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I will likely be interviewed by phone for a magazine at some point today, probably in an airport somewhere. The question will be, “Can you tell me about technology literacy?”
My immediate response is that technology literacy is not an issue. Our students are coming into our classrooms with a seemingly uncanny ability to use and learn to use new technologies. They’ve had lots of practice. Each new video game that they learn challenges them to master some new skill. Even though the Digital Natives/Digital Immigrants comparison is often abused, I think that there is a clear distinction between people who have grown up with technology, and those of us who have watched technology grow before our eyes.
That said, there is certainly an issue of great concern, in that there are many children who are coming into our classrooms with no experience with contemporary information and communication technologies (ICT), and this is a huge problem. But generally speaking, technology skills seem to be happening.
What is the issue, in my opinion, are the ways that our information landscape have changed, as a result of ICT, and the new skills required to work that information environment to accomplish goals. Basic literacy has changed…
- What it means to be a reader when information is networked,
- What it means to be a processor of information when information is digital,
- What it means to be a communicator when we are overwhelmed by information,
- and the ethical implications of information empowerment.
I’m posting this at 06:30 EST and should be landing in Chicago in about three hours. Would love to read your feedback then…
Cheers!
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Hi David,
I have been thinking a lot about how new media is impacting what defines a literate individual. I am not sure I have answers, but I am also thinking about how literacy changes when our students are creators of new media. Not too long ago, students wrote very rarely for audiences beyond those in their immediate academic community. If they kept a journal, perhaps a parent or sibling found it and read it. Today, teenagers are creating online profiles replete with sensitive information (the negative side of composition), but they are also posting original compositions, often multi-modal compositions. How does this change their relationship to other media when they are composing in this fashion? I think that, in some important ways, students are critical of the rhetoric of video and audio. However, they seem to lack the ability to sort through the information. Most students do not go beyond the first 2 or 3 hits on a google search when looking for information. The library is simply the easiest way to get to Google in most schools. This is where the tension lies for me as an educator: how to get students to create worthwhile new media and then, how to get them to be critical consumers of the glut of information out there. Hope this helps 🙂
Andrea,
I agree with your tension about students not digging deeply into the resources that become available through a Google search. I frequently say that literacy skills are not enough to day — that we have to help our students to develop literacy habits. To do this, we have to make them care, make them care whether the source they are using is the best source.
I continue to believe that give students authentic audiences for their content and authentic goals, is one way to make them care about the quality of their work.
Thanks for continuing the conversation.
The skills I think my students need to be technologically literate are really information literacy skills. The very same skills I use and have used as a learner, an educator and a techie. I seek information to answer questions I have and/or solve “problems” I encounter in my “world”. I analyze and evaluate the information, make the information my own by connecting the learning to what I already know, apply the information in new contexts (often with my students), and communicate the information to a variety of audiences, in a variety of formats.
Wait a second, isn’t this what I’ve always done, as a learner. Yes, but everything has been ramped up; exponential increases in the amount of information, social and ethical aspects of sharing and creating new information on the world wide web, new web-based tools, applications and storage…..just to name a few. For me, the learning, is driven by me based on my passions and my needs “at the time.” And I believe this is why it’s working for me.
So…..my challenges are staying ahead of my students, integrating information literacy into technology literacy (and sometimes the other way around), keeping it “real world”, and at the same time attending to accountability responsibilities.
Pamela,
I am glad that you made the connection between literacy and your learning practices. I frequently use the following as a working definition of literacy in my presentations:
Increasingly, I am finding that an alternative definition is helpful in conversations about contemporary literacy and education.
I remember going to college and roaming the library shelves, card catalog, and micro fiche files over and over again when I was working on a paper. At that time, I felt that the resources available to me were HUGE and it was my job to be wise in sifting them down to what was necessary to prove or disprove my point.
I don’t think that that has changed…………except to the extreme that information is now available.
I would like to respond to your thought on
What it means to be a communicator when we are overwhelmed by information
As always, you need to do your research, check your facts, double check your facts, and be able to sift through everything.
You also need to fine tune because if you are overwhelmed, then the information you are sharing could be overwhelming to who you are communicating to — and there comes a point to every listener when they hit overload and just cannot hear any more.
Also, I think you have the responsibility to come to a realization of what YOU believe and present that. I have been to too many sessions this last year that say “so and so said this” and “so and so believe this” and “so and so say we should do this” and bottom line, I came to hear YOU (whoever the speaker is) and want your opinion and not just your comments on what someone else believes.
Know your necessary facts — keep it genuine — don’t overload — is what I think it means to be a communicator when overwhelmed by information.
I agree about the kids coming through the classroom doors with a lot of skills these days. I’m amazed at the bump up every year, with every new group I see. But of course there’s a difference between having basic skills and being able to use them in a literate way. That’s my job, as I see it – as in your bullet points…
In school, we are learning how to make technology a part of the classroom. I am shocked to see how much of it is already used and how many students already know most of the basic skills. It’s nice, though, to require students to do things without technology so that they are able to use creativity and critical thinking skills.
Like anything in the technology field, there are people that know the lingo and then people that “know” the lingo.
Having said that, I’ve been around a computer system since I was 1 years of age. My Dad having been the CIO of his company for almost 33 years and his son who just liked to push buttons. (me)
When you think about technology and what people do with it, there is still a learning curve to everything these days. I for one work in the tech sector and do desktop support. I support people that use customized applications to do a job specific task. Outside of that, I have friends young and old that either: A) don’t use technology or B) Only use technology to a certain limit.
