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TEST 1Italic text

Digital Literacy
 === Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the 21st century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. ===

(Ontario Ministry of Education, 2015)

There are many factors involved in trying to define digital literacy at the intersection of cultures, languages, and technology. For the purpose of this inquiry, traditional literacy is considered to be a social and cultural process that is dependent on specific contexts of the learner.

Gonzalez-Vera (2016) uses Prensky’s definition of the e-generation as a “new group of students that has spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age” (p.52). Ahmed and Nasser (2015) establish that “technology has infiltrated every aspect of modern life. It would seem unimaginable for [digital natives] to communicate or exchange ideas without the use of technology, a reason why much of what is being produced in the literature and research tends to equate youth culture with visual culture, digital media, and digital literacy” (p.752). The proliferation of digital technology in the lives of students – referred to as either the e-generation or digital natives - has inevitably had an effect on not only the way these students learn, but it has also impacted the way they process information. Educators are faced with the challenge of rethinking how they think about education and literacy (Ahmed and Nasser, 2015). Nachimuthu (2010) includes data from the National Council of Education and Training (NCTE) that “the amount of knowledge in the world has doubled in the past 10 years and is doubling every 12 months” (p.1); this information reinforces the significance that “today’s digital students think of information and communication technology (ICT) as something akin to oxygen: they expect it, it’s what they breathe, and it’s how they live (p.1).”

References: Ahmed, K. & Nasser, O. (2015). Incorporating iPad technology: Creating more effective language classrooms. TESOL Journal, 6(4), p.751-765. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/doi/10.1002/tesj.192/epdf

Gonzalez-Vera, P. (2016). The e-generation: The use of technology for foreign language learning. .Research-publishing.net. La Grange des Noyes, 25110 Voillans, France.

Nachimuthu, K. (2010). Need of digital-age literacy in teacher education. Journal on School Educational Technology, 6(2), 1-6. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1826537864?accountid=15182

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2015). Literacy for a connected world. Capacity building series. Queen’s printer for Ontario, September 2015. Retrieved from http://www.edugains.ca/newsite/literacy/ALG/docs/CBS_LiteracyConnected.pdf

Nachimuthu, K. (2010). Need of digital-age literacy in teacher education. Journal on School Educational Technology, 6(2), 1-6. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1826537864?accountid=15182