The transition of information gathering, evaluating, and organizing to digital means and away from librarians, personal contact with experts, and research-based print media decreases the human interaction we experience on a daily basis. In order to offset the loss of human interaction, we must increase our communication by utilizing different methods and strategies. It should be no surprise that communication is often one of the key tasks that technology does well, perhaps driven by our innate desire to connect with other people. This desire to connect is largely the reason for the success of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Along with digital communication comes the need to set up some rules for the use of these tools. The rules can be designed to protect users from malicious intent, illegal or lewd information, or even people seeking to harm. This is commonly referred to as Cyber Safety (Cyber Safety) or Digital Citizenship (http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/).
Electronic mail was once the primary means of communicating between people using digital devices. Unofficially, over a course of time, a set of rules have been developed for the proper use of e-mail and digital devices in general called Netiquette (http://ccm.net/contents/121-rules-for-proper-email-use).
Social Media Tools
Instagram: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/instagram-classroom-student-activity-ideas.shtml
Twitter: http://ww2.kqed.org/education/how-to-use-twitter-in-your-teaching-practice/
Pinterest: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/educators-guide-to-use-of-pinterest-in.html
Snapchat: http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/4866
Voxer: http://edtechreview.in/trends-insights/insights/1519-ways-you-can-use-voxer-in-your-schools
Creation Tools that Facilitate Communication
There are several tools that facilitate communication, but are also firmly reside in the Create aspect of Digital Literacy. These tools (i.e., blogs, wikis, etc.) are both content creation and information sharing tools.
Text and Instant Messaging
Short, quick messages sent from mobile devices via the mobile cellular network are text or SMS messages. There are services available that allow you to utilize text messaging capabilities without disclosing your mobile phone number to the recipient, which is useful for educators. While the most popular is Remind (www.remind.com), there are others available as well: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/04/7-services-for-sending-group-texts-to.html#.VqKRD1MrJyo.
Instant messaging like Yahoo Instant Messenger or Google Hangouts allow computer users to send messages between any connected device. Instant messaging is often very useful for small teams of people that need to frequently send short messages to one another in order to coordinate their activities. These services often use your email address as the identifying information in lieu of your mobile phone number like in text messaging.
Additional Resources
Article: Three Digital Communication Tools for your Classroom: http://instructionaltechtalk.com/3-digital-communication-tools-for-your-classroom/
Wiki Article: Digital Communication: https://digiteen.wikispaces.com/Digital+Communication
FIND | EVALUATE | ORGANIZE | COMMUNICATE | CREATE
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