Within that limit of use, there in lies the eco-system of their current verbiage and vocabulary. So while I have no qualms about kids walking in with the latest Macbook Air to check Facebook during a lecture at school and interact with people electronically, I think actually asking them what they’re doing, you’d find you get varying answers for describing the same activity.
For my kids, I want them to learn to use the computer the way I have. It’s a tool to learn, use and have fun with. Course how deep they want to get into how a SATA Bus or PCI-Express bus works…. that’s up to them.
Aaron and others,
A distinction that I find useful is that our students are coming into the classroom about to play the information. They are able to use the technology, and even more importantly, they are able to learn to use the technology. Each new video game involves new skills. They know how to use tech to play.
Then desperately need us to teach them how to work the information, how to work the technology. There is a difference between using today’s information environment to play a game or impress your friends, and using it to accomplish serious and meaningful goals. There are also similarities that we can leverage.
Like Aaron, I too grew up with technology. So I find it challenging reading blogs about today’s students and how teachers can find ways to work with them, when I am part of Gen-Y myself. The subjects I specialise in are English and IT. In my English teaching I wouldn’t let my students type up essays because I wanted them to prove that THEY could use the English language. But, in my teaching of IT (it’s a separate subject in my school for students in years 8-10) I do actually have to teach those technology literacies. The majority of my students don’t play computer games in their spare time, they ride motorbikes and horses and help out on the farm. These country kids just DON’T come into the class with the skills I would like them to have. And, many of my colleagues don’t have the technology skills to help our students become technologically literate.
I am in rural South Carolina with high population of free and reduced lunch (85%). I have noticed 30% have little or not technology skills in the classroom and they have a difficult time learning these skills. These same kids are below basic on state testing. rI work with one particular group that is grouped together in Social Studies classroom. They are unwilling to experiment with the technology and have a difficult time when the technology does not work like it should. They have no skills to solve the problems. These are seventh grader. The point is these kids are more than likely come from high poverty homes and this is the group of kids that are being left behind fast. We have made great strides with this group. We don’t seem to talk much about this group. When I am with other classess especially the GT group all you have do is show them once and they are teaching me things I don’t know. Any ideas….about the at risk population..
Bill,
I think that this is a huge problem. It is a dramatic widening of the gap, one that we by and large don’t really recognize yet. The problem is that the kids with technology, with Facebook profiles, with video game experiences, are the kids who will be defining the workplace of the future. Employing those without this experience will be like trying to employ Neanderthals.
The Geico cavemen are certainly exceptions.
At the risk of further abusing the Digital Natives/Digital Immigrants comparison, I don’t think that one of our greatest issues is that students are coming into our classrooms with weak information literacy skills – I’m referring to middle school and lower high school grades. Is this really significantly different from 20, or even 50, years ago when most of the information they used came from preselected materials found in their classrooms and libraries?
The greatest issue, I feel, stems from the fact that many of our teachers are no longer literacy experts – not when it comes to digital media. The fear factor is still too strong, and they are simply in reactionary mode; Wikipedia is often banned as an unreliable resource instead of being used as a tool to teach valuable research and critical thinking skills such as keyword searches, skimming and scanning for information, comparing information found in multiple forms of media, and as a fabulous source for more information found an article’s References. We need to become literate consumers and providers of information (including electronic forms), and then we can effectively guide our students’ literacy growth.
The greatest concern for me is when students leave our classrooms without being given the opportunity to effectively practice and strengthen their information literacy skills.
Very well said, Sue. The reason students trust the content that they encounter on the Internet, is that it’s what we teach them. We provide pre-packaged content for learning, tell them to trust it, and then wring our hands at the thought of students not practicing proper evaluation outside the classroom.
Thanksabunch!
One of my concerns in this age of overwhelming information is that students have a difficult time determining the value of the information they are reading. Every “writer” appears to be on a level playing field. Thomas Friedman and “Joe Shmoe” might both be out there blogging, but there is a distinct difference in the quality of their experience, expertise and as a result their opinion. How can you begin to evaluate the quality and worth of what you read when you’re skimming through a web site? I think one of the most important things we can teach our students is how to evaluate the quality and value of what they read regardless of where they read it.
A few years back, you came to my school board to tell us that we, as teachers, didn’t need to teach digital/technology literacy to our students because they just “get it.” I disagreed with you because, as a teacher-librarian in a high school, I see everyday how students don’t just “get it.” Sure they can play games and download music, but they can’t figure out how to save files in different formats, they don’t know what to do when their documents won’t print, they lose their memory keys, they post pictures on their Facebook pages without realizing the possible consequences, etc. But you continued to push the fallacy of the Digital Native. Have you read this article by Dan Pontefract? I have provided the link and would be interested in your reaction. The article is called The Fallacy of Digital Natives.
http://www.danpontefract.com/?p=1300
@Shannon Ferguson, I believe your observation and have, since several years ago, refined the language that I use to describe their technology fluency — and you hit the nail on the head. The know how to play the technology/information. But they have not learned how to work it.
I believe that we need to understand how they learn to so proficiently play with networked, digital and abundant information, and then craft learning experiences that help them to develop equally fluent skills in working the information environment (how to deal with files, manipulate date, visualize, effectively and responsibly find appropriate information, etc.
I still do not believe that it would best serve our purposes or theirs to teach them the skills. They need to develop them and use them every day.