CLOUDON and DROPBOX: Excellent Choices for My iPAD

One of my tech resistance factors was resisting the move up to iPad 2 or 3. I've still got the first iPad and I bought it the day it came out. With my other gadgets and toys I've just not had the need to move up or on. Back when I first bought the iPad it looked like just another tablet and I'd been using tablets for a long time. I slowly relegated it to the bottom of the most frequently used tech toys.

However, that was before my experience of ubiquitous wifi. When I went to Ireland last year I took the iPad with me for some reason and when I went on tours I suddenly found myself using the iPad to record and write. It worked more conveniently than my netbook as I went on storytelling and history walks. All my "Notes" were sent automatically to iCloud and the little trouble I had with the tablet keyboard was soon overcome when I used a stylus in my right hand. The stylus also made drawing very easy. Now I didn't have to worry about carrying paper pads or storing multiple coloured pens in my purse.

From there the convenience continued when I downloaded and used CloudOn with DropBox. CloudOn is Word for iPad. All my files automatically move to my computers and I no longer have to worry about hitting save or where I will find enough storage to keep up with my generation of text and photos. This combination, I can highly recommend. The conveniences and automaticity that I've become used to in both Mac and PC creation environments comes together for me with CloudOn and DropBox. The apps are free for Android and iPad. I suggest you give them a try. You can also download CloudOn for mobile devices at https://itunes.apple.com/app/cloudon/id474025452.

If you are interested in more uses of the iPad then download a free app Student Guide to iPads
at https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/student-guide-to-ipads-ios/id570579620?mt=11

Beginner's Guide to Transliteracy

This new guide is very interesting. It pulls together information on most appropriate and useful transliteracy notions sponsored by libraries, education, and the humanities. http://librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com/beginners-guide-to-transliteracy/

I recommend the guide as a reference to thinking about transliteracy. What it provides for me is a view of how others view transliteracy. I am of the opinion that it is viewed differently by each of us so when one finds a collective that has managed to pull together notions they can agree upon, then you have another view of what transliteracy means from a collective point of view. 

Time to Define Digital Literacy

Along the way to Digital City (my term) in the past 20 years, I've noticed that little attention has been paid to defining digital literacy for the broader public view. The time appears to have arrived. A small search for digital literacy definitions shows an overwhelming current movement to prepare a definition to which all can relate. Here is an example http://connect.ala.org/node/140464 .  On this site IOTP states that:

Digital literacy is the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information requiring both cognitive and technical skills.

Outside of some sentence construction issues this appears to work fairly well for IOTP members. Stephen Abram comments on IOTP's definition at http://stephenslighthouse.com/2012/04/08/the-definition-of-digital-literacy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-definition-of-digital-literacy .

It seems to me that we still haven't got the definition yet. 

Consume Create Connect

A very interesting Prezi presentation is available (linked below) and it provides an engaging look at the aspects of digital literacy that converge when one thinks with online text. I see digital discourse as this now; we think with the text whether reading or writing it.

This particular Prezi makes me feel this idea and I use the Prezi itself as a teaching tool to help my audience feel the aesthetic response of reading and writing online as I describe the act of skimming through the texts while at the same time imagining creation of my next text and where I will connect.

The act of digital literacy is a transliteracy state of thinking. Use your full screen and see how you feel as you watch this http://prezi.com/vwcrtljq9jj0/digital-literacy/