To be honest, prior to reading this article, thinking about digital literacy brought ideas such as Powerpoint, web browsing, or Smart Boards into my mind. I found this article as an eye-opener and a change of mind to me. According to Buckingham, digital literacy goes beyond using technology as an informative aide. Digital literacy means preparing your students to analyze this media and understand its purpose. In today's society, media reaches children in a broad amount or sources. Its a way of communicating and networking, a form of culture, a means of self-expression, and of course a way of entertainment which Buckingham states that teachers cannot avoid. Children (and adults!) rely on technology in so many ways that we, as teachers, need to provide students the know-how to understand it.
I was intrigued when he discussed the validity of websites. I remember using "the checklist" in high school to determine whether a website was valid. Buckingham argues that the bias that we look for will always be there, no matter how many 'checks' it passes. Instead, he promotes the idea that "political, economic, and social context shapes all texts, ..all texts can be adapted for different social purposes, and.. no text is neutral or necessarily of 'higher quality' than another". I like this thought because, as he also discusses later, different digital sources are aimed at different audiences and for different purposes. This encompasses the idea that in order for children to be digitally literate, they need to understand the purposes and meaning behind their sources.
While I read, I did come across confusion which I think incompletes my understanding of digital literacy, and that is what exactly is literacy defined? He did talk about the vagueness and multiples perceptions of this term in the article, and I feel like I have my own personal definition in mind, but I still feel like its difficult for me to discuss different kinds of literacy when I am second guessing what exactly literacy is itself.
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Sarah, I was in the same boat with my understanding of what digital literacy was before i read the article. I think that like a text book, it is important to keep the fact in mind that the internet or other sources of digital literacy are not the only place where information can be found, and sometimes be used as a spring board to find more sources. I knew exactly what you were talking about with the checklists for reliable internet web sites, with the .org or .edu at the end. In today's world where being digital literate is almost becoming necessary to be competitive in the global job market, these skills should be taught at a young age and through out student's schooling.
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