WoW Project & Digital Literacy

This past weekend I began researching my WoW Project: the Use of Digital Video and Media to Enhance Literacy Learning. Now, immediately upon getting started on my research I came across an interesting situation. Many search results were returning webpages and articles pertaining to digital literacy which is something completely different. But then it got me thinking… was it something completely different? I began wondering if one could exist without the other. Wouldn’t you need a certain level of digital literacy to grasp and appreciate using digital media and video as a teacher? As a student? Digital literacy is defined as the ability to locate, organize, understand, evaluate, and analyze information using digital technology. It involves a working knowledge of current high-technology, and an understanding of how it can be used. Digitally literate people can communicate and work more efficiently, especially with those who possess the same knowledge and skills. Now, I don’t think we are asking our students to be experts but I do believe that, as educators, it is our responsibility to get educated and become digitally literate. Dr. Smirnova made an interesting comment during last weekend’s Classrooms Without Walls literacy conference. The conference was being viewed all over the world and Dr. S asked us to give our thoughts to the viewing audience about the technologies we discussed and many of us commented that this and that technology and program was the future. This prompted Dr. S to reply that many of us pointed out that it was the future and then asked us, “Is it not now?” We kind of looked around at each other saying, “Hmm. You know what? It is now.” It is difficult to consider yourself a fore-runner because it carries historic and significant connotations. The global classroom movement going on across the world right now is in its infancy. The technology can be buggy and non-cooperative at times and other times it works like a dream. It is our responsibility, especially as educators, to become as digitally literate as possible. For all the students who can run technological circles around us there will always be ones who do not have the means or advantages to do so.