A Speaking Special - Netsmart Webcast Participation

Jeff's Preface

Howard Rheingold

The Virtual Communty









How can we use digital media so that they help us become empowered participants rather than passive consumers? In Net Smart, I show how to use social media intelligently, humanely, and, above all, mindfully

Webcast at:  EdTechTalk.com/live

Mindful use of digital media means thinking about what we are doing, cultivating an ongoing inner inquiry into how we want to spend our time. I outline five fundamental digital literacies, online skills that will help us do this: attention, participation, collaboration, critical consumption of information (or "crap detection"), and network smarts. I explain how attention works, and how we can use our attention to focus on the tiny relevant portion of the incoming tsunami of information. I describe the quality of participation that empowers the best of the bloggers, netizens, tweeters, and other online community participants; I examine how successful online collaborative enterprises contribute new knowledge to the world in new ways; and I present a lesson on networks and network building.

There is a bigger social issue at work in digital literacy, one that goes beyond personal empowerment. If we combine our efforts wisely, it could produce a more thoughtful society: countless small acts like publishing a Web page or sharing a link could add up to a public good that enriches everybody.

• When did you fist start using the internet and what were your first impressions?
• How did you think it would affect society and your life (positively and negatively)?
• How has the internet  affect society and your life (positively and negatively)?
• What concerns do you have about young people and the internet?
• What advice do you give to your students and children about being 'netsmart'?
• As educators, how can we encourage internet use that is "intelligent, humane, and mindful" (for our students and ourselves)?

Recorded Video from the May 3 Webcast

Chat Log at: http://edtechtalk.com/node/5101