A defining moment with technology was when I learned the basics of programming in Lab View for my school’s FRC robotics team. I have always been pretty savvy with a computer. I can do the basics of word processing as well as PowerPoint and Excel. I even have had email accounts and I know how to use the Internet well. I can do everything a digital technological literate person can do and maybe a little more. But I have always had this curiosity about technology. How does it work? What makes the screen display what it does? What is going on behind the scenes in all these state of the art pieces of technology that I use on a day to day basis.
Well these questions sparked my interest in the robotics team at my school especially the programming side it. How do they get the joystick to operate the robot? From day one I was hooked and I learned as fast as I could. This was a turning point with technology for me because now I was participating in something that related to academics, and I was having fun! I was able to comprehend the beginnings of computer programming and learn how to actually make a machine do what you want it to. I learned how to make the robot move and perform functions, along with using certain sensors on the robot to practically make the robot think on its own. Thanks to this opportunity I was able to get a better understanding about how digital technology works. 2.
I would have to say there are some similarities between my experience with digital technology and Chan Ahn’s literacy narrative “TIME IN TRANSLATION”. Chan Ahn uses the time magazine as a symbol of importance and literacy. Although Chan Ahn doesn’t actually read the magazine or understand it, he just uses it to project an image of himself that is not necessarily true. I have also been guilty of this same lie just with digital technology. I use digital technology on a daily basis, but before I joined the robotics team I had not a remote clue in the world how it worked. Just like Chan, I eventually realized that it might actually be interesting to know what is in the item that we have. And by the end of learning about Time magazine, and after being introduced to programming, Chan and I both have better appreciations for the literacy that we both so cherish.
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From the class discussions technically speaking a digital narrative is a person born after 1980. But more specifically it is a person that uses technology and in which technology has impacted them throughout their life. Digital natives are also digitally literate. This is because the most digital natives use digital technologies on a daily basis. For instance a smart phone is a piece of digital technology that many people have these days. It enables the person to do much more with a phone than people probably ever thought was possible. Digital natives also use services provided through the use of digital technologies in order to communicate with other people. For instance Facebook and Twitter are two prime examples. People can use a computer or even a Smartphone to access these services. I have never met a digital native that didn’t know how to access the Internet! Therefore a digital literate person would be one who can do these things with not problems. Even what the other students wrote about were along the same lines. For instance Molly talked about how she used to always talk to her friends in high school on AIM. And how it has shaped her.
