Doug’s Ed.D. blog

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Serendipitously, mid-way through looking at some books about the concept of ‘digital literacy’ I updated one of my Twitter accounts. One of my Twitter friends brought my attention to Live Ink.

This clever software breaks up sentences into easier-to-read lines, as the 60-second guide demonstrates and the examples illustrate. Whilst I’m not entirely sold on the idea, it is an interesting concept - and it certainly shows how flexible electronic text is compared with printed matter!

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More quotations from this book are on my wiki here. As of 25 July 2007, this book is cited by 162 publications according to Google Scholar.

Whilst searching for an image to go with this post, I came across another post on Eduspaces entitled: Why call it digital literacy… when literacy is often left to the subjective interpretation of teachers?

Emphasis in the following is mine, unless stated:�

In a sense, we’re all experimenting when we used the Internet, because there has never been anything like it before… Content on the Internet is not a static thing. Instead, it is fully interactive. The Internet requires that we understand it as a combination of all the traditional forms of media, and several other forms that change the way we seek out information.

P. Gilster, Digital Literacy (New York, 1997), p.x

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So we needn’t see the Net as a single thing; it’s unique nature is shown by the manifold changes it rings on old themes… Misinformation - and disinformation - breeds as easily as creativity in the fever-swamp of personal publishing… It will take all the critical skills users can muster to separate truth from fiction.

P. Gilster, Digital Literacy (New York, 1997), p.xii

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The great physicist Ernest Rutherford, frustrated by the self-important airs of his peers, once told a colleague that a scientist who couldn’t explain his theories to a barmaid didn’t really understand them. An idea, in other words, should correspond to a recognizable reality, explainable to an audience larger than a handful of specialists. Digital literacy - the ability to access networked computer resources and use them - is such a concept. It is necessary knowledge because the Internet has grown from a scientist’s tool to a worldwide publishing and research medium open to anyone with a computer and modem.

P. Gilster, Digital Literacy (New York, 1997), p.1

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Digital literacy is the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers. The concept of literacy goes beyond simply being able to read; it has always meant the ability to read with meaning, and to understand. It is the fundamental act of cognition. Digital literacy likewise extends the boundaries of definition. It is cognition of what you see on teh computer screen when you use the networked medium. It places demands upon you that were always present, though less visible, in the analog media of newspaper and TV. At the same time, it conjures up a new set of challenges that require you to approach networked computers without preconceptions. Not only must you acquire the skill of finding things, you must also acquire the ability to use these things in your life.

P. Gilster, Digital Literacy (New York, 1997), p.1-2

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Acquiring digital literacy for Internet use involves mastering a set of core competencies. The most essential of these is the ability to make informed judgments about what you find on-line, for unlike conventional media, much of the Net is unfiltered by editors and open to the contributions of all.

P. Gilster, Digital Literacy (New York, 1997), p.2

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But what exactly is the digital literacy envelope that encompasses these competencies? We know what literacy means; it stands for the ability to use language it its written form… In contrast, although computers work their own languages… digital literacy doesn’t mean we have to become programmers or learn to puzzle out long lines of computer code. It refers to a way of reading and understanding information that differs from what we do when we sit down to read a book or a newspaper. The differences are inherent in the medium itself, and digital literacy involves mastering them.

P. Gilster, Digital Literacy (New York, 1997), p.28-9

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So literacy in the digital age - digital literacy - is partly about awareness of other people and our expanded ability to contact them to discuss issues and get help.

P. Gilster, Digital Literacy (New York, 1997), p.31

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A digital read on literacy also involves being able to understand a problem and develop a set of questions that will solve that information need. The problem will be solved using search methods that allow you to access information sources on the Internet and evaluate them.

P. Gilster, Digital Literacy (New York, 1997), p.33

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Digital literacy is emphatically twin-edged. The Internet provides us with new capabilities for using older media, but it also creates content, and that content is interactive and demanding.

P. Gilster, Digital Literacy (New York, 1997), p.34

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Digital literacy… is about learning how to back up traditional forms of content with networked, problem-solving tools. But literacy goes beyond developing the skills necessary to use them. Digital literacy is likewise about context. The Internet is, among other things, a publishing medium… The sense of geographical limitation rapidly disappears.

P. Gilster, Digital Literacy (New York, 1997), p.35

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The Internet is not a gradual shift in the way we work. Instead, it is an analog-to-digital transformation that will alter the rules of communication.

