From this week’s reading, I could think about the concept of digital literacy more deeply. As Buckingham (2006) mentioned, digital literacy refers not only functional meaning basic skills such as using computer and a keyboard, or how to do online searches, but also traditional literacy skills such as printed text. Especially evaluating the source and critical thinking is critical in digital literacy. Buckingham argued that these features are particularly revealed in digital media and he suggest four broad conceptual aspects that are generally regarded as essential components of media literacy: representation, language, production, and audience.
Hobbs (2017) defined digital literacy as the constellation of knowledge, skills, and competencies necessary for thriving in a technology-saturated culture. And also said that digital and media literacy is process that involves accessing, analyzing, creating, reflecting, and take action. And digital literacy can play a crucial role to develop creativity that is competitiveness of future because it’s a process that can be best supported by providing creative constraints. In other words, how can we teach or learn with digital media is important issue.
As I said above, the way of utilizing the digital media becomes an issue of digital literacy as an environment fostering learning. Both reading materials regard digital writing as important action. Buckingham (2006) argued that digital media such as multimedia texts produced by technology and accessibility of this are a key aspect of the much more participatory media culture. In the similar point of view, Hobbs (2017) emphasized the importance of creating. . And creating is related with process of learning. When we create something we can internalize the knowledge. And she also said that digital tools enable people to become an active producer and the Internet contribute to make a participatory society.
Meanwhile, we need to be careful when we use new media such as the Internet. Despite its many advantages, new media do not always have positive features. Because new media is also a medium that mediates people after all, it can harm someone according to the intention and purpose of those who use it. For example, the Internet makes people to get to the information so easily but it also makes people make false information for certain purpose. Echo chamber is the word to indicate the situation such as fake news as a result of the disappearance of gatekeepers and filters. To make good use of digital literacy for educational purposes, we must be fully aware of the advantages and disadvantages of digital literacy and how to overcome the disadvantages.
Reference
Buckingham, D. (2006). Defining digital literacy: What do young people need to know about digital media? In C. Lankshear and M. Knobel (Eds), Digital Literacies: Concepts, Policies and Practices, pp. 73 – 90.
Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn: Introduction to Digital Literacy.
Studying New Literacies 