I have never considered myself a particularly digitally literate person. I function well in online environments and can solve most problems with the help of Google but I am not a comfortable user of new environments and do not use many in my teaching apart from PowerPoint and, occasionally, Socrative. In the ‘old’ Prensky’s classification[1] I would fall under the category of a Digital Immigrant with a foot in the past, the comfortable, the analogue. Books and pens and paper. MS Office and Google. Born 30-odd years ago, I actually consider myself belonging to Generation Relatively Young. So am I completely off track in the digital (learning) world?
White and Le Cornu [2] give me hope. In some situations and online environments, I am a Visitor and in others, a Resident, and rather comfortable in both of these roles. Privacy matters a great deal to me and I do not wish to become a full-on Resident in every suitable online environment but I have become aware during the past two weeks that increasing online presence (or residence) does not necessarily need to interfere with privacy.
I am keen on thinking that some of the old-fashined habits of printing articles to read and annotating them with a pen and a marker are not a sign of digital illiteracy but rather of personal preference. What matters for digital literacies is, I believe, rather the attitude towards online presence and the ability to use digital means for achieving one’s goals. In a professional, academic setting, this could mean being able to prepare students for their future professional careers using the technology and means available and relevant for our field. As a university teacher, I may not have the same status of Resident in probably most of the online environments that the students are using for private purposes but an effort should be made to reflect technological changes in the curriculum and the classroom, whether or not their use is one of a Visitor’s or a Resident’s.
References:
- Marc Prensky, 2001, ”Digital natives, digital immigrants” On the Horizon 9(5), at https://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf
- David S. White and Alison Le Cornu, 2011, ”Visitors and residents: A new typology for online engagement” First Monday, 16(9), at https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3171/3049