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Comparison of Digital
Literacy Development Between Children and Adolescents
By: Christopher Ruckdeschel
Our time is one of bombastic technological advancement and with these
new avenues of activity, it is clear that the literacy development of
students in general and the specific literacy concerns of young students
and adolescents are encouraged and refined through meaningful and authentic
interaction with these digital offerings. One recommendation for the future
of digital literacy development lies in the inherent need for our students
to understand the reality of the existence of free will, and with that
knowledge, possess the reason to make sound and caring decisions as they
interact with and create the digital world in which we live. Hilaire Belloc
succinctly states this notion: "The machine does not control the mind
of man, though it affects the mind of man; it is the mind of man that
can and should control the machine." Another recommendation, which stems
from the first, is that as students are interacting with the whole world
in their intellectual and social endeavors, they must remember the importance
of the simplicity found in their own local communities and, centrally,
the importance of the first community, the family: "The peasant does live,
not merely a simple life, but a complete life. It may be very simple in
its completeness, but the community is not complete without the completeness"
(Chesterton, 2001). A final recommendation, one that may truly link all
of the presented recommendations, concerns that basic notion found at
the root of natural law. For in Creation we are confronted with the beauty
and reality of existence. From this, it is clear that a static notion
of good and evil is present. With the massive amount of information present
within seconds of any student's request, we must be vigilant in reminding
students that the number of differing views has no relationship whatsoever
with the possibility of the existence of one correct view. To paraphrase
Chesterton, simply because there are many horses in a race does not mean
that one of the horses will not eventually win the race.
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