Network Literacy: It’s not just about reading anymore.

When you hear the word ‘literacy’ the first thing that springs to mind (for me, anyway) is books! I have loved reading since I was a child (I am currently reading “five people you meet in heaven”) – however, I have tried to code and that was a bit of a disaster (I want to try again!). Network Literacy is the system to make everything on the internet connect – so for me to add blog posts, images, videos, embed links, it’s all down to the works of network literacy. The two keywords that make this happen are XML and RSS: XML is the meta language that allows users to code and create their own documents on the internet and RSS is the distribution method to disperse this XML – think of it like a lock and key. Individuals can use things such as formats, tags and categories to make this easier for users to find their works online, such as an individual would search up the code of a book to find it in a library. Jill Walker described Network Literacy as “linking to what other people have written and inviting comments from others, understanding a social and collaborative process rather than a solitary process”. Network Literacy is understanding, using and creating with these codes in a web-blog, website or the like – similar to being literate.

I have already been quite fluent in WordPress for some time as I have run my own blog for two years – but I still found the tutorial videos helpful for setting up my MediaFactory website.