Use Digital Literacy to Prep for Class

My students prepare for class in terms of the three C's of digital literacy: consume, create, and connect:

Consume

"Go search like nobles, like noble subjects, and in your search spend your adventurous worth" -- Pericles 2.4.51-52

My students are self-directed learners. They know the course parameters (the learning outcomes and general schedule found in the syllabus [English 232] [English 382]), and so prior to attending class they have been reviewing their notes from prior class periods, reading the primary texts, researching various learning resources, and generally thinking through the topics in light of the learning outcomes. They gauge their time (about two hours outside of class for each our attending class), and make decisions about what of all the vast information about Shakespeare is worth their efforts to consume. Hopefully, they make decisions based on the personal value they sense in the topic as much as on the learning outcomes.

Create

"O let me, true in love, but truly write" --Sonnet 21

My students are active, not passive learners. This means that they do things to engage the topics or texts. Of course they might mark up a text, but they might also make an outline or a map of their learning. Or they might use presentation software or other media to come to terms with what they are studying. Perhaps they will curate a set of links, or images, or videos. Perhaps they will make a brief annotated bibliography. Typically my students will document their engagement with Shakespeare on their personal blog. The act of writing and composing thoughts and media helps them think things through, and also leads to more social kinds of learning as they offer their learning process and creative projects to others

Connect

"We have this hour a constant will to publish..." --King Lear 1.1.43

My students are social, not isolated learners. This means that they recognize that interacting with peers and others helps them to better understand what they are studying -- even if the people they speak with about the topic are not fellow class members. Some of their connecting ties back to consuming, since they know that when finding content related to the learning topics, they can often create a human connection with those who have created that content. They know that social discovery is as valuable, or perhaps more valuable, than traditional research. They will, of course, not only read their fellow students' blogs, but connect with them through commenting and in other ways.

When my students arrive in class, they see this limited time as a continuation of a learning process and of conversations already underway as they have been consuming, creating, and connecting.