I’ve been thinking a lot these last few weeks about digital literacy… no surprise there…

As I mentioned earlier, I have ADHD. For those of you not aware of what ADHD stands for it is Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. So what does this mean and how does it manifest… well it means nothing and everything. ADHD has a diverse range of symptoms that can in some people be very predominant and in others, you will only find a few quirky symptoms… So when is it an illness and when isn’t it… How long is a piece of string…

I personally feel that my own ADHD it is more of a personality trait than an illness. Most often when I tell someone what my symptoms are (some problems with concentrating, problems with self-regulating, memory problems, short span of attention, oh, and I also move house and change jobs often… more than ‘normal’ people do…) they look at me and say ‘well, that sounds a lot like me…, I do that…, I have the same problems…, I just might have ADHD as well…’. Most often I can be quite sure that this is not so. I guess the difference is that other people function quite well in their daily life despite having ‘the same issues’ while I sometimes need to take medication in order to do or complete something that requires total concentration.

I have often attributed ‘my poor digital literacy skills’ to my ADHD… my brain’s inability to sometimes focus on one topic for long enough for me to learn… especially if I am not interested in the subject. However, the last two weeks have shown me that this may not be the case… My digital literacy skills are not great, but they don’t suck either… So why haven’t I been able to learn more about digital tools and use them in my teaching? Maybe I just haven’t been curious enough… This thought prompted me to poke around on the internet in search of an answer and look what I found.

 

After watching this I started to ask myself the following questions: What is different this time about my learning? What is motivating me to become more digitally literate? I tried to analyse the six different steps in the video that were pointed out as facilitating one’s being able to learn anything… so here goes…

Step #1 Write it down… This blog will serve as my writing block.

Step #2 Create urgency… I have been given the responsibility for a Masters programme that will be predominantly online and use multiple digital platforms and tools. This is from the 1st of December this year… so I better learn quickly…

Step #3 Create accountability… My colleagues are taking part in this course… along with the ‘rest of the world’ taking part in this ONL181 course… I need to show everyone that I can do this.

Step #4 Fail and fail hard… Last year I was one of three people teaching an online course and I felt that my contribution was poorer than it should have been… I promised myself that the next online course I take part in will be much better. I have embraced failure… and didn’t particularly like it.

Step #5 Ask for help… I have never had a problem with asking for help. I think that the problem has been that I haven’t really known what questions to ask. After a few weeks participating in this course, I already have more questions to ask than I thought possible. I think that having the questions now and the forum to present them in will be a game changer.

Step #6 Follow through and own it… I’m going to finish this course, no matter how hard I find it, I’m going to prove that I can be as digitally literate as anyone else and that my ADHD can be a positive force to reckon with. I have always been a curious person and now I’m curious to see how much I can learn… Wish me luck!!!