When I first began to think of Digital Literacy, some ideas that popped into my head were “literacy” means reading and “digital” means involving the use of technology. So if the two were together, it would be reading with technology. After research and time to think about it, I have come to understand that digital literacy involves so much more than what I previous thought.
What does digital literacy mean? One article that I found helpful was, What is Digital Literacy?, where it was stated “Digital literacy is when students are able to engage with multi-media to read and interpret text, sounds and images.” This article continued to state that students can take the information that they are learning and construct their own meaning of the content. In addition, students can also learn how to use it effectively and appropriately to communicate a message. This article helped me realize two important key elements that I did not consider before with digital literacy. The first was how necessary it is that students create their own meaning about the information that they are gathering or learning about. Secondly, how important it is that teachers and adults stress to our children to use information appropriately.
This article continued and gave examples of digital literacy and non-examples to help clarify the definition. Examples of digital literacy include: understanding how to use web browsers, search engines, emails, texts blogs, and PowerPoint to showcase learning, evaluating online resources for accuracy/trustworthiness of information, and encouraging students to use technology to showcase their learning. Non-examples of digital literacy include: learning just how to use multi-media to research and investigate a specific topic, having a computer lab in your school and technology as a specials class separate from the daily classroom. There are more listed on the article and I found these to be helpful in my learning and understanding of digital literacy. Check out the article here.
Another great article was titled, “Digital literacy in the Classroom. How important is it?” This article explained the essential elements of digital learning. These elements include: creativity, critical thinking and evaluation, cultural and social understanding, collaboration, the ability to find and select information, effective communication, E-safety and functional skills. The article then stated how the need for digital literacy in the classroom is necessary so our students become digital citizens and learn to become responsible for how they use technology to interact with the world.
Most importantly, I feel that it is important for future teachers to get out of our comfort zone, take risks, learn and create digital environments that will meet our learners. The digital literacy in the classroom article, went on the explain how as teachers we can address digital literacy into our lessons. One important idea was to teach students about online safety. It was stressed that teaching our students to make smart choices with using technology is just as necessary as teaching them reading and writing. Another ideas was to teach our students about “fake news.” I was sadden that the idea of fake news has now crept into the classroom as well. We as teachers need to remind our students that just because we see it on the internet, doesn’t mean that it is true and that we need to dig a little deeper and check out the sources. The third idea was to encourage students to think ethically. This involves teaching our students that once they hit send or publish, the information that they created is open to the world, and this includes their future employers, family members and friends. For more ideas for your classroom, check out the article.
In conclusion technology is here to stay. I feel that teachers need to teach digital literacy along with the basic reading, writing and mathematics in their classrooms.
JaimeBurkink 