Digital Literacy - Hardcover

Gilster, Paul

3.98

42 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471165204 ISBN 13: 9780471165200

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 1997

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276 pages. Book and Jacket appear to have hardly been read and are both in As new condition throughout. This shows you how to evaluate sources of information found in news groups, bulletin boards, and other online sources.

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From the Back Cover:

"Gilster has hit the mark. The ability to evaluate critically what is found on the Internet is one of the most important faculties for successful Internauts. Critical thinking is the ultimate V-chip."

Vinton Cerf Sr. Vice President Internet Architecture & Engineering

MCI Communications

"If this technology is intimidating, it's because we think in models that are based on older forms of media....Where the Internet model diverges is that it places greater responsibility in the hands of the individual. Rather than being spectators -- information consumers--we become Internet users, people who discover and evaluate content before deciding how to put it to work....

"I see the Internet as a city struggling to be built, its laws only now being formulated, its notions of social order arising out of the needs of its citizens and the demands of their environment. Like any city, the Net has its charlatans and its thieves as well as its poets, engineers, and philosophers. This shouldn't surprise us; we've been facing the same issues of growth, order, and justice since the time of the Sumerians, whose own contribution to the technology of ideas--the inscribed clay tablet--still houses their thoughts five thousand years later in museums around the world. Technology demands of us as it did of them a sense of possibilities, a willingness to adapt our skills to an evocative new medium. And that is the heart of digital literacy. Our experience of the Internet will be determined by how we master its core competencies." --Paul Gilster

The thinking and survival skills new users need to make the Internet personally and professionally meaningful.

The Internet is fast becoming the newest segment of popular media. It's called upon by millions as naturally as the telephone or the television. Yet, though the Internet is easier than ever to use, the means of information sharing that it involves require a whole new mindset. Without these new thinking skills--what Paul Gilster calls digital literacy--the benefits of this exciting medium may be diminished or lost.

Digital Literacy isn't a book about how to get around the Internet. That ground has been amply covered. Digital Literacy provides Internet novices with the basic thinking skills and core competencies they'll need to thrive in an interactive environment so fundamentally different from passive media such as television or print.

Digital Literacy shows you how to evaluate sources of information found in news groups, bulletin boards, and other online sources. It demonstrates how to focus search strategies and it leads you through the new rhetorical tools of hypertext and hypermedia, in which you literally chart your own path through vast pools of information, gathering and deleting ideas as you go. Paul Gilster also addresses other issues shaping activity on the Internet, including the copyright issues of online information.

Ultimately, you learn how to customize the Internet for maximum benefit as both a professional resource--scoping out the competition or the latest stock trends--or for personal education or entertainment--looking up the weather, attending a lecture, or even taking a trip to a virtual world. The Internet opens infinite doors to you. Armed with the digital literacy skills presented here, you can now take full advantage of this incredible universe.

Synopsis:

"Readers leery of ramping onto the information highway and surfers suffering Internet overload will value the solid advice supplied by Gilster." -Booklist. "Paul Gilster's intelligent, sobering look at the Internet is a breath of fresh air." -Amazon.com "This book sheds light on the skills that Web surfers need to separate the digital garbage from the golden nuggets of good data. It's a good place to start for adult newcomers to the information highway." -Courant Now in paper! Digital Literacy provides Internet novices with the basic thinking skills and core competencies they'll need to thrive in an interactive environment so fundamentally different from passive media. PAUL GILSTER (Raleigh, North Carolina) is the author of The Web Navigator and Finding It on the Internet which have sold over 200,000 copies.

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