Core 1

Technology has begun to improve at a rapid pace over that past few years. Not only is it common for a person to have a laptop now, but having a cell phone that functions as a miniature computer is becoming a new trend as well. People rely much more on computers from a day-to-day basis now, than they did even as little as ten years ago. Not only do people use it for networking, business, and school, but also for the purpose of pure entertainment. I believe that having computers that are now so easily accessible is an excellent technological improvement because they assist most people in their daily fast-paced lives.
I was born in 1991, around the time when it was becoming more popular to have a computer in a home that the entire family shared. I do not remember much about being introduced to the computer, but I do know that my first interactions with one were at my home when I was around four or five years old. Like Danielle Devoss, I remember watching my older brother play computer games, and I frequently watched my dad check emails and tend to business related things on it. I even recall my dad teaching me the proper way to turn the computer on and off.
While I was in elementary school, I had a computer class that I went to once a week for one hour at a time. I attended a private school, so I had the privilege of being able to learn things using a computer at a young age through a weekly computer class that my school offered. In computer class, we mainly learned how to type correctly using both hands, and also practiced consistency with typing words and sentences. This helped me to improve my digital literacy skills because it gave me more practice with a computer. It allowed me to become more comfortable with the computer and some of the different functions it was capable of.
My friend’s Barbie computer also played a role in my process of becoming more literate in the realm of digital literacy. Even though this computer only allowed us to play Barbie themed games, we still gained knowledge from it. While my friend’s mother insisted that she limit our time spent on the computer, she did not realize
that these games were working our brains and not hurting them. Marc Prensky, in his article, “Digital Game-Based Learning,” states that what “glues” kids to video and computer games is not the violence, or in our case, the Barbie themed subject matter, but rather the learning that the games provide. Solving problems, making choices, and paying attention to detail were among some of the things that these games required us to do. Prensky notes that some other common skills that children learn through playing games are creating strategies, overcoming obstacles, collaborating with others, and deducing a game’s rules from playing rather than by being told.
Throughout the course of my elementary and middle school years, I began using the computer on a more regular basis. Because I was now more familiar with it, I was able to rely on it more for things such as homework, games, and even shopping online. Besides my weekly computer class, my teachers did not base their curriculum around the computer much at all; I was left to learn its functions through my own observations and practice. My parents were never strict as to how much time I spent on the computer so I think that allowed me the opportunity to utilize my time to learn the functions of a computer at my own pace, and it also allowed me to base my learning on what seemed desirable to me at the time.
Now that I am a freshman in college, the computer is used very regularly in the classroom as well as outside of the classroom. The amount of time I spend working on my computer or with any computer in general for my college classes is anywhere from one hour a day to several hours a day. One example of how the computer is used in a college environment is mentioned in Selber’s article, “Reimagining Computer Literacy,” where he states that college students use computers as instruments to e-mail their classmates and colleagues, subscribe to internet discussion lists to engage in professional conversations, and search scholarly databases to retrieve material appropriate for their class. This is one of the many steps that have been taken over the past years to increase the amount of time and work that students spend using the computer for educational purposes.
I think this increase in the use of computers for my classes is good thing for college students today. Not only is it easier and more convenient to carry around one laptop rather than several binders and folders, but it is also more easily accessible. With a computer, one has pretty much anything and everything he could possibly need that is relation to information wise one device. While some parents and teachers believe that reading a hard copy of a book and listening to classroom lectures is more beneficial to students than doing anything related to the internet, I think that using the computer as a source for learning is a new and improved innovative way of learning. The current generation of students is very different from the previous generations that our parents and teachers are from, and I think that digital literacy is one of the differences that will have a positive impact on children and students of every age.
Because computer use is becoming so increasingly popular, I am sure that I will see and need it when I graduate college and start my career. I am Business major, so I am sure that I will need to be qualified in the field of computer and electronic use in order to become a successful businesswoman. Business firms rely on computers in order to keep their corporations running, so being literate in the field of technology is definitely a requirement for me. With as rapidly as technology is improving, I will have to be sure to keep up with the latest technological advances. Who knows, by the time I begin working my way up the business ladder, we may be using technology that is so futuristic that robots may even be employed by business firms. According to Venkatesh, electronics such as robotics, voice activated systems, and smart devices may be the primary sources running households and businesses in the near future.

Overall, I would classify my progression of digital literacy as having learned with the computer rather than having learned about the computer. The computer served as an indirect object of learning throughout my years of schooling because my teachers chose to teach me how to use it to further my education and research. Although I have a lot to learn when it comes to how the computer actually works, I know that I am fully capable of relying on my digital literacy skills because of my experience in learning with the computer rather than about it.

Works Cited

Prensky, Marc. "Digital Game-Based Learning". ACM Computers in Entertainment, Vol. 1, No.
1. New York: Games2train, 2003.
Selber, Stuart. Reimagining Computer Literacy. National Council of Teachers of
English, 2004.
Selfe, Cynthia, and Hawisher Gail. Literate Lives in the Information Age. New Jersey: Lawrence
Erlbaulm Associates, Inc., 2008.
Venkatesh, Alladi. "Computers and Other Interactive Technologies for the Home”.
Communications of the ACM. New York City: ACM, 1996.