Digital skills of internet natives: Different forms of digital literacy in a random sample of northern Italian high school students
  • main results and methodological challenges of a large-scale survey on actual digital skills
  • A test covering three main dimensions of digital literacy (theoretical, operational and evaluation skills)
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  • sample performed better in operational skills
  • particularly poor performance regarding evaluation skills
  • cultural background has a significant effect, which is stronger on operational skills, while gender shows a more definite impact on theoretical knowledge.
Randall Oxendine

School of Education at Johns Hopkins University-Instant Messaging: Friend or Foe of Stu... - 0 views

  • According to Lee (2002), "teachers say that papers are being written with shortened words, improper capitalization and punctuation, and characters like &, $ and @. " However, something that is not always considered is that these mistakes are often unintentional – when students use IM frequently, they reach a saturation point where they no longer notice the IM lingo because they are so used to seeing it.
  • This was also a problem for Carl Sharp, whose 15-year old son's summer job application read "i want 2 b a counselor because i love 2 work with kids" (Friess, 2003), and English instructor Cindy Glover, who – while teaching undergraduate freshman composition in 2002 – "spent a lot of time unteaching Internet-speak. 'My students were trying to communicate fairly academic, scholarly thoughts, but some of them didn't seem to know it's "y-o-u," not "u"'" (Freiss, 2003.) These examples give credence to Montana Hodgen's point, that heavy IM use actually changes the way students read words on a page.
  • Students need to understand the importance of using the appropriate language in the appropriate setting, and that who one is writing for affects the way in which one writes. For example, IM-speak is perfectly acceptable when instant messaging with someone; on the flip side it is completely unacceptable when writing a formal letter. The same thing is true of formal writing – it is appropriate in an official document, such as a school paper, but would be inappropriate in-- for example-- an online chat room.
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  • Lee, J. (2002, September 19). I Think, Therefore IM. New York Times, p.G.1.
  • Friess, S. (2003, April 1). 'Yo, can u plz help me write English?': Parents fear online chatting ruins kids' language skills. USA Today, p.D.08.
  • However, something that is not always considered is that these mistakes are often unintentional – when students use IM frequently, they reach a saturation point where they no longer notice the IM lingo because they are so used to seeing it. Montana Hodgen, a 16-year old high school student in Montclair, New Jersey, "was so accustomed to instant-messaging abbreviations that she often read right past them" (Lee, 2002). As she puts it, "I was so used to reading what my friends wrote to me on Instant Messenger that I didn't even realize that there was something wrong," she said. She said her ability to separate formal and informal English declined the more she used instant messages" (Lee, 2002).
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