Rethinking Digital Literacy - week two begins!

Welcome back!  The second week of the ALA eCourse "Rethinking Digital Literacy to Serve Library Staff and Users" is sliding by already.  I'm feeling like the first week was just a warm up, and that we're really going to get into the thick of things this week!

Our first activity is to watch this video, then answer some questions.




What specific, identifiable digital skills and tools are they developing and using?

A lot!  Here's what I saw as I watched the video:

• Typing/keyboarding
• Presentations including visuals
• Contribution/collaboration (wiki)
• Writing
• Editing
• Fact checking
• Video editing
• Design layout (newspaper, yearbook, website)
• Filming
• Photography/image manipulation
• Public speaking (morning announcements)
• "copywriting" announcements
• video production
• Skype (video conferencing)
• Online social communication
• Computer network
• Hardware maintenance

Some things are implied based on what I saw, but that's a pretty packed list of skills.  The one word that springs to mind to describe a lot of the things they're doing is COLLABORATION.  I don't recall much in the way of that when I was in school, until much later in library school when I had a few group projects.  I'm not sure I'd call some of those very good examples of collaboration, to be honest.

How much of what those young learners can do are we able to do?

Speaking for myself, I'm not doing too shabby compared to them.  In a pinch, I could do most of these things to some degree if needed.  My weakness is video production/editing.  It's just not something I've been particularly interested in, and therefore I haven't done any on my own.

Okay, maybe there was that one time I added music to a video clip of my son feeding pancakes to seagulls.

When I think about my coworkers, I see a broad spectrum (there's that word again!) of skills depending on the individual.  Some of us are more eager and interested in learning how to do new things with technology, and pursue it outside of work.  This is great, as we bring those skills with us every day and they often come in handy!  Some staff learn what's needed to get the job done and do a bit with tech for personal reasons, but aren't as into it.  I also observe staff that are proficient with computers as a tool to look things up and otherwise serve our users, but who aren't comfortable with the myriad of devices people bring in the door.  Quite a few of the above listed skills are still beyond many of my coworkers, primarily because they aren't needed in our day-to-day work.

Yet.