Researching Digital Literacy

I awoke this morning at 4:00 AM can could not fall back to sleep. Today is an optional teacher workday, so I did not go to work. Looks like my body would have wanted to sleep on a day off. I have so few days off I must have been too excited about not having to go to fight the battles with my "unmotivated customers". Unmotivated customer is my term for adolescent aged children that are assigned to an alternative school for whatever reason. My decade of experience in the retail business taught me some lessons about selling. One strategy that worked great when I ran my sporting goods business was to meet my customer at the door as they came in with a big smile and call them by their name- "hey, Billy Ray, I have not seen you in a blue moon." Then wait for them to say their little come-backs like: "yeah, I been working on that old boat of mine..." Educators say that students "don't care how much you know until that know how much you care" Well that is true, but lately, my people skills have been challenged. I will not get into all the negatives. So, lets change the subject,

As I sit reclined in my living room, watching the Today Show on NBC, and waiting on the dryer alarm to go off, I have my PowerBook running and am trying to gather some information about the topic of digital literacy. I noticed in my Bloglines, that some company as a search/research tool called Grokker. The site caught my attention and I downloaded the demo.

Next step: Use Grokker to research digital literacy.

Digital literacy is "the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers" [Gilster, Paul. Digital Literacy.  New York: Wiley and Computer Publishing, 1997. p. 1.]

The more I read on this topic, the more frustrated I become. Must be ADD. Distractions are all around. Too much information to focus on. Maybe another day.

I am heading out to check on the dog and return a truck I have been test driving. Teachers do not make enough money to drive new vehicles. I can not afford this 8 year old S-10 with 100,000 miles. I hate trading cars. I need to live in a city with mass transit. No, I just need a Harley. Yeah, that is it. Hum, pull up in the school parking lot on a Hog.

Too much coffee!