Access • Analyze • Create • Reflect • Take Action

COURSE DESCRIPTION
In Create to Learn: Introduction to Digital Literacy, Renee Hobbs reminds us that “Digital literacy competencies are important for learners in all fields of study” (p. vii) and that “Today, every student needs to be able to create to learn” (p. iv).  This course focuses on the lifelong learning process that involves accessing, analyzing, creating, reflecting, and taking action, using the power of communication and information to make a difference in the world.

Create to Learn balances critical thinking about media and digital composition with digital media creation. We’ll use critical questions about the purpose, form and content of all forms of communication, and then we’ll apply our knowledge to create blogs, social media posts, digital images, podcasts, infographics, video production, screencasts, and animation.

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‘BUT WHAT DO YOU DO IN THAT CLASS?’
In the last few weeks, I’ve had several students ask about Multimedia Composition. “But what do you do in that class?” one junior asked me last week. After I explained what we do, I could tell by the tilt of her head and the tone of her voice that my response was unfulfilling. I didn’t have the course overview in my short-term memory.

So far, we’ve read from six chapters in Create to Learn, and I’ve tried to create microlearning opportunities of our topics using Bookwidgets. We’ve looked at contemporary blogs, discussed the characteristics of blog posts, and then analyzed the content of blog posts. After several snow days and days away from school because of a Polar Vortex, we’re moving to the creation phase as students are creating their own blogs and their initial blog posts.

STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS
One of the headings in Chapter 5 of Create to Learn is “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.” As you have probably noticed, Create to Learn is an essential mentor text for me and for my students. But I’m also dependent of two other mentor texts: Kristen Hawley Turner and Troy Hick’s Argument in the Real World (2017) and Troy Hick’s Crafting Digital Writing (2013).

I came across an amazing quotation by L.S. Vygotsky this month: “Children grow into the intellectual life around them.” In reality, it’s not just children but all of us. And this is why I strive to surround myself and my students with mentors like Renee Hobbs, Kristen Hawley Turner, and Troy Hicks as we struggle to make a difference in the world.

Good night, and good luck,

DJ