The history of Digital Literacy is relatively short, as the phase began to be applied from the 1990s. The concept of digital literacy was developed from information literacy and computer literacy, and with the development of digital technology, especially the usage of Internet, the theme of digital literacy was broadened. However, how can we understand digital literacy today and how could we test one's digital literacy ability seem to be important issues, as computers have been use widely and it seems that everybody is digital iterated, but the fact shows that a large number of computer and Internet users are not really qualified of being ICT iterated. Thus a ICT framework came into being.
There is no doubt that it's a well organized and well written report, as it's easy to understand with very clear structure. However, frankly speaking, I had expected more than I could read from it. When I went through the members of the International ICT Literacy Panel from USA, Brazil, France, Canada and Britain, I was kinda of "wow". Well maybe I seldom read those international reports and I expected too much.
To me the useful information of the report is as follows: 1. The definition of ICT, which makes us know clearly what they are going to talk about. 2. The importance of both cognitive proficiency and technical proficiency in ICT literacy. And these two points are emphasized repeatedly. As for the recommendations, I personally think it's not concrete and practical enough. After reading the report, I talked about it with my roommate, questioning what it was for and how much they spent on it, which actually are not of my business.
So there shuld have been more to be done, by others in future maybe.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Why Google?
We talked about the search engines in the first lecture of DL, especially on why people were googling everyday and how google worked, and just now, Google came back to the classroom again.
"Why Google" here means why we are searching online, either by google, yahoo or Daidu. Most people will answer:"For information" And when do we need to search? People will go:"when we need some information that we don't have on hand". That may sound funny but it's really the fact. I am not going to talk about which searching engine is better, as the engines will serve different people. As long as your searching purposes are fulfilled, it will be a good searching tool. It's true that there is always fake stories and unauthorised information online, however, the benefits of searching are deniable. What if someone is alone at home and he/she needs to know what movies are on show, or a student of International Relations wants to get some latest news on the Middle East, GOOGLE, which may not be the only and the best way, but a direct and fast way to solve problems.
If google is recognized as a good means for information and learning, some will argue that search engines are making today's students number. My point of view again on this kind of issue is that who should be blamed, the technology or the people who are using it. We reckon searching is a skill because not everybody can do it or do it well, which means the searching skills and tragedies should be emphasized, as some people haven't mastered the real nature of googling. It is not simply to key in some random words, click the first several web pages and copy down whatever there is on the web page. We have seen how to fully understand Digital Literacy(4 steps)in David Bawden's work and discussed the skills and tragedies of using digital information. It is clear that some google searchers haven't acquired essential skills, let alone tragedies. That is to say, it's not the searching tools that make students number but students themselves will not make efforts to make full use of the engines wisely.
"Why Google" here means why we are searching online, either by google, yahoo or Daidu. Most people will answer:"For information" And when do we need to search? People will go:"when we need some information that we don't have on hand". That may sound funny but it's really the fact. I am not going to talk about which searching engine is better, as the engines will serve different people. As long as your searching purposes are fulfilled, it will be a good searching tool. It's true that there is always fake stories and unauthorised information online, however, the benefits of searching are deniable. What if someone is alone at home and he/she needs to know what movies are on show, or a student of International Relations wants to get some latest news on the Middle East, GOOGLE, which may not be the only and the best way, but a direct and fast way to solve problems.
If google is recognized as a good means for information and learning, some will argue that search engines are making today's students number. My point of view again on this kind of issue is that who should be blamed, the technology or the people who are using it. We reckon searching is a skill because not everybody can do it or do it well, which means the searching skills and tragedies should be emphasized, as some people haven't mastered the real nature of googling. It is not simply to key in some random words, click the first several web pages and copy down whatever there is on the web page. We have seen how to fully understand Digital Literacy(4 steps)in David Bawden's work and discussed the skills and tragedies of using digital information. It is clear that some google searchers haven't acquired essential skills, let alone tragedies. That is to say, it's not the searching tools that make students number but students themselves will not make efforts to make full use of the engines wisely.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
What's Wrong With PowerPoint?
It is the most severe criticise I have ever seen on PowerPoint, which has been widely used. What's wrong with PowerPoint and why are people still using that since it has so many shortcomings?
