Page 18 - digitalliteracy

Introduction: Welcome to the Digital World!

Throughout history, literacy—the ability to read and write—has allowed people to partici-
pate fully and successfully in society. Today, individuals who lack the ability to read and write
face tremendous challenges. They cannot pass a driving test or read road signs; they are
unable to read important drug and food labels; and they have limited career opportunities.

Success in today’s society demands an additional type of literacy, however. Our 21st-century
world depends on technology. Computers run many aspects of our homes, workplaces, and
personal lives. Our automobiles are computers on wheels. Our refrigerators and ovens moni-
tor their inside temperatures and automatically adjust when necessary. The Global Position-
ing System (GPS) links with satellites in the Earth’s atmosphere to show us our exact location
on the planet. Technology has also changed many aspects of our personal lives, from the way
we communicate with friends and family to the way we access entertainment.

As you read this, you likely have a
smartphone within your reach—
a mobile device that offers phone,
text, and internet capabilities. Do you
remember when you first got that
phone and how excited you were to
learn everything you could about it?
Almost every aspect of our lives is
tied to technology, and it is critical
to understand how to use this tech-
nology to participate fully in modern
society. It can also be exciting and fun
to discover ways technology can help
Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock
you attain a college degree, develop
Smartphones are just one aspect of our technological
a rewarding career, and provide for
lives; they allow people to work and communicate on
yourself and your family.
the go.
Consider Chantal, a single mother with
two children. She dropped out of high school after the birth of her daughter, and her son was
born a year later. With two infants to care for, completing her education seemed impossible.
When her children became a little older, though, she obtained a full-time job, earned her GED
(General Educational Development) diploma, and then enrolled at Ashford University to earn
a bachelor’s degree and improve her career opportunities. It had been several years since she
had been in school, and the online classroom and some of the digital tools were unfamiliar
to her. She was intimidated at first by the technology, but by her second or third course, she
began to master the tools and learn how they could both help her achieve her educational
goals and afford her time to spend with family.

Like Chantal, you may find that some aspects of the Ashford University online classroom are
different from your previous learning experiences. Technology has transformed the college
classroom and the way students learn, as evidenced by Ashford’s online courses and Constel-
lation materials, and the way today’s workplaces operate.

In this module we examine not only how technology has transformed the classroom, but
how it has changed the way we work and live. We begin by discussing what it means to be
digitally literate.

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