Lit Knowledge? Time For A Literacy Debate???

Digital Literacy is understanding what is going on from the video, image, or reading that you are looking at. It is understanding why one of these was made, and understanding the different ways people write a word or use a image or emoji instead of just saying what you want or how you are feeling. 😆Could mean I messed up or I forgot. 😍 Means I love you. LOL, Laugh out loud. BRB, be right back. These are just a fraction of a percent of the different ways of saying each thing on a digital device. The main difference between traditional and digital literacy is that, when it comes to digital, there are many more things you have to understand, things that traditional literacy didn't

have.

 Issues that are associated with online reading or use are : low test scores, diminishing literacy, decreased attention span, and the loss of reading a book as a culture, according to "Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?" by Motoko Rich for the NY Times Newspaper in 2008. I agree with the idea that online activity can lead to lower test scores, because students would rather play online then study. However, for idea that it diminishes literacy, I disagree with. Online reading is just a different type of literacy that some people just don't understand. Just because it is different, doesn't mean it is not a type of literacy. 

 Motoko says that benefits of online reading include: is that it does get them to read and write. What are you doing when you look at this post? Reading it! How did you search for different sites online? By typing, a form of writing, into the search bar what you are looking for. And when you text, email, or tweet with your friends, what are you doing? Reading and Writing! It is just a different form of reading and writing, one that is still new and developing.

 The work of Motoko, and the work of Dennis Baron's "From Pencils to Pixels" are similar because they are both talking about a new technology that is changing both our culture and our literacy means. Without this change in technology, I wouldn't be writing this blog, you wouldn't be reading this blog, and quite simple, we wouldn't have phones or computers or any other digital device. So just accept that the change is happening, because there is no stopping it with any legal means.
 Random Picture of a Squirrel.