According to the digital natives quiz, I am a digital immigrant. Like Jackie, I was only able to identify three out of the six terms (blog, wiki, and IM -- and wiki is a very new term for me). I am not surprised by this classification as a digital immigrant, particularly after the time we spent in class exploring new technologies. I found myself overwhelmed and unsure of podcasting, digital storytelling, bubbleply, and other new technologies. I actually wondered if I would ever be able to master these technologies enough to have my students use them, and they seemed like more work than they were worth. I know this thinking is probably wrong, and I know that new technologies have a lot to offer, I am just very intimidated by them. That said, I am hoping this new literacies project will help me to overcome my fear of these technologies.
I think that what Tompkins says in chapter 3 about emergent literacy certainly applies to my own emergent digital literacy. Tompkins mentions the beginning phases of literacy, in which children are leaning concepts about print, concepts about words, and concepts about the alphabet (pages 86-89). These are the building blocks of learning to read, write, and become literate. I feel that I am in a similar stage in my digital literacy -- I am developing the basic concepts and building blocks about new literacies and technologies so that I can in turn apply those concepts to actually use them. Soon I will be learning to use these new technologies, which is much like the emergent reading and writing that Tompkins describes on pages 89-92. Hopefully, toward the end of this class and as I continue on my journey of digital immigration, I will move through beginning digital literacy and toward fluent digital literacy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I am in agreement with you that Tompkins ideas of emergent steps in literature can be related to our own emergent stages within technology use. I feel as though we are using the same process of building up and going off of our previous knowledge. The more practice and advice we are given in regards to technology, the readily we will be able to use it within our classrooms to better the environment that our students will be learning in.
ReplyDelete