From Blogs to Bombs

​I recently finished reading From Blogs to Bombs:  The Future of Digital Technologies in Education by Mark Pegram.  A little over 100 pages, this powerhouse of a book takes a holistic approach to viewing digital technologies in education and society.  Pegrum uses what he call the 5 lenses (discussed in detail in previous post) of digital technologies:  technological, pedagogical, social, sociopolitical, and ecological to explore the issue of what it means to learn and live in a digital age.  He uses countless anecdotes and research to explore a gamut of issues that impact how digital technologies are changing education, identity and society.  One of the most powerful chapters of the book is where Pegrum lays out what he sees as important literacies students must grapple with to be successful in the 21st Century.  These are the literacies he suggests are important:

• Print Literacy:  Foundational literacy; what we have come to think of as the 3R’s:  Reading, Writing and Basic…the importance of these skills has not diminished.
• Search Literacy:   The ability to search for information efficiently and effectively
• Tagging Literacy:  The ability to use tags to categorize and search for information
• Information/Critical Literacy:  The ability to evaluate information for validity, accuracy, and relevance
• Filtering Literacy:  The ability to quickly go through a multitude of sources to find relevant information
• Network Literacy:  The ability to leverage social and professional networks to get timely information
• Hypertext Literacy:  The ability to understand the effects of links and how to navigate them effectively
• Participatory Literacy: The ability to participate in a variety of networks in an appropriate and positive way
• Visual Literacy:  The ability to decode messages in images, graphics, and iconography
• Audio/Video Literacy:  The ability to critically analyze audio and video
• Media Literacy:  The ability to analyze commercial media and its impact
• Virtual World/Gaming Literacy:  The ability to interact appropriately in virtual world/gaming environments
• Remix literacy:  The ability to read and create remixed content
• Personal Literacy:  The ability to understand how to present oneself online safely and how others will read them on the web
• Communicative literacy:  The ability to conduct online interactions appropriately and safely
• Cultural/Intercultural literacy:  The ability to interact and appreciate the value of various cultural differences and attributes
• Technological literacy:  The ability to use text and graphic software, web 2.0 applications and simple authoring tools and the ability to adapt new ones as they become available
• Code literacy:  The ability to read, write and modify computer code
• Programming literacy:  The ability to bend technology to one’s needs and purposes
• Texting literacy:  Raising awareness of features of textspeak and when to use it

Chapter 4 and 5 of the book that talk about social and sociopolitical lenses also offer great insight into how children today are using digital technologies to shape their identity and how the broader sociopolitical landscape is being shaped by digital technologies and the implications this has.  The last chapter about the ecological lense is a bit short but it brings up important issues of the impact of digital technologies on one’s health and the environment.  As Pegrum notes luxury in the future may be the luxury of time away from these digital technologies.  This is an important book and anyone who cares about education should read it.

​Image Source:  freepik.com