Digital Literacies Theme: Tools for Learning and New Modes of Assessment
'Digital literacies' refers to the practices of communicating, relating, thinking and ‘being’ associated with digital media. Literacy in this context means more than mastering how to use digital tools. It also means using those tools to do something in the social world, and these things we do invariably involve managing our social relationships and our social identities in all sorts of different and sometimes unpredictable situations. |
- Jones & Hafner, 2012, Understanding digital literacies: A practical introduction
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Are kids innately digitally literate? Probably not: The Myth of the Digital Literacy. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka3ImmG54Po
What is Digital Literacy? Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESSIcLO3Z_Q
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Prensky’s (2001) 'digital native' theory, that somehow those born at the latter half of the 1990s are digitally pre-wired and innately digitally literate, has never held much weight with me. Through experience, I've observed the majority of my '21st-century learners' immersed in a world driven by technology but they DO NOT innately know how to use technology effectively, and most certainly not for educational purposes. Through the next set of program artifacts, I will reflect on how the MEd program has supported my understanding that much like reading and writing, literacy in digital technologies is a necessary component for inclusion in the 21st-century world.
As mentioned in the Program of Study, one of my projected themes for my capstone portfolio was critical digital literacy. Reflecting on own desired learning path in the UOIT MEd program, in tandem with the responsibilities of my professional life (specifically the tablet roll-out initiative I have mentioned already) this was to be a key component to any consolidation of my learning. At the time, however, I’m not sure I understood what digital literacy was, nor its importance in 21st-century learning. I assume that digital literacy is a term I often heard and used in my own discourse but did not understand why. What was certain is that it had a place in the development of my understandings of 21st-century education. |
My first thorough introduction to digital literacy occurred at the halfway point of my studies in Dr. van Oostveen’s EDUC 5101G Learning with Technology course (since rebranded as Digital Tools for Constructing Knowledge). As outlined in the course syllabus, students were to read a variety of literature and engage in discussions that allowed an exploration of uses of digital technologies within an educational context. Topics included technological and sociological determinism, computer-mediated communication, informatics and the knowledge society, and the effects of digital technologies on epistemology (van Oostveen, 2014). Huh? To be perfectly honest, I was lost. For many of the topics, I walked away with little understanding of how they relate to 21st-century education. Though, upon reflection, I did learn through practice some of the key components of digital literacy and 21st-century learning: collaboration, communication, and what I would call ‘learning by doing’, as all topics were to be student-centred and student-driven.
If EDUC 5101G opened the path to understanding digital literacies, it was my next course that showed me how to actively engage students with digital literacies in an authentic manner. The sixth course of my program of study, Dr. Barber’s EDUC 5305G Authentic Assessment course challenged us to reflect on traditional assessment practice and how our need for consistency in student evaluation has been a disservice to our learners. In short, traditional methods of assessment are counterintuitive to 21st-century digital literacy skill development. Through the study of alternative assessment practices, such as electronic student portfolios, my understanding of what it means to be digitally literate and support others on this journey began to take shape.
If EDUC 5101G opened the path to understanding digital literacies, it was my next course that showed me how to actively engage students with digital literacies in an authentic manner. The sixth course of my program of study, Dr. Barber’s EDUC 5305G Authentic Assessment course challenged us to reflect on traditional assessment practice and how our need for consistency in student evaluation has been a disservice to our learners. In short, traditional methods of assessment are counterintuitive to 21st-century digital literacy skill development. Through the study of alternative assessment practices, such as electronic student portfolios, my understanding of what it means to be digitally literate and support others on this journey began to take shape.
Doug Belshaw's TEDTalk, The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies would be the inspiration for much of my work in Dr. Hughes' EDUC 5304G Digital Literacies: Theory, Practice, and Research course. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8yQPoTcZ78
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It was in my seventh course, Dr. Hughes’ EDUC 5304G Digital Literacies: Theory, Practice, and Research that I began to consolidate my understanding of what it means to be literate in the 21st-century. I began to observe a shift in the types of texts produced for and by the current ‘knowledge economy’. As the course outline states, today’s artifacts are of digital, rather than industrial technologies, and these technologies have had a considerable impact on how people connect, communicate, collaborate and create (Hughes 2014).
As I move forward with my reflection on my course artifacts within the theme of Digital Literacies, I will further focus on how technology tools enhance and support postmodern literacy and how modern assessment practices will support new modes of understanding. |