Glister Summary

In Glister's "The Nature of Digital Literacy", he elaborates on the evolution of writing and mass production of ideas from the printing press to the internet. He writes about how people communicate through writing. He expresses that forms of mass production on writing has changed over the past five hundred years. He acknowledges Johannes Gutenberg for his revolutionary invention that served as a mile stone in mass printing. This was known as the "printing press". This allowed for mass printing of information. The Gutenberg Bible played an essential role in the religious aspect of people's lives, back in the 1400's. Glister points out that the transition from papyrus to codex was an effect of the printing press. Glister also claims that printing and digital networking work together and not against each other. Through virtual reality, he claims that we are able to retrace our past. Glister claims that the internet allows people to connect to other places, other people, and events in history and is basically allowing people to connect on various levels. He writes that digital literacy is the capability to comprehend and apply information through various formats such as multimedia, when it is available on a computer.

Glister talks about Richard Dawkins and his concept of "memes". Memes work like viruses and infections that can be spread from person to person. He uses this term in reference to the internet. He claims that the internet holds mass amounts of information which can be used by anyone who has access to it.

Glister claims that digital literacy has a dual concept. Old media can be accessed and used for personal purposes. Yet a person can contribute to the internet and create content as well. Glister claims that the internet is interactive. He also emphasizes that there is not one computer that is in charge of a network. Therefore the internet is not edited or changed by just one computer.

Glister also focuses on a concept of “A Paradigm Shift”. He claims that reading a newspaper is different from reading a newspaper on the internet. For example, reading a text is different from reading a pdf file on the internet. The reader with texts reads from left to right. On the computer, content is read and a scroll on the computer is used, making a reader shift from turning pages to scrolling up and down. A Paradigm Shift means there are changes in the ways people use computers and how it has changed people’s lives. For example, the internet was once only used by the government. Now it is an essential part in the lives of many people. Another example is how calculating was only performed by those who were experts in that area, now with the proper software, anyone can perform calculations.

Glister takes note of the inventor of the Ethernet. It was invented by Bob Metcalfe. The Ethernet is a system of networking. This connected computers to machines for example, in a business office. Glister than explains that at one point, the internet was only used to share ideas. Now the internet is used to revolutionize the way people live, communicate and handle tasks. Glister claims that the internet is constantly changing , constantly updated and growing each year, in terms of content and users.