Why digital literacy matters
A key component of digital literacy and networked learning relates to the ability to engage meaningfully in online learning communities.
The learning activity which follows will provide you with the opportunity to familiarise yourself with the open discussion technology platform we use Saylor Academy and at OERu to support community learning discussions.
Mini challenge - Forum activity
Purpose of discussion activity:
To reflect on the reasons why digital literacy matters to you, and to demonstrate your digital skills using an open forum to earn your first badges on forums.oeru.org.
Saylor and the OERu use discourse.saylor.org and forums.oeru.org as the main discussion platforms for all our courses. These are community managed platforms using the open source Discourse software. The system awards badges for a range of activities. Authentic activity increases the user’s trust levels which will enable more software features for participants as your trust levels increase over time. Therefore it’s a good time to get started in earning your first badges and improving your trust levels early in the course.
Watch the following video and jot down the reasons why digital literacy matters to you, then complete the steps which follow.
Steps
- Log in to discourse.saylor.org (Sign up to register a new account if your don’t already have one.)
- Complete your profile page (Click on your user icon on the top right-hand side of your screen and select the settings cog.)
- Spend a few minutes to explore the badges you can earn on the discourse platform. (Click on the badge for details.) By the end of this subunit you should have attained the following badges:
- Post a contribution to the discussion on digital literacies and why they are important for you
- Remember to post one or two replies to interesting contributions (You should also “like” good contributions, use @username when replying, and if appropriate quote a reply when responding.)