Reflections

There seems to have been some hype surrouding Fisch’s post being voted the most influential on Edublogs in 2007.  There are some controversial things in this post, and after reading Matthew K’s thoughtful take on it and Chris’ enjoyable rant, I feel compelled to comment also.

I absolutely enjoyed reading Chris’ three reasons why Fisch’s statement (about not being computer literate today is the equivalent of not being able to read and write 30 years ago) is not helpful.  I’d like to put the challenge out for someone to play devil’s advocate perhaps and come up with three reasons why the statement might be true.  I must admit I am currently unable to do so.

On the other side of the coin, I agree with Fisch that the distinction between digital natives and digital immigrants is unnecessary, and I also agree (as does Chris) that being proud of being technologically illiterate is ridiculous. 

Certainly, ideas of modelling our digital literacy to students are worthwhile but I don’t see any problem with admitting that a student might know how to use technology better ourselves, if that student can share that knowledge with the whole class, doesn’t everybody win?  I think this is where Matthew’s idea of the relevant question not being the digital literacy of the teacher but the knowledge of how technology can improve the learning experiences for the students, is spot on.

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