What is digital literacy?

Digital literacy is something that is constantly changing and has also become more popular as time has gone on. Digital literacy is being able to communicate and find information clearly using writing or other mediums on different forms of digital platforms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2k3C-iB88w

At this day and age I think that many college students are good at finding their way around technology. There are tons of different platforms that we can use to communicate information and ideas. We also have to know how to use different platforms due to the different classes we have. For just this semester, I use Connect, Sakai, WordPress (for 2 different classes), and Twitter. I also do many of my assignments on Microsoft word, Google docs, and Excel. I feel as if I am doing okay will all of these forms of literacy. Of course, when you are first introduced to a new platform, it can be stressful. It takes a lot of time to learn how to navigate around. Eventually, the more you do it, the easier it gets.

I am always interested in learning new things. WordPress was stressful for me when I started using it in August. Now that this class is using it too I feel confident that I know how to use it. As a future teacher I would like to learn how to use the digital pieces that teachers use in a classroom. The projector is a huge item in a classroom. Teacher’s use this so that they can show information to their students without them having to each be on a computer. I would also like to learn how to use a Smart board. That is another way that I can communicate information to my students.

I feel that I am expecting to learn how to navigate around the platforms that we were introduced to in the first module. I know how to use both of the platforms fairly well, however, there is always room for improvement. I know that as the weeks go on, the assignments will be completed much quicker because my proficiency will get better.

I am a firm believer that practice makes perfect. The more that we practice using different platforms and technologies, the better we will get at using them. We also want to have an open mind to all of the forms of communication so that we can figure them out quicker. When we have them figured out we can finally share them with our students. We do not want to share them with our students before we have them figured out because we will waste a lot of time.

With Age Comes Experience

There are several times in my life that I feel as if I have learned some significant lessons. Some might be more prominent than others; but after all, they all made me who I am today. Even to this day I am still learning valuable lessons that I hope to take with me for the rest of my life.

The very first experience that I recall learning many valuable lessons is when I started showing steers at the age of 8 at the county fair. To begin, I learned how to take care of an animal that was much larger than me. I learned how to feed it every morning and night. I learned how to tame the animal into something that I could lead around a pin. I think that this learning experience was very significant in my life because it taught me to be responsible and it took away some of my selfishness at such a young age. My brother and I had to get up extra early to feed our steers in the morning before we went to school. I also had to worry about taking care of another living thing other than myself. This experience also taught me to have love and compassion towards animals. I grew very close with my steers and then I had to say goodbye to all my hard work at the end of the fair week.

My next memorable learning experience happened when I was entering Jr. High. I went to a school for grades K-6 in my hometown. My hometown has a population of 150 people. When Jr. High came, I had to go to a school 15 miles away from home. This meant that I would be able to compete on sports teams. I had not gotten to experience a lot of sports up to this point because of how small the school was that I went to. Jr. high allowed me to become a competitor. Sports have taught me many valuable lessons. A few of those lessons include working as hard as I can and putting in a lot of effort. I also had to pick up on a lot of different drills and plays in a short amount of time.

Finally, high school came. Sports were still a big part of my life during this time. Like I mentioned in the learning experience above, sports taught me how to put a lot of effort in. As I progressed in my athleticism, I also learned how to become a leader. This is one of the more significant lessons that sports have taught me because I will use leadership in many different scenarios other than sports. I was also able to transfer it over into the classroom. I was able to lead group projects or have good input on them.

When college came I experienced many different things. Freedom was one of the obvious things that I was able to experience. I was on the track team as well so I still had to carry on with my responsibilities. Like most freshman, I was not sure who I wanted to be. Freshman year was a very FUN year, but also very informational. As I was meeting new people and making friends I was able to find myself and figure out who I wanted to be. I think that this can be a challenging thing to do sometimes because this world is very judgmental and stressful. I learned many things about myself and the people around me.

About a year and a half to 2 years ago, I changed my major to elementary education. This has also been a huge learning experience in my life. I have never been good at making decisions that could affect my life for the rest of my life. I tend to overthink things too much. At the time, I was learning to find independence in myself. To this day, I still struggle to not call my parents and ask them what they think I should do. Usually when I call, my dad tells me that I need to make my own decisions. Changing my major made me realize that I was not happy with the major I was working on before (business). My grades improved as soon as I changed my major and I am looking forward to my life as a teacher.

Most of my friends graduated but I have more school due to changing my major.