Been away from the ETMOOC and blogging, but I’ve been thinking about my definition. My mind has been on my very first webinar with the NW eLearn Community.
I got to share some of my graduate work, and I really loved it. My case study from 2010 keeps getting longer and longer, and as much as I want to write a book about backpacking, I might need to get this project out of my head and onto the screen.

Back to ETMOOC. I sat in on the webinar from Dr. Doug Belshaw, and I have to say, I learned so much in the thirty minutes I listened to him. First of all, his website is really snazzy, and I’ve noticed that Alec Couros has the same style. I’m looking to put something like that together for me as I look for eLearning jobs, so I’ll shelve that idea for now. From a design standpoint, you’re putting together all the things that people are going to Google about you anyway. Why not put it all in one place? Snazzy with functionality. Note to self.

One of the questions for this section of ETMOOC is to come up with a definition of digital literacy and digital fluency. I’ve peeked in on other blogs and slideshares, and what I see over and over is an image of a flowing creek. Boulders in rushing water. Flowing currents bending around permanent (or semi-permanent) rocks.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alanenglish/2590910477/

           Belshaw defined digital literacy as:       

So if I create a definition using these words am I plagiarizing? I’ve got plagiarism on the brain with teaching my research course. Or am I taking the ingredients and making something new? This question is at the heart, I think, of this week’s lesson. How about this?

In order to be a confident creative communicator online, you must have a cognitive framework for culturally constructed critical thinking. 

Wordy? Yes. A bit academic. Maybe.

So, what does this mean to me to as a teacher? Here’s an example: I am literate with some French. I can read signs. I can understand french films without reading subtitles sometimes. I could order my coffee in a cafe. I could tell you that I love you. I can answer questions on Jeopardy that involve French words.
But I am not fluent.
I don’t sound like I know French. I could not have a debate speaking French. I know a little get by, but I can’t communicate on the same level as I can in English. Getting by is not fluency.

For people in the digital divide, they know a little to get by but they aren’t confident. They haven’t had a chance to be creative. They don’t have a framework to build on. Critical thinking gets lost when you are still searching for ways to engage with the material. Learning online can be a lonely enterprise. How do we get more students there? That’s my civic duty as a teacher.