Double Journal Entry #4  What Wikipedia Can Teach Us About the New Media Literacies

 

Quote:

“The real gap between tomorrow’s digital haves and have-nots will be a lag in competence and confidence in the fast-paced variegated digital universe building and breeding outside schoolhouse walls…. Today’s digital youth are in the process of creating a new kind of literacy; this evolving skill extends beyond the traditions of reading and writing into a community of expression and problem- solving that not only is changing their world but ours, too… In this new media age, the ability to negotiate and evaluate information online, to recognize manipulation and propaganda and to assimilate ethical values is becoming as basic to education as reading and writing.”

Response:

I thought that the article was very informative for students, teachers and all Wikipedia users.  It gave me a broader sense of what students face in determining the validity of articles, how Wikipedia should be used as a research tool, and how a sense of pride and accomplishment can be obtained from submitting an article to Wikipedia.  The examples of students that submitted articles for review were eye-openers of behind the scenes and how Wikipedia works with copyright laws and editing.  Knowing how to submit a good article following Wikipedia’s guidelines would be beneficial knowledge for the student.  The quote that I have selected above talks about the gap between digital haves and have-nots, and pertains to how I sometimes feel like a have-not because I am not up on all of the digital skills.  I feel that it is important in order to compete in the job market with others to advance yourself with digital skills.  Students must learn how to evaluate information online to determine if they are using a reliable source for their research.  As a non-traditional student sometimes it is difficult for me to determine if an online source is reliable.  The digital skills are essential to today’s students to ensure success in the classroom and beyond into the workforce.  The new media literacies that are associated with Wikipedia include online articles and journals.  Using Wikipedia helps develop the 21^st century skills that students’ will need by encouraging them to check the validity of the sources that Wikipedia uses, which will help students enhance their research skills.  I think that teachers should let students use Wikipedia for research purposes because most of the articles are valid.  The students should not cite Wikipedia in their research but just use it as a starting point to find other valid resources.  Students should also take into consideration the editors of the article that they are using and the validity of those editors. 

http://henryjenkins.org/aboutmehtml

Jenkins, H. (2007, 06 26). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://henryjenkins.org/aboutmehtml