Evolution of Communication Part 1

With advancements of technology comes advancements in communications, and there is no better example of this than the World Wide Web. As websites have grown in number, the general public have increased their reliance on this digital medium as a source of instant and accurate information. Edna Aphek, in her paper "Digital, 'Highly connected' Children: implications for education." credits an Israeli scholar by the name of Yoram Eshet-Alkalai with defining five new digital literacies of our time. In part one, I'll discuss the first four of these.

The first is "Photo-Visual Literacy" which is when a picture or icon is used, instead of text, to represent an idea of thing. While this had originated from instant message users using things like a :) to denote a smile or "lol" to indicate laughter, the concept has grown to include actual images to represent a concept. An example of this is the symbol that represents an RSS Feed.

The next digital literacy is referred to as "Reproduction Literacy", which occurs when a new take is given on an old idea. The example that Eshet gives is of Mona Lisa with a mustache, but one that I have recently discovered is a sculpture (shown below) called "Game Over" by Kordiana Lewandowskiego". Made of polystyrene, this statue depicts Princess Peach holding Mario in the classic "Pieta" pose of the Virgin Mary holding the body of Jesus Christ. This serves to draw a correlation between religion and video games.



The third digital literacy I'll be discussing is called "Lateral Literacy". This literacy deals with the ability to present information in a less structured and less traditional manner. One example of this is the invention of the "Wiki", specifically Wikipedia, where anyone can edit all content. Another example, which is prevalent in my blog posts, is that of the "hyperlink". This is when a link in embedded into a click-able text instead of as part of a bibliography at the end. Often, this is done to streamline information for the viewer.

The final digital literacy that I'll discuss in part one is called "Information Literacy". This deals with the reliability of information found on the internet. Since most sites and blogs don't hold their content makers accountable for their words, the easy way would be to trust nothing on the internet. However, with experience and the opinions of respected authorities, one should be able to filter the good information from the bad. For example, since anyone can edit Wikipedia, its credibility as a primary source is less than a peer-reviewed journal.

Friday, I'll discuss the final three digital literacies: "Socio-Emotional", "Moderation & Self-regulation", and "Quality Assurance".