With all due respect to Sen. Mark Begich, I had to laugh the other day when I read his quote in the Empire, “Alaska ranks dead last among the 50 states for internet speed, which hampers our children’s digital literacy.” I’m not sure what digital literacy is, but I would say that the Internet itself is hampering the youth of Alaska’s actual literacy. Perhaps instead of getting an even faster internet, we could encourage them to get outside more and enjoy this beautiful place we live in. Or read a book …
Mike Sypherd
Juneau
Comments (2)
Add commentGoogle it.
The ability to interact and use technology to become more productive (digital literacy) is inherently different than being able to understand James Joyce's stream of consciousness writing style (reading comprehension).
The skills are complementary, not separate. Now if you contrasted uninterrupted prose that exhibits rhetoric and logic vs. google's "gimmie the answer now" approach- you may have a point.
Once again, different disciplines, but digital literacy is contingent on the assumption that you can read. I read your letter. I hope you're "digitally literate" enough to read this response.
Digitally illiterate?
A lot of us learned to read and write before there was an internet, heck, the rotary phone was an amazing device. The computer will actually "dumb down" our youth. Google, and now that new software that you can talk into and it will write out your words in a memo, render spelling obsolete.