Beginnings

In which the purpose of this blog is revealed and its writer is exposed in three acts.

Act One:
It's only fair that you know this blog is a project for a class, thus, there is method in its madness.  As a teacher, I have learned that we are often expected to be among the most educated members of society (and I will bite my tongue while simultaneously alluding to the lack of respect we often receive regardless of our education), and so in my pursuit of a graduate degree I have to explore digital literacy, methods of teaching it, and its impact upon students and our classrooms.  In short, I'm no longer permitted to be a luddite, wallowing in the muddy primordial ooze of non-Kindled novels and sporting my very sassy red flip phone that does NOT have a touch screen, nor a slide out qwerty keyboard.  If it were up to me, the world would learn to text on a rotary dial.

Now, I'm not complaining about this project.  If anything, I embrace it.  I have informed my students that if they expect an emailed response from me, they must utilize spell check (and check it one more time to make sure that is the word they REALLY wanted to replace), use proper punctuation, and abandon the litany of smilies that accompany their signatures, for email is, essentially, electronic mail-- mail in electronic form.  As a student of history and having studied the impact of the epistle in shaping our world, I value the coherent word and I grumble every time I have to pull up UrbanDictionary to translate a document, not because I do not value the creation and fluidity of language (grammar taught through linguistics, for example, has proven to not only be more effective than in isolation, it adds an element of social justice to a lesson), but because it just reminds me that I am getting old at the ripe age of twenty-six and that I am desirous of nothing more than a porch, a rocking chair, and some dangnabbit kids to holler at when they try to cross onto my lawn.  Regardless, the digital age is and has been upon us and it effects my teaching and my students in profound ways.

Consider the insidious case of cyberbullying and its fuzzy legal boundaries of onus and responsibility; many students are unaware of the implications and power of the published word, and the internet provides a fantastic (and frightening) outlet to instant publication.  These words are public and unable to be erased from the author, the intended audience, and anyone else who has access to these words.  This is important.  Pay attention.  You may want to take notes.

But equally important, we must not demonize the internet.  I wonder at times how paranoid we can be about putting our words out there into the land of insta-publication?  In 2009, Twitter dominated an electoral movement in Iran.  Just a month ago, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was toppled by Facebook.  To expose the digital era for all of its flaws is to do an injustice to its inspiring messages of freedom of communication, organization, and social justice.  Think what you will about Wikileaks and its constituents; you must admit that the ability to create such a database is a powerful mechanism.

Likewise, these ideas open a debate in a classroom.  How many times have we condemned nations for their heavily censored internet, cheered the vigilantes who hack through the code, create proxies around firewalls, or find internet service beyond borders?  We look down our noses at Kim Jong Il and his control of information within his own country, and the complete lack of freedom it affords the people.  I realize it is in poor taste to compare paternalistic tendencies of internet control with a world leader that is, for the most part, reviled within our own nation, but "protecting" children from the internet often turns into denying them the internet without teaching them the proper navigation of it instead.  Remember, knowledge is power, and ignorance is not actually bliss.  Giving tools to our children to understand the implications, positive and negative, of our digital outlets allows them to make wise, creative choices that allow us to push forward, regardless of those of us (such as myself) who demand text messages in complete sentences.

Act Two:
What is digital literacy, you may ask?  Consider how you read a blog, an email, a database, a website, even online comics.  Think to how communication has changed from a phone call, or a letter, to texting, blogging, tweeting, skyping, emailing, status updates, and chatting.  These all change our mentality and how we understand communication itself.  It's a new frontier, man! 

Do you remember what it was like installing and teaching your grandparent/parent how to use a computer, or to email, or to use a cellular phone, or to create an online photo album?  I recall the sighs of frustration (from both parties), the repeated instructions, the phone calls asking more questions, the dubious skepticism expressed from those I wished to teach and my eye rolls because they "just didn't get it".  Now imagine you're in a classroom today and telling your students that they can ONLY use physical books and magazines to gather research, or that they can't create a podcast instead of a written essay, or that they have to create physical models of a Greek temple instead of a digital one on Sketch Up.  You think your eyerolling was exhausting?  Those thirty (well, with budget cuts, let's be realistic) FIFTY pairs of eyes roll so epically that the optic nerves and muscles are straining against the urge to sever and pop that eyeball right out of its socket so it is free to roll across the floor repeatedly.  These kids are savvy and smart and deserve a chance to express knowledge in multiple forms including digitally.  Its our own resistance, false sense of protection, or lack of education that leads to repression in the classroom.  Digital literacy, in short, is the act of teaching students to navigate a digital world and all of the tools of communication therein.

Act Three:
So, how does this blog-project attempt to understand this?  Truthfully, I'm not sure, because this project will continue past its due date.  However, I come across many alarming, inspirational, and humorous run-ins with digital literacy in my own classroom.

"No, you cannot cite Google as a source on your paper-- it helped you FIND sources, but it is not a source."

"No, I can't friend you on Facebook-- it isn't ethical and frankly, I don't want either of us to know what the other is doing on our weekends."

"Well, Ms. Parent-of-a-Student, I would love to continue our parent teacher conference but I see that I am interrupting your precious twitter time, and so I will leave you to your newly announced sale at Macy's."

Teachers have been fired for thoughtless Facebook updates and students have been jailed for cyberbullying-- there is a lack of digital literacy on both ends of the spectrum.  It's time to go back to school and understand the mechanics of a digital world.