Ashley Jones
3/9/09
Source: Eshet-Alkali, Y., & Amichai-Hamburger, Y. (2004, August). Experiments in digital literacy.Cyberpsychology and Behavior, 7(4), 421-429.
Purpose:
The main purpose of this article was to discuss the many different skills that a person may need in using and understanding digital literacy. The different skills needed are discussed throughout the article along with giving a better understanding of it.
Question:
The key question the author is trying to address is what types of cognitive skills do you need to be able to use digital literacy. The author also asks what type of groups of cognitive skills that people may possess, such as photo-visual skills, reproduction skills, branching skills, information skills, and socio-emotional skills, do the best with this. Some people may possess all of these skills but do better in one than another.
Assumptions:
After reading this article, I believe that the author assumes that the older generation knows less about digital literacy than the younger generation. I think this is an assumption that may be accurate because technology is becoming so much more dominate in the younger generation. The older popluation are found to be more literate in reproduction and information literacy tasks.
Points of View:
The main point of view presented in this article is that digitial literacy has become a survival skill used in technology. You need certian cognitive skills to do things in digital literacy such as surfing the web, working with databases, chatting, and many other things.
Information:
The most important information in this article discusses the different types of cognitive skills used in digital literacy. Photo-visual literacy deals with using vision to think. This is where you read and understand instructions and the message that is being presented. Reproduction literacy is the ability to create new meanings or new interpretations by combining preexisting information. Branching literacy requires that people that have good spatial-multidimentional sens of orientation stay oriented and do not get lost while navigating through complex knowledge domains. Information literacy acts as a filter. Here it allows the identification of flase, irrelevant, or biased information and does not allow penetration into a learners cognitiion. Socio-emotional literacy is the highest and most complex. It allows people to share their information with others, evaluating data, thinking abstractly, and the ability to design knowledge through virtual collaboration.
Concepts:
One of the key concepts that we need to understand in this article is the list of major guidelines utilized in the evaluation of digitial literacy tasks(Table 1). For each skill it lists the evaluation guidelines needed. I believe this table helps you better understand these skills.
Inferences/Conclusions:
The main inferences/conclusions in this article are now that we know all of the cogvitive skills that we need to have to use digitial literacy are going to better the software made in the future. This will allow users to be able to use the digital literacy without demanding further skills from the user.
Implications:
The implications of this line of reasoning are that if the information is true, then a lot of the younger scholarly generation are easily manipulated by biased or false information. This suggests the role of teh educational system in giving priority to programs that develop critical thinking and promote information literacy and gives responsibility of news and marketing agencies in considering the way they design and deliver information.
