This semester I am co-leading a Faculty Learning Community on Multimodal Assignments. This week we are producing one-minute audio compositions with captions and/or transcripts to practice making multimodal compositions which are accessible.

Recently I tweeted about my experience volunteering with Computer Core which seeks to help low-income people acquire digital literacy skills. At the same time, my advanced composition students were asked to reflect on an information literacy video I put together to help them navigate our library’s catalog and databases. I was struck by the fact that so many of them (and most are in their second or third year of college) lack the very skills that we are teaching at Computer Core. This juxtaposition inspired my audio composition for our FLC.

Below is my audio composition and its transcript for a podcast titled CtrlF which focuses on issues of digital literacy. I designed it as though it was hosted on a podcast sharing site, but since I want to pair it with the transcript instead of making two separate files, I am hosting it here on my blog.

CtrlF Digital Literacy Podcast Episode 001

Transcript

CtrlF – Episode 001 “Digital Literacy”

Created by Tawnya Azar

[4 second sound clip from beginning of “Where is My Mind” by the Pixies]

Tawnya: Welcome to CtrlF: a podcast about digital literacy

Where we tackle what it means to have an accessibility mindset when it comes to digital literacy in higher ed.

I’m your host, Tawnya Azar Professor of English at George Mason University.

You might assume that today’s college students are “digital natives” who can navigate digital technology easily thanks to their life-long access to computers and smart devices. This is not the case. While higher education is increasingly dependent and entangled with digital technologies, our students often lack even the most basic digital literacies. It is even more challenging for the most vulnerable students: those from low-income backgrounds, immigrants, and those with disabilities. All of our students would benefit from integrated instruction in digital technologies not only so they can pass their classes, but so they can one day maneuver successfully in a digital world. For more information on digital literacy, visit my website tawnyaazar.com.