Digital Literacy

I have been thinking a lot about the future of technology within the classroom, and going through these past few readings, its been something that’s been even more on my mind than ever before. Recently, everything revolving around the internet has been on my mind due to the never ending battle surrounding net neutrality that’s being held by the government, it makes me wonder what the future of digital literacy will really be. Listening to Danah Boyd discuss her own growth through the use of internet really makes me wonder about all of the ways that students might not have the same experience as access to the internet may become more limited. According to Boyd, the internet is where she found herself and where she created an online identity that allowed her to explore her sexual identity and create a community for herself. As we possibly lose access to the internet the way that school technology has begun to rely on it, does that mean that we are going to have make major adjustments into how often we can use something like the internet? Will schools with lower funding be denied access to the internet because they just cannot afford the cost of it as it grows more expensive? The more we rely on technology in the classroom, I feel like we’d really make the effort to make sure it was affordable for all, but that is unfortunately not the case.

That leads me into the discussions found in “Digital Literacy Can’t Wait” and the first chapter of Argument in the Real World. Both readings were focused on making sure that educators really understood that digital literacy is important to bring in the classroom. And that was something i really agreed with all of these articles because I believe that technology is the future and that in order to be good teachers, we need to become digitally literate with the times. Again, I cannot help but think of all the ways this could be affected in the future by changed in net neutrality. I found this cool article from NPR that really took into account this thought process that I’ve been having. Basically, it discusses how schools who are underfunded would be the ones to suffer from the lack of internet and that internet gives students at least an even playing field with students who come from higher socioeconomic statuses. So as educators in these different school systems, how can we truly be “digitally literate” when we’re not allowed basic access to something that should be accessed by all students and educators. Overall, it’s just been a lot to grapple with over the past few weeks.