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| An excerpt from
Digital Literacy by Paul Gilster Copyright ©
1997 by Paul Gilster
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Introduction
to Excerpt
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| "Now, at the turn of the new century, Web technologies are replacing TV, telephones, and newspapers as the primary means by which we are informed and entertained." |
This century has been one of change and growth, and media and communication have been among the most rapidly developing. At the turn of the last century, theatre, the telegraph, and the newspaper entertained and informed us. By the 1930s, movies replaced theatre as popular entertainment, and telephones had replaced telegraphs as primary lines of communication. In the 1950s TV replaced movies and, later, newspapers. Now, at the turn of the new century, Web technologies are replacing all three —TV, telephones, and newspapers—as the primary means by which we are informed and entertained. |
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| "Our ability to adapt to the Web as it adapts to us will determine its future and our own." | As each of these changes has occurred
in media and communication, so too the mindset of the consuming, enjoying,
learning public has changed along with them. Paul Gilster, in his book
Digital Literacy (Wiley, 1997), describes how this latest change
is occurring and how we can more readily take full advantage of the opportunities
and adapt to the new possibilities, and sometimes dys-abilities, we encounter
as we rely more and more on the Web.
Our ability to adapt to the Web as
it adapts to us will determine its future and our own. Gilster is concerned,
as the book jacket describes, with providing "Internet novices with the
basic thinking skills and core competencies they'll need to thrive in an
interactive environment so fundamentally different from passive media such
as television or print.
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| "… we must operate the Web as dynamic thinkers no longer content to have information and entertainment merely presented to us." | Below Meridian reprints two sections
from Gilster's book. One, titled "The Spinning of the Web," covers some
basic history of the medium—where it comes from. The other, "Interacting
with the Media," gives some examples of the Web's potential—where we're
going. To transcend passive media, to go beyond "electronic print" into
truly dynamic networks, we must operate the Web as dynamic thinkers no
longer content to have information and entertainment merely presented to
us.
As we teach the next generation of Web users about the networks available to them, we are also giving them the opportunity to learn a mindset that can allow them to stretch and explore the potential of this interactive medium. If we can help our students live up to the potential Gilster describes, we can hope one day that a final media/communication merge will erase the distinction between what it means to entertain and what it means to inform… |