According to Edward R. Tufte, PowerPoint is created with the following problems. So little information could be presented on each slide, due to the format and size of the words, which should be clear enough for the audience. As a result more lides are needed and it's hard to display the relationship between slides and maters mentioned. Another problem comes from the design, such as bullet outlines, which can dilute the contents if misused or used too much. And some users focus too much on the design of the slides, paying attention to the sound effects, the cartoon numbers, the pictures and flashes, rather than contents. Most important, some materials are not good for PowerPoint presentation, like statistic graphics. However, how are we going to improve our presentation? Use PowerPoint wisely, making better contents with the use of PowerPoint functions and don't be the slave of the functions.
This article made me think of my experience with PowerPoint as a teacher before and I realized huge mistakes spreading on the campus, the more multimedia in the classroom, the better. So the teachers, especially the young ones, are trying to teacher every course using PowerPoint, regardless of the outcome of he class. One example is my coworker, who had problems with the students only because of the misuse of PowerPoint in her Intensive Reading class. After reading the article, I figured out the reason, which is she made the slides too detailed. Every time she raised a question, the students had no time to think and respond, the answer would jump out on hte screen, thus the only thing students need to do was to take notes quickly as the slides sometimes flashe over. Another example fell to a lady,teaching British History. What she did was to give a copy of all her PowerPoint slides to the students at the very beginning of the semester, and two weeks later, he students refused to go to her class any more as the teacher only read out everything on the slides, which the students had already got.
I used PowerPoint slides in my two courses too. Even though I survived without complaint from students, still I realised my mistakes, which are similar to the other two, too much design and too detailed.
Since there are so many restrictions of using slides, can't we just stop using it? Obviously no. There is nothing wrong with PowerPoint itself but people who use it. There is bullet but it doesn't mean it should be used all the time everywhere.
When preparing a presentation, we should think carefully beforehand if it is suitable to use PowerPoint, as sometimes a simple Word article would be better than slides. Secondly, we may need to think how to make the content clear, how much information will be presented in slides, and which format will be adopted. And we still need to take the audience into consideration. How to switch from computer screen to listeners and how to interact with them? The last thing is the design and how to make the slides presentable.
According to Edward R. Tufte, PowerPoint is created with the following problems. So little information could be presented on each slide, due to the format and size of the words, which should be clear enough for the audience. As a result more lides are needed and it's hard to display the relationship between slides and maters mentioned. Another problem comes from the design, such as bullet outlines, which can dilute the contents if misused or used too much. And some users focus too much on the design of the slides, paying attention to the sound effects, the cartoon numbers, the pictures and flashes, rather than contents. Most important, some materials are not good for PowerPoint presentation, like statistic graphics. However, how are we going to improve our presentation? Use PowerPoint wisely, making better contents with the use of PowerPoint functions and don't be the slave of the functions.
This article made me think of my experience with PowerPoint as a teacher before and I realized huge mistakes spreading on the campus, the more multimedia in the classroom, the better. So the teachers, especially the young ones, are trying to teacher every course using PowerPoint, regardless of the outcome of he class. One example is my coworker, who had problems with the students only because of the misuse of PowerPoint in her Intensive Reading class. After reading the article, I figured out the reason, which is she made the slides too detailed. Every time she raised a question, the students had no time to think and respond, the answer would jump out on hte screen, thus the only thing students need to do was to take notes quickly as the slides sometimes flashe over. Another example fell to a lady,teaching British History. What she did was to give a copy of all her PowerPoint slides to the students at the very beginning of the semester, and two weeks later, he students refused to go to her class any more as the teacher only read out everything on the slides, which the students had already got.
I used PowerPoint slides in my two courses too. Even though I survived without complaint from students, still I realised my mistakes, which are similar to the other two, too much design and too detailed.
Since there are so many restrictions of using slides, can't we just stop using it? Obviously no. There is nothing wrong with PowerPoint itself but people who use it. There is bullet but it doesn't mean it should be used all the time everywhere.
When preparing a presentation, we should think carefully beforehand if it is suitable to use PowerPoint, as sometimes a simple Word article would be better than slides. Secondly, we may need to think how to make the content clear, how much information will be presented in slides, and which format will be adopted. And we still need to take the audience into consideration. How to switch from computer screen to listeners and how to interact with them? The last thing is the design and how to make the slides presentable.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Consequences of Digital Technology
As technology exists ever since, it's hard for us to get rid of it and it is being developed everyday. In this case we may predict the bright future of digital technology.
Technology does have great impacts to us and some may not live without it especially for the younger generations. People use cellphones to communicate, computers to source information, cameras to take photos and TVs for entertainment. All these instruments help make our lives much enjoyable and colorful. Except for daily fun, digital technology are wildly used in academic and business field too by scholars, researchers and business people. There is not doubt that we are benefiting from the digital technologies.
