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A GOAL FOR ALL STUDENTS
One of CU Boulder’s goals, as outlined in the Flagship 2030 initiative, is to help students develop the digital literacy skills they need to improve the quality of their learning, to prepare them for the jobs of the future, and to prepare them to participate fully in the digital age.
Digital literacy refers to the ability to read and write digital texts as well as the ability to research, collaborate, and interact with others in digital environments. A text is considered “digital,” as opposed to print-based, when it makes use of the features and customs of communication in digital environments. This includes traditional alphabetic text presented in hypertext format, such as on web pages, blogs, and wikis, as well as texts that make use of digital modes of delivery, drawing on images, photos, sound, animation, video, and so on.
Digital Literacy and Writing Instruction
Teachers of writing have always focused on helping students develop proficiency at composing messages using the writing tools available at the time.
When your grandparents were in school, those tools were handwriting and typewriters. When your parents were in school, those tools included word processors as well as word processing software on early computers. For both generations, writing was “published” in the form of a typed or printed page, and it was “distributed” in a single copy to the teacher.
But when most of you were in school and now in college, those tools have expanded to include a variety of composing tools available on computers as well as a wide range of publishing and distribution options.
So it makes sense that writing instruction would now focus on helping you compose messages using the digital tools available at the time, which include traditional alphabetic text as well as hypertext, audio, images, and video.
To view this topic from the perspective of writing instructors, check out some of the presentations I’ve given to faculty over the years. The presentation on the Role of Digital Literacy in Writing Instruction will give you a better understanding of how the nature of literacy has changed from your parents’ generation to yours.
Digital Literacy in Amy’s WRTG 3020
You may find that some of your other college classes develop aspects of these skills, but an obvious place to focus on them is in a class taught by a Rhetoric and Composition instructor, given that field’s longstanding emphasis on developing literacy skills in general.
Indeed, the field of Rhetoric and Composition, which is the academic discipline that provides the theory and research to support the teaching of writing, has been on the forefront of efforts to expand the curriculum to enable students to learn how to communicate more effectively in the modes of the future, which are primarily digital, rather than in the solely print-based modes of the past.
In my section of WRTG 3020, we will use a variety of digital tools to help you engage with the material and with your classmates and to help you learn how to compose messages that draw on a variety of digital modes beyond linear paragraph-based text.
Although the university would like to see all classes help students develop greater proficiency in digital literacy, you should know that my class will likely make much more extensive use of digital tools than most sections do. The main reason for this is that I have a long history of expertise in communicating via digital media, and I was also the first Digital Composition Coordinator for the PWR, which means that I’m among a small group of instructors who are leading the way towards helping to integrate digital literacy into the curriculum.
I mention that because my section of the class will ask you to use more digital composition tools than you might’ve been anticipating, particularly if you’ve taken other WRTG classes at CU. That means you should give some careful consideration to whether or not you will be comfortable learning to use new digital tools, such as blogs, wikis, audio recording, and image and video editing applications, which may require you to spend more time on a computer than you’d prefer.
I will provide you with as much assistance as I can, including screencast tutorials, written tutorials with screen shots, and links to help resources (see below), and of course you can always meet with me in person for additional help. But to succeed in this particular class, you should be willing to devote some time and energy into improving your ability to make effective use of today’s technologies for communication.
DIGITAL LITERACY GOALS
- Become more comfortable navigating and participating in new digital environments, including following the customs for posting in different digital spaces, such as using short paragraphs and section headings, assigning posts to appropriate categories and tags, creating functioning hyperlinks, and embedding a variety of media
- Make effective use of a range of digital tools for writing, peer reviewing, researching, and collaboration, including WordPress blogs, Google Drive, a Google+ community, comics makers, infographic makers, audio and video editing, image editing, presentation apps, and so on
- Gain experience composing documents in a variety of digital modes, including hypertext articles, comic strips, slide presentations, audio and audiovisual essays, videos, and other multimedia modalities, with particular attention to understanding which mode best suits your rhetorical situation
- Design digital documents that reflect an awareness of the needs and expectations of digital audiences and an understanding of the relationship between design and content
- Make effective use of online research tools and library resources to locate a wide variety of academic and non-academic sources relevant to your projects
- Extend information literacy skills to include researching and evaluating sources as appropriate for your disciplines and professional goals
MORE ON UNDERSTANDING DIGITAL LITERACIES
Becoming digitally literate requires more than just functional literacy, meaning the ability to use digital composition tools. It also requires critical literacy, which is the ability to critically evaluate the social impact of technology, and rhetorical literacy, which is the ability to make appropriate use of digital composition tools based on the demands of your rhetorical situation.
These three videos are worth watching for an overview of some of the digital literacy skills today’s college students will be expected to have by the employers and organizations of today and tomorrow.