Eloquence

Rationale

Digital Literacy

One of the most succinct definitions of media literacy states that it "builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy… and provides framework to access, analyze, evaluate, create and participate with messages in a variety of forms." ¹ In education, we use this term constantly, but what is more pertinent for the terms of this unit would be to delve into digital literacy which takes the foundations of media literacy and focus more on the digital tools available via online forums. The University of Illinois defines digital literacy as, "A person's ability to perform tasks effectively in a digital environment... literacy includes the ability to read and interpret media, to reproduce data and images through digital manipulation, and to evaluate and apply new knowledge gained from digital environments." ² Today's student is fluent in digital literacy without much effort. They are digital natives in the world, and as educators, we need to create a depth of fluency so we can enhance classroom subject matter and capitalize on the platforms they engage in everyday.

Why Twitter?

As educators, we know that students enter our classroom with a wide variety of knowledge, competencies, and experiences. As educators, we know that research shows we should meet students where they are and build their competencies to where we want them to be. However, in reality, we know how complex and difficult this is to achieve. It is not uncommon for an average high school teacher to have thirty-five students at twenty different levels of competencies with further differentiation in cultural background and other distinguishing factors. Therefore, it strikes me as exceptionally significant that when it comes to social media fluency, today's student is almost universally active and at the least extremely familiar with the platform and application. Twitter and Instagram are as a part of their everyday lives as lesson plans and gas prices are to us. So, if Twitter and Instagram are the language our students are speaking, then why as educators don't we speak their language to deliver our message. Social media is one of the only places where students are homogeneously fluent with such a low degree of differentiation. They know Instagram. They live Facebook. They speak Twitter. So, as educators, to ignore these platforms that are so pervasive is ignoring a meeting place where we can engage the student and build their awareness and understanding.

The benefit to an educator of utilizing social media in the classroom is evident, but the advantage is ultimately and substantially with the student. There is a grave need for students to look more critically at what they are posting. It is essential that the learning community engage in academic dialogue and apply scholastic techniques to analyzing their online persona. A chief concern with such high potencies and prevalence of social media in student's lives is that they are not cognizant of the long term ramifications of what they put out to the public. They are often depicting themselves in a light to appeal to their adolescent peers for immediate satisfaction or gain, and never pause to consider how the same post would be viewed by someone else. Critical thinking regarding audience is most essential because social media exists in an easily-accessible public forum where access is a click away. These are not simply locker room conversations, but instead are recorded words, photos, and ideas that can be indexed and accessed by an innumerable about of people.

In this instance, social media creates a perfect teachable moment within in the context of an English class as there is no more appropriate time to discuss, analyze, and consider the concept of intended audience. To have students critically evaluate the anticipated reaction from a different audience, a college admissions representative or potential employer for example, will hopefully begin to change the way students think about what is posted and who has access to it. Therefore, in an English class, with a unit on persuasion, social media is the perfect platform to critically discuss audience and the ethos of the internet in general. Additionally perfect is the way in which social media parallels and aligns with the tropes of persuasion. For example, ethos would be the trust in the post or persona, and pathos can be seen as the appeal to a follower's emotion to elicit a positive response such as a follow, like, or retweet. Many young social media users skip the critical step of logical analysis, or logos, when it comes to their social media use, and if incorporated and studied critically, true persuasion can be translated. The unit, at its core, is about persuasion and branding, but the vehicle is social media because it is pertinent to the life of our students and works well with personal branding and utilizing persuasive tropes.

To illustrate the above point, I asked a former student to send me snapshots of her various social media accounts. After reviewing her online thumbprint, we had a conversation concerning her numerous social media accounts and who is viewing them. Looking specifically at her relationship with Instagram highlighted how significant the element of critical thinking was absent in her thought process and relationship with social media in general. Her Instagram account is private, but it alone had just over 2,000 followers at the time of our conversation. I asked her to describe her followers in general, and she responded with "they're young, but not too young, and not old like you." For the purpose of context, let it be noted that I am less than eleven years older than her. Next, I inquired as to how many of her followers she actually knew in 'real life'- as in people she has had in-person interaction. She struggled with this for a moment as it was never something she consciously considered, and after some thought, she said, "I guess about 40%." To deduce, 60% percent of her followers amounts to roughly 1,200 strangers with direct access to her photos and other information. The questions pertaining to her "brand" and what her followers like most often were the toughest for her, and after much discussion, she ended with, "I don't know… They like my face I guess. Let me get back to you after I think about it."

The above exchange highlights the online audience conundrum and the lack of thought concerning 'who's looking'. Alice Marwick and Danah Boyd specifically address this with their research on the "imaginary interested party" and found that most find that "the ideal audience is often the mirror-image of the user." ³ To additionally convolute navigating an online audience, Marwick and Boyd also discuss the notion of "flattening multiple audiences in to one" thus creating a "context collapse," ⁴ where it is an all for one approach regarding online post viewing, and this is where people, especially adolescents, lack the critical forethought and face consequences when their audience may include prospective employers, college administrators, and family members; therefore, this unit will use persuasive techniques and critical thinking to look at where anticipated audience, desired audience, and actual audience meet.