When I think about being digitally literate the first key thing that comes to my mind is being fluent with computers. If you can thoroughly understand how to work computers and get them to do the things you want them to do to complete tasks then I would think you would be very technologically literate. I am by no means completely literate when it comes to computers. I know and understand the basic tasks that can be done on computers but nothing advanced. For instance I know well how to search for something using a search engine such as google, and how to determine which of the results that pull up are true or not. I know how to do a scholarly search and find journal articles for English projects. For other classes I know how to use Microsoft Excel, power point, word, and pretty much everything else in Microsoft Office.
There are also many aspects about computers that I do not fully understand. For example if I had a system failure on my computer, chances are I would have no idea how to fix it if hitting it and restarting it didn't work. Also downloading and transferring files and all the things like that just throw me for a loop. I usually have to ask a friend for help. I really would like to become completely literate with computers though because I believe I would be a lot more effective in my school work and other technological areas of my life because i wouldn't have to sit down and think to myself about how to begin.
I am currently pursuing a degree in Criminal Justice. This is because I am strongly considering a career in federal law enforcement such as the FBI. The FBI is filled with positions that are largely technology based. I have really been researching the careers that are more field positions but these too still use technology. There is a large variety of different technological devices that are used in the field for surveillance and other things like that. Such as wire taps, tracking devices, and various types of communication devices.
I feel that the best way to attain literacy for these types of devices is by doing. This means that probably if I do end up going into federal law enforcement that they would teach us how to use this type of technology because it would be vital to my job performance. I could always research online as well but i feel that job training would always be better, more official way to become literate in that field.
I would say that technology has shaped the majority of the world into what we are today. For example children from the time they are only a matter of months old are being thrust into digital learning form the toys that they play with. For example, The Baby Einstein's. This following excerpt from the “Baby Einstein's” web site shows this to be a perfect example, “Baby Einstein offers a wide range of developmentally appropriate products for babies and toddlers. What makes Baby Einstein products unlike any other is that they are created from a baby's point-of-view and incorporate a unique combination of real world objects, music, art, language, poetry and nature — providing you an opportunity to introduce your baby to the world around them in playful and enriching ways. This simple principle is the foundation for The Baby Einstein Company and its products.” All Baby Einstein products, including its video line, are designed as interactive tools for parents to use with their babies. Since the debut of the very first title, Baby Einstein videos/DVDs were developed with the idea of creating a “digital board book.” That just goes to show you how from the time we are young, and especially the new generations of children, we are thrust into digital learning. Then as we get older we experience electronic socializing networks online such as, Facebook and MySpace. Then we are immediately connected to anyone we want to be around the entire earth in an instance. This is almost to much to grasp for older men and women who never had these luxuries growing up, but for younger people this is just the norm. Once we are progressing into our careers we can use all sorts of tools to get tasks done much faster. Instead of sending letters, send emails. Instead of making a phone call, send a text. The list goes on and on. This could also be a bad thing though. If humans as a whole grow to depend to much on technology, and one day something happened to this technological way of life that inhibited the use of technology, how would we survive. For instance, you can order pretty much anything online, even food. And usually more modern homes are protected by digital alarm systems. Well what would happen if you were lost in the wild. Simple survival skills that were common knowledge many years ago are seldom taught now because we have computer do our work for us. This would make survival without technology a lot more difficult. This brings me to the next point that Bolder mentions when he talks about writing in the age of print. He states that literary, scholarly and scientific texts of lasting value will always remain in printed form and not only on computers. This is a good example of how no matter how advanced our world gets digitally, we always need to, and will have our most important documents and information in printed tangible form. No terrorist can hack into something that has been hand written obviously. And we would have real live humans (guards) guarding our most valued documents, such as the Declaration of Independence and not some virus firewall protector that can be hacked by some teenager who is a whiz on a computer. So in the end technology is great for helping civilization progress into the future and get jobs that used to be a pain, done very conveniently etc. And becoming digitally literate at a young age is very important in this day and age do to how much of our lives revolve around technology. It will help the future generations, as well as ourselves become more productive throughout the rest of our lives.
