The journey has already begun to be a more digitally literate individual! The ONL course has indeed opened up my eyes to the vast knowledge that is out there. And I am fortunate enough to meet scholars from many corners of the world and it is undeniably exciting.
If I talk about me, I am a naïve individual when it comes to technology. I think, I started using my own computer in 2005, but I don’t remember the type of the computer: it was comparatively a big one. And I started using a mobile phone in 2003 or 2004, and it was NOKIA, I remember! (I am not fond of phones at all: I have never bought a phone for myself, for I always receive them as gifts!) Anyway, I started using social media in 2006, I think; and it was Hi5.
Well, David white’s video on ‘visitors and residents-credibility’ was really interesting and that made me watch the part 1 of the video as well. There, he was explaining that digital literacy can be compared to one’s second language: the earlier you start learning the language, the more literate you will be in the language. We can of course see this among the kids of these days. Kids who are born after 1995 (Generation Z) are considered to be born into technology; it is said that on average they use internet minimum three hours a day (Soysal, Çallı, & Coşkun, 2019). However, it should also be noted that increasing digital literacy among psychologically vulnerable young people may result in putting them at a risk if their skills are at a lower level while their usage of internet is intense (Helsper & Smahel, 2019).
However, these days, I believe whether we like it or not, we need to adapt ourselves to the rapidly changing techie life styles. Today, computer mediated communication has become indispensable. We can’t literally survive without technology.
ONL has become an amazing learning platform for me. I knew that we do not have the right to use any picture we can see on internet for our tasks. But I was not aware of the sites like unsplash.com, pixabay.com and pexels.com where pictures could be downloaded without any copyright issues. It was great! And thank you ONL so much for this new knowledge. And I started using padlet in my classroom, and my students enjoyed it so much.
Thus, the journey so far with the ONL team was so exciting, and I look forward to exploring more during this journey!
References
Helsper, E. J., & Smahel, D. (2019). Excessive internet use by young Europeans: psychological vulnerability and digital literacy? Information, Communication & Society, 0(0), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1563203
Soysal, F., Çallı, B. A., & Coşkun, E. (2019). Intra and Intergenerational Digital Divide through ICT Literacy , Information Acquisition Skills , and Internet Utilization Purposes : An Analysis of Gen Z, 8(1), 264–274. https://doi.org/10.18421/TEM81-37
Think on my Words 
So interesting to read what you’ve been thinking. It’s kind of strange thinking how different technology is for those born now compared to only a few decades ago – but I think it’s important to remember that it’s skills that still need to be be learned, it’s not automatic even to young people. (Though I did have a laugh yesterday when I tried to explain to my daughter what a smartphone is, and that not all phones are smartphones. She has hardly ever seen anyone use a phone that wasn’t a smartphone 🙂 )
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Interesting reflections on your own use of technology. It is wonderful to know how the ONL experience has helped you in bringing new experiences to your students
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Thank you for your interesting thoughts on digital literacy! For teachers, using digital tools can help them achieve things in their courses in ways that were not possible before, by creating spaces for interaction and sharing. I have noticed several times how the young and supposedly digital native generation are genuinely surprised to see what digital interaction can do to their thinking. The pedagogical use of digital tools is so different from the social use (Instagram, Snapchat, etc), which are very focused on display.
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I agree with Kiru -it’s great that you’re already taking a leap by started using different tools/technology in your classroom.
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