I think I’m going to write this blog with all
the quotes I pulled (since apparently I did that assignment for no reason. Yes,
there is sarcasm there, but I mean it in a funny way.) I can appreciate
the quote “Today’s digital literacies can
make the difference between being empowered or manipulated, serene or
frenetic.” (p 3) I think this to be especially true right now
in this political scene. Knowing how to properly search and use
information can indeed make one feel empowered, while others seem to be blindly
manipulated one direction or another. I can openly admit to be
manipulated as I am one who’s crap detector hasn’t been fully developed. I
still need scaffolding. But how do we scaffold for the nation? On page 77
Rheingold challenges that we should not “refuse
to believe; [but] refuse to start out believing. Continue to pursue your
investigation after you find the answer.” I think this is what
all the information searching and sorting that we’ve been doing is all about.
“Literacy now means skill plus
social competency in using that skill collaboratively.” (p 4) Isn’t this so true
and defends the need for the Portrait of a Graduate skills of communication,
collaboration, goal directed/resilient learners, and ethical decision
makers. For students to use their devices for good and not evil, and to
use their time effectively and efficiently, students are going to need to know
how to navigate the socialness of the online cultural to work with others and capitalize
on all that there is out there. As mentioned in Net Smart “it pays to keep in mind the biological and
historical roots of the human drive to cooperate — and how we’ve always
invented ways to overcome hurdles to cooperation — when studying the modern arts
of mass collaboration.” (p 21) It’s our turn to help others figure
out how to jump those hurdles, I guess, encouraging and guiding the cooperation
because “our generation has an opportunity,
if we seize it, to pause and use our most reflective capacities, to use
everything at our disposal to prepare for the formation of what will come
next.” (p 35)
When we think about it “...all people and media are available all the time,
and in all places, but relatively few people appear to use ubiquitous informational
access and social connectivity politely and productively.” (p 36) I think this will be one of the biggest
hurdles to overcome as “we’ve come to
confuse continual connectivity with mak[ing] real connections. We’re
‘always on’ to everyone. When you actually look more closely, in some ways
we’ve lost the time for the conversations that count.” (p 49) I
still can’t convince my students that picking up the phone and actually
dialling a phone number is not only quicker (text can go hours without being answered...God
forbid) but also more efficient. Tone is properly conveyed and follow-up
questions quickly answered. Connections are formed. (Heck I can’t even convince my husband to
call his sister or brother to make a family decision, don’t know how successful
we’re going to be with one.)
Additionally, the book goes one to state that “if you’re always connected, from the age of eight,
your default position is to only be connected and you don’t learn the
restorative virtues of solitude.” (p 50) Isn’t this equally
important to teach and learn as well? My 5 year old daughter is currently
on the outside of things in her kindergarten classroom. She hasn’t seemed
to have bonded with anyone and tends to stay on the outside of the play on the
playground. At home, on our local playground, this is not her! And after conferences I started to wonder
about this and I admit, worry a bit. But then she’s also the type to play
by herself if others aren’t available.
She can be in solitude and be content.
Fast forward to teen years, and I need her to be that way then as
well. Don’t we as adults need the “restorative virtues of solitude at
times?” What more motivation do you need
to get your information diet in order than for no other reason than solitude!
I also found it amusing that Rheingold says “we are evolving from being cultivators of personal
knowledge to being hunters and gatherers in the electronic data forest.” (p 52)
I just like the imagery on this one as a social studies teacher who points out
her students that the development of agriculture is what began the development
and evolution of civilizations. The quote suggests in a sense that we are
moving backwards in time unless we figure out how to effectively move forward. It’s good thing “our brains are very adaptable and flexible. Reminiscent
of the The Information Diet, Rheingold points out if you change your habits, your brain is very happy
to go along. The hard thing is to change your habits.” (p 54) This
is what we are all trying do at this very moment, isn’t it?
