Infotention and the Net Smart Literacies

·                       I am not sure I learned too much new information from Rheingold’s NetSmart book but I definitely made some connections in my thinking among the books we have read this semester. The ideas in Rheingold’s book jive with Hobbs’ and Johnson’s assertions that kids need to USE media and be good information users in order to be connected to our society and culture.  I think they would all agree with Rheingold’s thoughts on being a curator of information and its importance in developing digital literacy skills as well.  These skills are good ones to teach and weave into our lesson designs.

It seemed to me that Rheingold’s main goal is to help digital citizens gain skills necessary to succeed online and learn digital mindfulness.  He describes his five literacies as “specific advice about benefiting from and protecting yourself from today’s always and everywhere media.”  His ideas about “attention with intention” match up nicely with what we read about in the Information Diet too.  Being aware of being aware is important so we don’t get lost in the abyss of the online world.  It was a good reminder for me in my practice that attention can be taught.  I do see that kids have a harder and harder time focusing and keeping their attention and it is definitely a result of the instant gratification they get from everything in their lives due in large part from technology.  Honestly, I have a shorter attention span than I used to as well.  Sometimes it is hard for me to even sit down and focus on my grad school work for 30-seconds. 

            The NetSmart literacies are ones I will keep in mind as I refine my design idea this week, but overall there was nothing too earth-shattering about what we read that really sparked too many new revelations for me as a thinker.