Virginia Heffernan Response on Digital Literacy

1.       My college experience thus far has required much more technology based knowledge than I was ever expected at my high school. It would have been very helpful in high school to learn more detailed techniques, like how to format an outline easily, in programs such as Word, or Powerpoint. I feel like I was relatively prepared for what I have been hit with here at OU; I was familiarized with Moodle in high school, I know how to type, emailing teachers was encouraged. The more advanced stuff was left on the wayside, and while it could have been very helpful to me in the long run, I don’t think it has caused me any great trouble.

2.       In the Health Sciences career field I am expecting to have interactions with computers, in order to contact people, and type up reports and other documents for patients. I am also expecting to have to be familiar with technology that is used only in a health related setting. It could be machines or computer programs that test the body for heart rates, measurements or anything else associated with that. I feel that I will be properly trained to some degree here at Oakland University. The new Human Health Building seems like it is equipped with many tools that I will benefit from.

3.       Writing in a relaxed setting like a blog or an email helps me come up with many ideas easily. I find that I have an almost overflow of things I could write about, and how I could present all of them. The problem with that is, the finished results are usually unorganized and don’t focus on a few main topics, instead they cover a range of topics, but don’t go into very much depth. I feel like my writing ends up better when it is in a educational setting where I know there are some guidelines that need to be followed in order to stay organized and get my points across.

4.       According to Heffernan, there are expectations that 65 percent of jobs that the upcoming generations will have are not even invented yet. This idea puts a lot of things in perspective, especially in terms of education for these upcoming generations. If I were a teacher in this time period, including technology in the classroom would be very important to me. If children are exposed to technology from early on in their life it could help in the long run for how they handle technology, even if the technology isn’t invented just yet. It may be true that having technology in a math, or science class would make more sense, but having technology used in English class is also very important. The world is on an upward journey involving technology, so preparing the future generations for the future they will have is almost a duty for educators.

5.       The tone of Heffernan’s piece on digital and pop culture is informative, convincing, scholarly, factual and confident. I agree with Heffernan’s argument that today’s classrooms need an upgrade in order to sufficiently educate the children who are learning in them. If it is true that 65 percent of jobs in the future will employ the kids today, then we need to make sure they grow up learning in an environment that they will be utilizing as adults. By providing children with this technology based education we could readily prepare students for their further education and their life beyond that. 

Literacy Timeline.

I have always been a paper and pencil kind of person.

These are small memories, here and there, that I can remember…

-I constantly colored in coloring books that I had at home; Barbie ones, Cinderella ones, Barney ones.

-I remember lying down on the ground in front of the TV at my dad’s house and bugging him over and over to come lie down and color with me. He eventually came over and colored in the Barbie coloring book with me.

-I would always notice the little sentences of text that are at the bottom of every page in the coloring books.

-I would draw in notebooks, draw with chalk on the driveway.

-I remember mom doing crafts, and she would let me join in; homemade Christmas ornaments, Halloween decorations.

-She would always display what was created!

-Rhyming game with my grandma-every time I was in the car with my grandma going somewhere we would play The Rhyming Game, which included her and I coming up with rhyming pairs- when I made up words that weren’t actually real, or didn’t really rhyme she would tell me they didn’t work, and I would have to come up with a new one.

-Mother read to my sister and I in bed most nights.

-My favorite books were The Pixie Tales that she read just to me.

The books were small fictional chapter books.

They were something that my mom and I shared.

She would help me read the chapters when I felt like trying to read.

There were stickers in the back of the book that made it interesting.

They were adventurous and magical books that surprised me because it was so unlike real life.

-Once my younger sister, Amber, started school she began to develop her reading skills very quickly-this made me want to push myself to be a really good reader as well.

-I remember being in my 4^th grade English class, and the teacher often chose me to read out loud because she said I was a great out loud reader. I liked that because I was told I was good at it. 

Superman and Me

                Sherman Alexi grew up on an Indian reservation where many things that are important to American society were not seen as important to the people of that reservation. Literacy became a very important factor in Alexi’s life from an early age. He saw books that his father read all over the house, and they always had his interest, but he really learned to read through a Superman comic. He began to read text very prematurely, and with that he had a very sophisticated outlook on what he was doing. He says in his literary narrative “I am trying to save our lives” (88). Alexi felt a need to extend what he has learned through becoming literate and educating himself to the younger Indian people who are subjected to stereotypes about Indians not needing to work hard for an education because they aren’t going to get very far anyway. He reads, and writes to save his people and acts as a role model for other Indians who have ever been pushed into those stereotypes.

                Becoming a literate person was very different for me compared to Alexi. I was never interested in reading and writing to become some sort of vision to others who need someone to look up to. I never found myself caught in a stereotype. Alexi felt a need to save those people who get drowned out in those tough years. I was never caught in a situation where I saw a need for someone to take that position. I can relate to Alexi’s literacy narrative in some ways though: he said “My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well” (86). I believe that my literacy was influenced in some ways by my mother. She always made an effort to read a story to my sister and me before we went to bed at night. Having my mom read to me at night, made it a very enjoyable thing. It was a bonding activity for both of us, and I was able to ask my mom questions if I didn’t understand what was happening in the book. Like Alexi, I was very interested in pictures and the way that they tell a story without any writing involved. I remember looking through numerous Dr. Seuss books and widening my eyes at the colors and odd features of every tree, building and creature. I didn’t know any words to put to the pictures, but the images in those books match the rhyming nature of his writing that I figured out later down the road of my literacy. Alexi’s journey to literacy is one that full of self motivation and determination to make a difference for his people. I can relate in some ways to small details of his journey, but mostly I am a bystander who gets to see the barriers that he has broken through, and the differences he has made for so many others in a similar situation as him. 

Why is Writing Important?

Writing and communication itself will be a huge area of the profession that I am aiming for. My choice of working in the health sciences field is one that will require me to be around people very often. I want to be a nutritionist, and I will be seeing patients who have health issues on a daily basis. Writing will be one form of communication that I will use to extend valuable information to the patients that come to me. While I am not one hundred percent sure the exact type of writing that I will need to use, my own prediction is that I will need to write some sort of report based on tests that are done to the patients. In the reports I will need to explain the results of tests that are done to the patients and what those results mean to their specific health issue. I might also need to write a sort of guideline for patients to follow in terms of diet, exercise, and other lifestyle changes that may need to occur for them to get their health back on track. Another goal of mine in the future is to speak out to the young community, and teach them the importance of a healthy lifestyle from early on so that they can make the right choices first. In order to do this, I will need to make speeches or write some sort of document that can reach the audience I am aiming for. I will need to know how to write an effective speech, or maybe a simple, but profound piece of writing that will make a difference to a young group of people.  I need to explore different types of writing in order to be successful in what I want to accomplish in the future, as of now I am pretty familiar with persuasive arguments, and research papers.  I would like to learn a more scientific based format for my future career, and experience a new kind of writing that works more for a scientific field and is able to help me in that aspect of my life. Writing is very important to me because it has a large impact on what the future of my career can be like.