A Digital World Of Information And Communication

Individuals within a 21st century society are becoming increasingly digitally literate with the repertoire of literacy skills rapidly expanding enabling us to more efficiently navigate our way though new and innovated digital media forms.

The advent of modern technology and its integration with the education systems has opened up many possibilities, and forced educational practitioners to rethink and restructure the content, pedagogical tools, and methods of delivery. As a result, the educational system has evolved continually, and at the same time opening up new and countless opportunities. This has definitely captured the imagination of many students, researchers, and professionals. The integration of technology with education has brought about phenomenal opportunities as well as radical changes to the educational sector. Examples include the use of digital pedagogy, computer-aided instruction (CAI), distance or open learning, virtual universities, computer-based online testing, digital libraries, and so on.

Since children today have become digital natives; they will never truly know a world that is not touched with technology. This means that the educational paradigm has to shift in order to keep up with the needs of our young learners (Jo, 2016). In the last thirty years, technological advances

Cathy N. Davidson suggests an innovative education system, providing an emphasis in today’s digital era, and claiming that the existing education system needs to be renewed according to the new expectations of the digital era. Davidson states that,” In the last half century, many changes have occurred in the technology field, however, classrooms and educational methods have remained fairly steady for the past years as well in consequence students are not being prepared for the future advances of society.” That being said, it is important to improve and to give a change to the current educational methods, adjusting them to the existing demands of the era that we are living and taking advantage of the resources that it provides. “What if we continued to the lesson of internet itself,

We carry our cellphones with us at all times, and with all this online connection, you would think that stepping back and disconnecting is a huge achievement. But this is a new way of life. Nathan Jurgenson, in his article “The IRL Fetish” says, “We have come to understand more and more of our lives through the logic of digital connection. Social media is more than something we log onto; it’s something we carry within us. We can’t log off.”. He explains how we are so deeply connected with technology that it is nearly impossible to stay ‘old-fashioned’. We are learning to accept technological advancements because they are inevitable. In other words, to adapt to this new form of literacy is much easier than avoiding it. In recognition that texting truly is literacy, one English teacher had her students put excerpts of Richard III into “text speak” to show that they fully understand the material. Educators are embracing texting as a new form of learning because it clearly is not going away. Students enjoy texting as a way to escape reality and fail to recognize the literary benefits. Texting will continue to encourage students to read and write as well as improve spelling with phonological

Not So Fast,” Andrea Lunsford argues that rather than leading to a new illiteracy, the digital technologies in the modern world help students to develop their ability of writing. Not only that students are daferrors than 25 years ago, actually with less spelling errors. In order to help students with the challenges, the teacher should offer solid instructions and encouragement rather than derision.

For some of us, it is difficult to comprehend why our education systems have not yet made the transition to technology-based forms of teaching especially when we are in the era of technology. To others, the reasoning is clear and they support the original, dated usage of textbooks in a “traditional classroom” setting. The changes in our society are undeniable with the innovation of technology and social media. Although some authors, such as Neil Howe and Jean Twenge, argue that technology is deteriorating the minds of Millennials, technology is also providing Millennials with a way to create connections across communities.

Communication on the Internet is often quite informal. It can appear to be in an entirely different language at times. This is because writing on the Internet is often done by amateurs with little to no revision and no requirements to get published. Getting an idea out as fast as possible is frequently the goal of these Web writers, which can result in failure to correctly apply the basics of writing, such as grammar, spelling, and punctuation. The essay “Literacy Debate: Online R U Really Reading?” by Motoko Rich is about whether or not reading on the Internet is as effective for today’s youth as reading books. Rich employs specific word choice as well as misleading statistics and quotations to show her opinion on Internet literacy without directly stating her thoughts.

Technology has allowed young Americans to transform the way they think and learn. According to a 2008 study by Mizuko Ito, the internet has allowed the flourishing of self-directed learning. The enormous possibilities the internet offers, allows people to delve into topics or research a variety of areas that interest them. People can now explore their curiosity endlessly. Researches have also noticed a change in literacy among the younger generation. The daily texts, tweets, and emails people send, keep them writing. According to Andrea Lunsford, all of these little writings add up and is pushing

We are currently living in a digital age where our students are notably technologically proficient. This poses a challenge with how some of our students are currently learning (or trying to learn) in our classrooms. Many students have grown tired of reading dense texts for homework assignments and tired of listening to long, boring lectures from teachers at school. The way in which students are currently analyzing and interpreting texts that they read and videos that they watch have not been up to our standards here at North Windsor High School. The thing is, a lot of our teachers are also struggling between teaching with both print text and by digital means. North Windsor High School acknowledges the fact that many seniors graduate not having the digital skills and print text literacy necessary to lead successful lives after high school. We are beginning to implement some changes with our teaching methods and hope to incorporate technology and print text in different and more engaging ways.

In today’s day and age, it is common knowledge that students possess different learning styles than those of generations before them. In the essays by Marc Prensky “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants” (2001) and “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part II: Do They Really Think Differently?” (2001) the author clearly argues a need to adapt to students modern learning styles. In Lotta Larson’s “The Learning Potential of e-Books” (2015) Larson also argues the clear benefits of eLearning for today’s students. Finally, is Naomi S. Baron’s “How E-Reading Threatens Learning is the Humanities” (2014) a different approach is noted as eLearning could be argued as distracting to a student’s learning process. It is no question that pupils today can

As schools promote 21st-century learning, there has been a push for literacies which encourage students to be 21st-century learners. The two overarching literacies, new and digital, has taken over the three R’s literacy, reading, writing, and arithmetic. New Literacies continuously change due to the new technology emerging providing different ways to get information and communicate with others (Leu et al., 2015). In contrast, digital literacy is the ability to use digital tools to access information for understanding and communication (Jose, 2016). New literacies and digital literacies also differ in aspects of use in the classroom. New literacies are the building blocks for digital literacy; which are the skills students need to understand the internet (Maloy, Verock-O'Loughlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2017). New literacies can be taught without the use of technology because students are learning to locate, evaluate, synthesize, and communicate information. Teachers can demonstrate these skills using encyclopedias and journal articles to gain a minimalistic comprehension. Once students learn the necessary understanding, teachers can transfer these skills to online which will promote digital literacy; furthermore, digital literacy can only be taught using digital tools. Teachers would teach students how to use computers and the social practices of the new literacies to gain an understanding of the digital literacy (Jose, 2016). Furthermore, digital literacies

In contemporary times, the technological advancement known as the Internet, has revolutionized the way in which society is educated. This tool greatly impacts not only the field of education, but every aspect of society. Indeed, Lewin documents, “those ages 8 to 18 spend more than seven and a half hours a day” (A1), connected to the Internet. This citation illustrates the extensive amount of time today’s youth are online. To that end, the Internet is prevalent in many homes throughout the world and continues to influence the way in which people are educated both in the classroom and even while performing homework. The impact of the Internet becomes evident when one begins to examine similarities and differences between the slew of

Across the U.S., technology used in education has been increasing exponentially. Every learning institution ranging from elementary school to college have incorporated technology into their teachings. Online textbooks, quizzes, notes, and classes are all examples of how education has been utilizing technology. While technology has a place in education, not everything in education needs to involve technology.

The education world has been greatly influenced by rapidly changing technology and the increasing availability of information. Schools have advanced by leaps and bounds when it comes to incorporating technology into the learning environment, however, many more advances need to be made. In all areas of the country, educators are trying to help students keep up with technology, but there are more changes that are essential for preparing the next generation for the future.