Well, some people may point out the negative effects of digital technologies by reasoning every coin has two sides, which is reasonable too. Sometimes we may feel that digital technology can restrict our thinking and abilities as we are always googling and auto corrected by computers and as a result we are bad at spelling; Over relying on technology is another problem. Some teachers may prepare their class activities solely based on technological means without alternatives, but what if when he/she enters the classroom and finds out that the power is off? Being addicted to digital technology is money and time consuming too, if someone always want to by the latest laptop or playing online-games 24 hours a day.
In that case, can we stop using new technology because of the bad effects? Is it the digital technology that should be blamed or people who are using it?
Digital technologies are created by people, so if we realize any problems and shortcomings of a technology, that's to say, people who invent it make mistakes that they did not foresee. And what people need to do is to find out the problems and improve the technologies to be better ones. By thinking in this way, we are going to get more technologies and much more advanced digital technologies. Let's wait and see.
Technology does have great impacts to us and some may not live without it especially for the younger generations. People use cellphones to communicate, computers to source information, cameras to take photos and TVs for entertainment. All these instruments help make our lives much enjoyable and colorful. Except for daily fun, digital technology are wildly used in academic and business field too by scholars, researchers and business people. There is not doubt that we are benefiting from the digital technologies.
Well, some people may point out the negative effects of digital technologies by reasoning every coin has two sides, which is reasonable too. Sometimes we may feel that digital technology can restrict our thinking and abilities as we are always googling and auto corrected by computers and as a result we are bad at spelling; Over relying on technology is another problem. Some teachers may prepare their class activities solely based on technological means without alternatives, but what if when he/she enters the classroom and finds out that the power is off? Being addicted to digital technology is money and time consuming too, if someone always want to by the latest laptop or playing online-games 24 hours a day.
In that case, can we stop using new technology because of the bad effects? Is it the digital technology that should be blamed or people who are using it?
Digital technologies are created by people, so if we realize any problems and shortcomings of a technology, that's to say, people who invent it make mistakes that they did not foresee. And what people need to do is to find out the problems and improve the technologies to be better ones. By thinking in this way, we are going to get more technologies and much more advanced digital technologies. Let's wait and see.
Friday, January 15, 2010
How could Digital Literacy help?
At the first sight, I had no idea what Digital Literacy was about and I thought it would be a digital way to analyse English as a language. :) Well now I do believe it has a broader sense than that.
When talking about digital technology, I would think about my father, who is a Chinese teacher in a senior high school. As a teacher, he is expected to be a fast-learner to new technology, however, I would like to call him a Digital Illiterate, as he cannot send cellphone sms, even though I have taught him several times; he can only press the on/off button and take pictures using a digital camera, without knowing other functions; let alone computer technology.
Teachers in his school are required to use computers in class, but he is an exception.I encouraged him to learn. Now what he can do is to turn on the computer, click the links on the homepage and read news and articles. He has no idea how to google, how to key in the URL, etc, however, he has been changed a lot.
It is a new way for him to collect information. In the past, he used to sit in front of the TV for a long time, being told how great the government was, without enough comments from the public. Well now, those websites he visites give him lots of new inputs and he begins to doubt and think.
What I am trying to say is that Digital Literacy does help, not only in data collection but also the ways of thinking and doing. At the same time, being digital literate doesn't mean you should be an IT expert, because people like my father still benifit.
When talking about digital technology, I would think about my father, who is a Chinese teacher in a senior high school. As a teacher, he is expected to be a fast-learner to new technology, however, I would like to call him a Digital Illiterate, as he cannot send cellphone sms, even though I have taught him several times; he can only press the on/off button and take pictures using a digital camera, without knowing other functions; let alone computer technology.
Teachers in his school are required to use computers in class, but he is an exception.I encouraged him to learn. Now what he can do is to turn on the computer, click the links on the homepage and read news and articles. He has no idea how to google, how to key in the URL, etc, however, he has been changed a lot.
It is a new way for him to collect information. In the past, he used to sit in front of the TV for a long time, being told how great the government was, without enough comments from the public. Well now, those websites he visites give him lots of new inputs and he begins to doubt and think.
What I am trying to say is that Digital Literacy does help, not only in data collection but also the ways of thinking and doing. At the same time, being digital literate doesn't mean you should be an IT expert, because people like my father still benifit.
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