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 an opportunity to become familiar with the open discussion technology platform we use at Saylor Academy and OERu to support community learning discussions.
Mini Challenge – Discussion Forum Activity
Purpose of discussion activity:
Reflect on why digital literacy matters and demonstrate your digital skills using an open forum to earn your first badges on forums.oeru.org.
Saylor Academy and 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 should enhance your level of trust and encourage you to use more software features. This is a good time to get started in earning your first badges.
Watch this video for reasons why digital literacy matters.
Steps
- Log in to discourse.saylor.org (register for a new account if you are not registered already).
- Complete your profile page by clicking on the user icon on the top right-hand side of your screen and select the settings cog.
- Explore the badges you can earn on the discourse platform (click on each 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.
- Post one or two replies to interesting contributions. You can “like” good contributions, use @username when replying, and quote a reply when responding if you prefer.