Digital Immigrant for sure....

I took the digital natives quiz and I found that I am definitely a digital immigrant. I only knew three terms, one of which I had only heard of but not ever used. I have blogged before, only for classes though, I have used instant messaging and I have heard of massive multiplayer online games. Emergent definitely applies to my own digital literacy. Although my dad is great with computers and has encouraged us from a young age to use them, I still do not feel comfortable with them. Maybe this is because I never experiment with them and I just rely on my dad to fix my computer when something goes wrong. I have played computer games and instant messaged from a young age but I never experimented with new things like chat rooms or wikis or creating website or anything. According to the list we made in class of emergent, beginning and fluent learners I am clearly emergent with regard to my digital literacy. The chart from chapter three of Tompkins shows that children notice environmental print, show interest in books and reread familiar books with predictable patterns. In my case, I think that I do notice environmental technology, I show interest in new technologies and I reuse familiar forms of technology that I am comfortable with. This in turn makes me an emergent digital literacy immigrant. There are commonalities between emergent digital literacy and emergent literacy in general, such as the few that apply to me mentioned above. Despite this, being emergent in literacy does not mean that one is emergent in digital literacy as well. I think that some children might be familiar with instant messaging, massive multiplayer online games and all kinds of videogames but they may be at an emergent or beginning level in regular literacy. After reading the digital literacy article I think it is important that we try to integrate these digital forms of literacy into their learning because it may offer new ways to reach children who are having a hard time with traditional literacy approaches. Implementing digital literacy might give some students an opportunity to learn in ways that are familiar and more comfortable to them. Overall I think digital literacy is a good idea for the future.