Is There An Off Switch?

Wow!  Talk about information overload!  Seriously...is there an off switch?  All of the items that we had to reflect on seemed to follow the same concept with exception to The Journey from Digital Literacy to Digital Fluency. We are all constantly learning, and we don't have any choice about it.  If a person were to find an off switch and flip it, they would be so far behind once they turned it back on that they may never catch up!  This can be very overwhelming for a person who is not accustomed to this large quantity of information (i.e. a person over the age of 25).  You know, those people who understand what a dial up signal sounds like, having to type in the command prompts, and why that save symbol in Microsoft Office is shaped like that!

But, fortunately for us, our students are accustomed to having this unlimited information.  We are also fortunate that children are naturally inquisitive.  It is our job as teachers to provide them with the skills to safely access the information,  teach them to determine what is accurate, and provide a means for presenting what they learned!

The teacher that is digitally literate is not too bad at doing this.  However, teachers that are fluent are great at it!  If all teachers would make it their goal to become digitally fluent, the possibilities of what we could do in the classroom would be endless!  I agree with the author of the last blog post, Karen Lirenman, it will be a "slow and painful process" to make the transition.  But how "exciting and invigorating" it will be!