English 5365 - Internet Writing: Week 3 Post Topic
If you were to think of digital literacy as a two-tiered model, standard skills and advanced skills, how would you characterize each? Speculate as to what skills will be required in the not too distant future (say 5-10 years).
In class, we examined convoluted webs, trees, and diagrams breaking down skills into multiple sections, standard, advanced, etc. If I break digital literacy into two tiers, then the most basic skills that would allow the user to access desired information would fit into the standard category. These standard or basic skills would vary with chosen device, for example, computer, phone, iPad, Kindle, Nook, etc. As long as the user had the skill to access required information on his or her chosen device, even with no knowledge of other devices, I would say that they have the basic skills needed.
On this most basic level, the user needs to be able to operate his or her chosen device well enough to turn it on, launch his or her chosen application to access the Internet via WiFi, 3G, cable modem, etc., and to navigate to his or her chosen information source. It would be best if this standard skill set included an understanding of how to protect oneself on the web. For example, don’t click on the virus pop-up and don’t send your bank account information to a wealthy foreign businessperson trying to get his or her money out of his or her home country. In addition, I believe that this set should include information about how to protect your computer from attacks through the firewall, even if it is as basic as installing a package program from McAfee, Norton, etc.
More advanced skills would include familiarity with multiple devices, browsers, applications, etc., or the ability to quickly learn how to use an unfamiliar device to access information. It would include the ability to decide to venture beyond familiar boundaries and the ability to create information for these spaces by blogging, building webpages, creating podcasts, etc. This ability would extend beyond template-based construction to an understanding of the underlying code.
It is difficult to predict where we will end up in the future, what the technologies will look like and what we will need to be able to do to use them. Personal devices will likely become more accessible in the future, perhaps less expensive. Standard skills will likely include multi-device familiarity and there will likely be fewer people who do not use the Internet at all, at least in the United States. I predict the access to the Internet will increase even in less-developed nations, though, not quite at the current rate. Perhaps the green movement will have caught up with the consumer movement and slowed the rate of throw-a-way devices. It will be interesting to see what develops.
In class, we examined convoluted webs, trees, and diagrams breaking down skills into multiple sections, standard, advanced, etc. If I break digital literacy into two tiers, then the most basic skills that would allow the user to access desired information would fit into the standard category. These standard or basic skills would vary with chosen device, for example, computer, phone, iPad, Kindle, Nook, etc. As long as the user had the skill to access required information on his or her chosen device, even with no knowledge of other devices, I would say that they have the basic skills needed.
On this most basic level, the user needs to be able to operate his or her chosen device well enough to turn it on, launch his or her chosen application to access the Internet via WiFi, 3G, cable modem, etc., and to navigate to his or her chosen information source. It would be best if this standard skill set included an understanding of how to protect oneself on the web. For example, don’t click on the virus pop-up and don’t send your bank account information to a wealthy foreign businessperson trying to get his or her money out of his or her home country. In addition, I believe that this set should include information about how to protect your computer from attacks through the firewall, even if it is as basic as installing a package program from McAfee, Norton, etc.
More advanced skills would include familiarity with multiple devices, browsers, applications, etc., or the ability to quickly learn how to use an unfamiliar device to access information. It would include the ability to decide to venture beyond familiar boundaries and the ability to create information for these spaces by blogging, building webpages, creating podcasts, etc. This ability would extend beyond template-based construction to an understanding of the underlying code.
It is difficult to predict where we will end up in the future, what the technologies will look like and what we will need to be able to do to use them. Personal devices will likely become more accessible in the future, perhaps less expensive. Standard skills will likely include multi-device familiarity and there will likely be fewer people who do not use the Internet at all, at least in the United States. I predict the access to the Internet will increase even in less-developed nations, though, not quite at the current rate. Perhaps the green movement will have caught up with the consumer movement and slowed the rate of throw-a-way devices. It will be interesting to see what develops.
posted by Jessica Badger at
7:54 PM
1 Comments:
Your model focuses on devices and their capabilities, with some critical thinking components. As you say, it's difficult to look ahead, but as a point of departure, try looking back 5-10 years and see how far we've come.
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