P. Gilster, Digital Literacy (New York, 1997), p.38

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A key component of digital literacy, then, is wariness. Sequential reading allows an author to build an argument, buttressing the case with examples and taking advantage of the arts of persuasion. Hypertextual reading puts the rhetorical arts into an odd tension; the reader, rather than the author, is the one who charts the course through the document. This being the case, the author of hypertext has to consider which routes the reader will be allowed to take.

P. Gilster, Digital Literacy (New York, 1997), p.130

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But if we can’t always keep up with the specifics of Internet change, the core competencies of digital literacy remain viable. Technologies shift, but if you remember that knowledge assembly, Internet searching, hypertextual navigation, and content evaluation are all methods rather than specific hardware or software products, you will be able to apply them to the Net of tomorrow.

P. Gilster, Digital Literacy (New York, 1997), p.230

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…digital literacy is the logical extension of literacy itself, just as hypertext is an extension of the traditional reading experience.

P. Gilster, Digital Literacy (New York, 1997), p.230

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I met with my supervisor today to thrash out the way forward with my Ed.D. thesis proposal. It was a productive conversation and he helped me gain some much-needed focus to my sometimes rambling thoughts.

I’m going to focus on the concept of ‘digital literacy’. This, of course, means that I need to clarify exactly what I - and, perhaps more importantly, other people and organizations mean - by ‘literacy’. I’m also going to discuss whether digital literacy is a functional element which can be understood to reside under the umbrella term ‘literacy’ or whether it is something that can be considered as separate.

The scope of this thesis is potentially huge, so I’m going to have to be ruthless in keeping the whole thing focused. Whilst I can touch on things such as what it means to be ‘educated’, the purpose of education, etc. I need to make sure that it all adds up to a critical and in-depth discussion of whether the concept of ‘digital literacy’ is a useful one and relevant to what is (or should be) going on in 21st century schools.

My supervisor suggested that I might want to go with a historical approach in the introduction, perhaps looking at what ‘literacy’ and ‘to be literate’ has meant through the ages. This would help introduce the notion of literacy being dependent upon society and culture.

Other things to possibly think about and include from the notes I made during the meeting:

• The Labour government seems to think it can identify the skills that will be needed by 21st century workers. Is this possible?
• Habermas - argument r.e. serving the system or serving the lifeworld. Should/are students learning to make a living or learning to make a life (links to Citizenship, Every Child Matters agenda, etc.)
• Is ‘digital literacy’ real or imagined? Different people mean different things by ‘literacy’, never mind ‘digital literacy’.
• How and why do people respond to new technologies? (threats to established order)
• Notions of ‘literacy’ are at the heart of education and always have been. Brings with it ideas of competence, being functional in society, skills, and being ‘educated’.
• Schools don’t currently have a firm idea of why they’re doing what they’re doing.
• Don’t cite blogs - use as second or third-stage source. Paraphrase ideas.
• It’s difficult to distinguish between economic and educational importance of ‘digital literacy’ in government pronouncements -> assumption that using computers is important, therefore ‘digital literacy’ important (not necessarily the case -> counter-e.g. of Nissan car plant, Burger King, etc.)
• Conlon article -> e.g. of cathedral -> each worker gives a different account of what they’re doing.
• ‘Digital literacy’ implies that it is a skill that can be imparted -> threatens historical concept of teacher? Access vs. connections (relationships)

Possible structure of argument:

1. What is literacy?
2. Literacy = dynamic
3. Why does literacy change (reflecting society vs. something ‘out there’ to be revealed)
4. Government policy still informed by Victorian model of schooling.
5. Emergence of term ‘digital literacy’.
6. What did it mean to be ‘literate’ before and after a new technology (e.g. printing press)
7. ‘Functional’ aspect of literacy -> is ‘digital literacy’ just another aspect of this?
8. What do people mean when they talk of being ‘literate’?
9. What measures and tests are used for gauging whether someone is literate/’digitally literate’?
10. It makes sense for the government to want to improve ‘literacy’ -> but what do we mean by this?
11. Go back to literature -> what do we mean by ‘digital literacy’?
12. Are there/can there be consistent measures for ‘digital literacy’?

My supervisor also pointed me towards the following articles and books:

• T. Conlon, ‘Visions of Change’ (British Journal of Educational Technology, vol.31, no.2, p.109-116)
• Castells, The Networked Society
• F. Coffield, ‘Running Ever Faster Down The Wrong Road’

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