As technology becomes more prominent in our culture, it is important to maintain a sense of web literacy. Especially as a future educator, it is very important to understand what web literacy means and to be a responsible web reader. Chung, Gill, and O’Byrne did a great job of breaking down what exactly web literacy means which is described as knowing how to read, write and participate in the digital world. I found the visual of the Web Literacy Map to be helpful https://via.hypothes.is/http://mozilla.github.io/webmaker-whitepaper/ , breaking down what is included in exploring, building and connecting on the web.
One of the 21st Century skills listed was the ability to remix, which was also discussed on Dr. Doug Belshaw’s Ted Talks presentation. It made sense to me when he discussed the creation on different memes, using the same picture, just changing the content and meaning. Success Kid meme was brought up and it’s a good visual to understand how the same picture is used with many different adaptations and meanings. I found an article on a blog called Center for Teacher Quality by Renee Moore entitled “If Digital Literacy is a Basic Skill, Who’s Responsible for Teaching it?’ and found that I very much related to it. She discussed how there a misconception that students, teachers and other professionals are already tech-savvy which is far from the truth. I am self-proclaimed lacking in the area of technology, but as a future educator I must take it upon myself to participate on the web and in turn teach my students top do that same. In Bali’s article “Knowing the Difference Between Digital Skills and Digital Literacies, and Teaching Both” the idea that the use of technology comes with risks was discussed and the importance of using judgement. This is such an important discussion that needs to be had with young students, especially with the rapid increase in use of many social media outlets. In discussing using judgment, she explained the importance of understanding scholarly and reliable sources. Mike Caulfield also discussed this on his video blog called “We need web literacy—but we need to do it right.” This was my favorite video that I watched because it touched on so many important topics. He talked about how during the election, and even still currently, so many articles are posted from unreliable sources, providing misinformation and people are so quick to share it. There are many conspiracies that individuals who are not what Caulfield calls “accomplished readers” believe because they do not take the time to look at the source and even if they do, they have little background knowledge of the source so they don’t know if it’s reputable or not. One of the examples brought up was the rumor circulating during the election that Hilary Clinton has Parkinson’s Disease, which many were so quick to share on Facebook or other social media outlets with a single click. Hillary Clinton has Parkinson's. It is important to teach our students the use of good judgement when researching and it is imperative as a student, myself. In a study done at Stanford, Caulfield discusses how “accomplished web readers” read the actual page last and read about the source first. We need to teach our students not to waste time reading the page before we know the source and its credibility. Since technology is used to educate our students, it is essential for educators to take all of the above into account and make themselves web literate and to be a responsible web user and to pass the information onto our students.
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Author-Monica Dodd
Hey guys! My name is Monica and I am getting ready to begin my second year of my MAT Special Education Program at College of Charleston. |