" Digital Natives: Navigating Literate Worlds "

Chapter 7

“The different literate worlds young people move between online, and offline, relating to different ways of getting access to and interpreting information (“reading”) and producing content in different modalities (“writing”), informs us about how we need to reorient what we mean by “being literate” in our culture.” –Ola Erstad.

This hits home for me, and I tend to agree with this statement. The way that we interpret being literate has to change to fit what our needs are. No longer, being literate in traditional reading is going to be enough to be successful in today’s world. You have to adapt to change. Like my blog title says, there are many ways to be literate.

Chapter 8

….”Like to learn through running Internet searches”…..” effectively and efficiently search for information”… - Smith et al.

Although this quote is quite short I feel that it sums up what chapter 8 is trying to tell you as the reader. Our generation is so heavily reliant on Google it isn’t funny. I myself use Google multiple times a day to answer unknown questions. From this chapter, I’ve learned that undergrads would rather use simple search engines because they are comfortable with it, and it provides results quickly. I think that more time needs to be spent on educating people on scholarly search engine options.

Chapter 9

The image of technology often reflects a deterministic view, meaning that the generational differences are seen to be produced by technology, rather than being as a result of social, historical, and cultural factors.” – Buckingham and Willet

This quote summarizes the stereotypes that people may have about the use of technology and younger generations. You cannot clump together a large group of people and determine major differences based on one aspect. Life doesn’t work like that. I feel this chapter is trying to prove that point. Digital natives are different just like the other generations.

School for thought

Eisenberg (2008) defines informational literacy as “the set of skills and knowledge that allows us to find, evaluate, and use the information we need as well as to filter out the information we don’t need.”

Is it up to the educational system in our country to teach our students about the use of technology, creating digitally literate citizens? I think yes, in other countries throughout the world the educational system is making it a point to teach their students about being digitally literate. Even older students, such as college undergraduates in our country still rely on Google as the main search engine to locate scholarly information instead of deviating from the shallow water to try scholarly search engines. Even when I was in school, I felt that I wanted more help in learning how to locate information using scholarly sources. I remember my instructors just said to use them, but there was not a lot of instruction on the best way to do that.

The way educators are delivering information, and the kind of content being taught I feel needs to change as well. “ Schools would then still be important social institutions as a learning space for all young people growing up, but just one of several learning spaces that children and youth relate to in their daily lives.” –Ola Erstad

In order to fit the mold of how students are learning now, schools and colleges need to offer a more authentic real world approach to learning. In the real world, most of  today’s youth spends their day using some type of technology. Why not plug that into the way they are educated as well. Offering a more authentic learning environment will instill a love and desire for learning.

Research, Old School Style 

I feel that this image describes the changes that have taken place in the last 10 years or so. I feel that it is our job as educators to teach our students how to navigate the internet for more purposes that pure enjoyment. Teaching them how to correctly search for information using a scholarly search engine.