6809 - "Digital Media Effects on Conventional Reading and Writing Practices"

From Does Digital Media Make us Bad Writers

Instead, it depends on an old concept: audience.  According to Baron, there is a difference between a grammatically suspect, poorly spelled email to your writing professor and an email sent to a friend.  In one case the quality of writing absolutely matters. In the other, it may not. (Karp)

I think this demonstrates a need for the idea of literacy to change.... students need to learn appropriate context for informal writing and formal writing. I think this is one way that new literacies are important. I freelance video production and one of the first questions I ask is "Who is your Audience?" If the client can't clearly articulate the answer to that question I know there was a lack of thinking about why they want a video created.

The same holds true for when I teach students video production - without a clear understanding of who their audience will be, students struggle with developing their concept. A video about an organized group of teens that created a punk-music scene in Eastern Kentucky would be very different depending on who they determine to be their audience.
Example:  (Audience - how it would effect the video)

• Other teens - The video would be a "highlight reel of all the cool things that happen"

• The parents - The video might include serious interviews with the kids who started it and the adults who supported them by letting them use their space for shows.

• Adults from outside the region - the video might include "scholars" from the region to address stereotypes about "hillbillies" in Kentucky.

 From:  Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?

 Now she regularly reads stories that run as long as 45 Web pages. Many of them have elliptical plots and are sprinkled with spelling and grammatical errors. One of her recent favorites was “My absolutely, perfect normal life ... ARE YOU CRAZY? NOT!,” a story based on the anime series “Beyblade.” (Motoko)

This both excites me and perplexes me. First, it's exciting because kids are writing the fan fiction and they are reading others' writings. That is awesome. But, the mention of spelling and grammatical errors worries me because I think the best grammar learning comes from just reading a lot of good grammar (rather than teaching the correct "rules"). Grammar is something that can effect future workplace success, and can effect your ability to be taken seriously in the public sphere. I'm not sure what the balance is in this case...

Good lesson plans that take into account student online reading habits and interests could help. Here's an idea: teachers could ask students to print out a selection of fan fiction and then ask them to "edit" it. This could include correcting grammatical mistakes and "remixing" the writing for clarity. I think if this was done on a fairly regular basis, the students would start to recognize grammatical errors as they read the fan fiction, but still be able to enjoy the storyline. It could also help encourage them to write more fan fiction (and be grammatically correct). 

I am excited about the way Digital Media is changing how people read and write in the digital age. (This makes me a Web Evangelist - but I don't like that term, so I'm calling myself a Web Enthusiast or maybe Digital Enthusiast!). Communication is evolving, and print text is no longer the primary way information is conveyed...The digital world relies on hyperlinks between chunks of information, with multiple (sometimes contradictory) sources, in many forms (visual, auditory, or text-based), that each need their own consideration of context and reliability. I think this is more in line with how our interactions with others in the real world are vs. a text-based book that has a clear beginning, middle & end. 

Transforming the Way We Learn: Why Digital Literacy is So Important

This blog post presents a theory  that breaks digital literacy into four different categories:

• Language – print and texting, as well as visual, multimedia, and coding literacies.

• Information – search, tagging, and critical thinking/filtering literacies fall into this category

• Connections –social skills and networking, collaboration, digital safety and intercultural awareness.

• (Re)design – remix literacy, encompassing all of the above literacies, but also including an awareness of copyright, fair use and the legal issues surrounding remixes and mashups. (MacQuarrie, 2013)

The post also presents several resources that can help a teacher address each of the four categories. I chose this blog posting as my resource because I think it presents a clear understanding that the importance of digital literacy is being able to evaluate and interpret information critically. Digital Literacy is not about teaching students how to use technology, because that is constantly changing, but about learning why, when and how to use technology as a tool for communication, collaboration and information.

References

Karp, J. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://spotlight.macfound.org/featured-stories/entry/does-digital-media-make-us-bad-writers 

Motoko, R. . Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

MacQuarrie, A. (2013, February 04). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://blog.k12.com/educational-technology-and-tools/transforming-way-we-learn-why-digital-literacy-so-important