Digital Literacy and Me

My experience in creating a podcast highlighted a personal anxiety and lack of confidence in using technology and tools.  While I am comfortable with videoconferencing, IM, chat, Skype and e-mail at home and at work, the requirement to create and publish my own transliteral communication was anxiety producing. For information I went to the Internet and googled “How to create a podcast.” From the many hits displayed I reviewed and then printed a document on how to create a podcast on Mac or PC. http://www.superfantasticultra.com/create-podcast.htm. From this information I then ordered an upgraded software package from APPLE. Creating Delicious bookmarks and new tags, going onto Blooger.com were preparation for the podcast and new experiences with new applications. I did not have any colleagues, friends or children that had created or published a podcast but YouTube was suggested as a site that had ‘everything” on it. Sure enough, there were podcasts that visually demonstrated the steps to making a podcast and video podcast on a MAC.

I learned how to use Preview to take images from the computer, upload pictures, blog, import bookmarks and I now have music on an account in ITunes.

The creation and publishing of this video podcast was a personal journey for me. I will be using these tools again as there is extensive application to facilitation, teaching and communication in my area of work. While this assignment highlighted to me how non-literate I am across the depth and breadth of the new media, it also demonstrated to me how quickly adaptation is to media that is useful to an individual’s life. Over a two-day time frame I attended a WebEx, videoconference, teleconference and communicated through e-mails. I was online reviewing new research and accessing knowledge transfer literature. I drafted a PowerPoint, podcast, Skyped with my mother from B.C., Blackberry Messenger my daughters numerous times, talked to other friends on the phone, googled for information, watched YouTube, accessed various new sites, printed off research articles and actually read a few of them. The new world of transliteracy will be and is different for each individual. We will use technologies we need for work, personal life and are capable of learning new media software when required. The new media and ability to be transliterate is personal, needs to be user friendly and requires me now to plan how I use it and what sites I will access in a day. Blogs, wikis, Facebook, YouTube all require a commitment of time in already busy lifestyles.