Concept 3: “Effective Internet Communication combines technical and communicative competence.” (Allen, n.d.)

In the very early days of IT, to be ‘information literate’ was to have technological proficiency, or even mastery, of the online space. In 2009 it is even more imperative that information literacy incorporates competency in communicative practices and despite much discourse at an academic and policy level it would appear that the solution is most likely to come from individuals recognising that developing both sets of skills, in tandem, is critical to engagement with others online and requires practice and attention at both the technical and social communication levels.

Whitworth, (Whitworth, A., 2006. pp.3-4) believes that placing too much emphasis on the technical obscures the importance of the social meaning and asserts that,

“The technical aspects have, in fact, damaged its [information literacy] ability to be seen as a subject whose tools may include technological ones but whose field of interest is social.”

It may appear naïve to state that I had, prior to commencing my studies, not considered the internet as a communication medium. I regarded it as a whole, a mysterious yet useful entity – ‘the Internet’ – that contained invisible tools that allowed me to send emails, search unlimited sources of information and publish a website. I did not stop to ponder how that happens and I never thought of the internet in terms of how I communicate.

While it does require knowledge of traditional communication protocols, the internet is a completely different space from all previous methods of communication. As the internet continues to evolve, and users become more acquainted with the technology and new developments, so the requirement that the user understand the medium as a tool for communication becomes more critical for continued effective communication practices.

With hypermedia now taking us beyond hypertext in the myriad ways in which we can communicate (not just with language) online, effective internet communicators will be those who apply the ‘practice makes perfect’ rule of thumb, or perhaps, more aptly in this constantly evolving space, ‘practice makes competent’, since the space is far from static and always developing, as each user individualises their practices thereby maximising their experience.

Castells (Castells, M., 2003.) suggests that it is in the understanding of the differences between other communication methods and those made possible via the internet and the development of personal skills, through regular use, and exploration, that the individualisation process can occur.

“Neither utopia nor dystopia, the Internet is the expression of ourselves – through a specific code of communication which we must understand if we want to change our reality.”

By constantly discovering and learning ‘how’ communication is enabled via technology it becomes easier to understand ‘why’ use of this space relies on the user becoming a become a better internet communicator.

To either merely appropriate the space to continue entrenched practices of offline communication without understanding how the medium works or to be proficient in the technologies without understanding and incorporating social literacy, is to underestimate, and under-use, the potential of the internet as a powerful communication tool.


ANNOTATED SITES:

SITE 1:

December, J. (1996). Units of Analysis for Internet Communication. Journal of Communication, 46 (1), Winter.

http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol1/issue4/december.html


The author is a PhD candidate in Communication and Rhetoric at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. Taking concepts of communication as they apply to the internet, this comprehensively referenced article additionally details the technical processes that enable data dissemination and delivery. December provides concise definitions of both terminology and functions relating to communicating in the internet space, augmented with diagrams and graphics to support his thesis that the ways in which internet communication is made possible and can be effected by the user are best understood through an analysis of the individual elements that combine to make the whole.

SITE 2:


http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk

http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/,edia/?sid=3008327

The 2007 recipient of The John Farradane Award, in recognition of outstanding work in the field of information science, Intute is a consortium of seven UK universities and their various partners. A free online service providing websites for education and research, the database is comprised of individual sources evaluated and selected for inclusion by Intute’s subject specialists. The Virtual Training Suite is a set of online tutorials that enable users to learn more about effectively searching, evaluating and communicating on the internet. The Tutorials are free and interactive and designed to improve internet research skills.



REFERENCES:

Allen, M., (n.d). Internet Communications Concepts Document in Net11 The Internet-Communications. Curtin University of Technology.

http://lms.curtin.edu.au/webapps/portal/


Castells, M., (2003.). The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business & Society. (p.6). Oxford University Press: London.

Whitworth, A., (2006.). Communicative Competence in the Information Age: Towards a critical theory of information literacy education.
5 (1). Retrieved May 7, 2009 from the ICS Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy.

http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/italics/vol5-1/pdf/Whitworth_final.pdf