ENC 1102 - Assignment for 1/26

Digital Arguments

In my article, "Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century, the authors, Barbara Jones-Kavalier and Suzanne Flannigan, are two educators who argue that in this new millennium the concept of literacy has changed to take on two new meanings: visual and digital. In addition to a new meaning, the authors argue that, in light of their research, institutions need to promote better teaching of how to harness the use of digital media in this age. The purpose of their argument is to show the audience, educational institutions, what it means to be literate in the 21st century and how important it is.

Jones and Flannigan use arguments about the past, present, and future and proposal arguments to impart on the audience how necessary it is to be digitally literate nowadays. The authors begin by showing the audience that literacy is different today than it was 10-20 years ago. They follow that by describing the future of literacy and how it is the next wave of communication. The authors then introduce the problem with teaching classes that use technology. They propose enhancing learning how to utilize this technology so that faculty will have the skills needed to combine the digital world and the classroom. Stemming from the classroom, the authors argue how important digital literacy is in every other aspect of society; leading to their central argument of, "it seems far better to have the skills and competencies to comprehend and discriminate within a common language than to be left out, unable to understand."