For much of time, literacy has been seen as the absolute most fundamental skill any person can have. With the emergence of the automated era and the now complete commonality of technology, the necessary skill has changed from literacy to digital literacy. People today need to know technology—how it works, what can be done with it, and how it can be used to maximize efficiency in the real world. And, now, this journey begins early on in a child’s life as digital literacy has essentially become a requirement in preparing children for the future.
How to Develop Student Digital Literacy
To know how to develop students who possess the necessary digital literacy skills, it’s important for educators to first understand just what exactly that means. You might think that, like literacy, digital literacy refers to a student’s ability to understand and utilize digital information for a number of different purposes. On the basic level, that is correct, but digital literacy is actually much more than just that. Students must learn at an early age how to use technology, like the Internet, effectively, safely, and responsibly. They must also know how to cite sources and avoid plagiarism, understand copyright laws, and recognize how those laws impact their work. And, then there’s the wealth of different open educational resources and other tools designed specifically for educational use, which can be very valuable if students know where to find them and how to use them.
Like the development of all 21st century skills, teachers who make the commitment to digital literacy need a clear plan in place. This oftentimes starts with assessing what students know and what they don’t already know. For example, they might not know what plagiarism is or why it’s wrong, what copyright means, how to properly cite sources, how to tell which websites are trustworthy, or how to even stay safe online in general when it comes to giving out their personal information or passwords. By building student research skills and channeling their natural inquiry in a useful way, they will build foundational skills that they can legitimately use for the rest of their lives. Checking for two online sources (especially if they link back to each other) and letting students try different digital libraries until they find one they’re comfortable with are a couple of basic things teachers can do at the start.
Aside from knowing how to avoid plagiarism, it’s equally important for students to know how to use the wealth of online resources available to them effectively. One of those major resources, of course, is social media. Beyond its ability to connect friends, social media has an extremely powerful role to play in the development of students’ research, global, and collaboration skills. In the age of constant sharing, social media is ideal for empowering kids to share their ideas with classmates and their finished projects with other students around the world. This too may lead to some safety concerns, but as long as teachers discuss the do’s and don’t’s of social media with students beforehand, they should be good to go. Some things to focus on include much of the same, like identifying credible links, recognizing suspicious websites, regularly changing personal passwords, and never giving strangers access to their computer or phone. It’s hard to believe, but these are now necessary skills today’s students must have in order to grow into complete 21st century students.
Guiding Questions for Developing a Digital Literacy Plan
So, you realized that digital literacy is extremely important in the 21st century? It sure is and we’re glad you’ve realized it, too. Teaching digital literacy to students is just like teaching any other subject—it needs to be incorporated into the school day, feature lessons that engage them, and include periodic assessments so teachers can be sure their students are gaining the necessary insights. The more you read about digital literacy integration into everyday curricula, the more you realize it’s completely possible. There are even some specific focus areas that will make it easier for teachers to impart digital citizenship and digital literacy wisdom on their students and we’re happy to provide a good deal of that list for you right now.
Teaching students digital literacy starts with developing a clear-cut plan with specific goals for measuring progress. If you don’t have these, there is no way to know if the education these students are getting is sufficiently preparing them for the real world. Assessments, as we touched on earlier, are also important and teachers can devise a number of different methods for ensuring their students have mastered a number of different skills that lead to them becoming digital citizens. In most school districts, there will be student data available to help teachers better understand where their students are in terms of digital literacy and what they can do to improve. It is important not to ignore this data and use it to create lessons and units that recognize students’ strengths and weaknesses and work to improve their digital literacy.
To build an optimal digital literacy plan, it’s even important for educators to consider the tone of the messages they are giving to their students and how much they should directly incorporate technology into their teaching. Then, there’s the assessments, which aren’t done just for the sake of providing students with grades. Teachers should use the data they find through their assessments to alter their instruction (if necessary) or try to find one thing to key in on that could improve the way that their students absorb content. With more than a few particular focus points in place, it would then be up to individual classroom teachers to make sure that their digital literacy plans succeed. Since they are probably the ones who would have been designing the plan, it’s important that they see student progress in the particular areas they have focus on and, if not, tweak it as fast as possible based on the data-driven results and their firsthand insights.
Easy Ways to Boost Tech Literacy in the Classroom
When we think of digital literacy in 21st century education, most people (us included) tend to focus on student digital skills and readiness. The fact is, however, that teachers have the same responsibility and need to be digital citizens as well. This is true for a number of reasons, but the most important of those is the fact that teachers possessing a variety of digital skills goes a long way in helping them teach their students more effectively. Boosting their technological competence in order to offer better classroom instruction is often a priority for teachers at the beginning of the school year or during the summer months. That’s definitely a good place to start for teachers looking to ensure they have what it takes to mold students who know all the necessary nuances of surviving in our tech-fueled world.
One way for teachers to improve their own digital skills, develop their students’, and make their day-to-day lives easier is to take advantage of the technology they already have. One of the (nowadays) most basic forms of technology is email. You’re probably thinking ‘who isn’t using email?,’ but the truth is that many teachers could use it more often and use it more effectively. Allowing students to submit assignments via email helps them learn how to send a proper email and helps teachers practice responding quickly while, if they choose, grading remotely. When using computers in the classroom, on the other hand, it’s the teacher’s job to maintain an organized learning environment and clarify to children that computers aren’t machines only used for games. There are high-quality apps available to be used in almost any subject and at almost any age level, which reinforce the most important concepts for kids and also help them develop more tech skills. Essentially, it’s using the tech in a new and specialized way to further learning.
To really build up student digital literacy skills, teachers can take the learning in a new direction—one in which they will undoubtedly be using to communicate in the future. We’re talking about social media. Sites like Twitter and Facebook are filled with surprisingly relevant information from experts in just about every field and teaching kids how to leverage these tools for optimal use is very valuable. Giving students the chance to create, manage, and maintain a classroom blog is another way to build tech literacy. Chances are they will have to write a blog at one point or another and knowing how use a content management system and do things like insert links or videos into text is something everybody these days should know how to do. It is becoming the responsibility of teachers to encourage children to use digital tools whenever possible. This will allow them to hit the ground running when it comes time to use them in the real world (though they do have plenty of time to develop these skills) and, honestly, it will make things a whole lot easier when it comes to grading and organizing in particular.
Why Everyone Needs Digital Literacy
Both standardized test results and the state of technology in our world point to the increasing need for students to have legitimate digital literacy skills. Regular digital learning starting at an early age can pay huge dividends in ensuring student success later on in life. Especially since so much of student assessment as well as their graded assignments are expected to be completed online, students need to start becoming digitally literate early—like first-grade early. Luckily, it’s easier than ever for kids to start building their digital literacy skills since there are so many age-appropriate tools, like Chromebooks, available to them and for their schools to purchase. There are more than enough ways to use technology to start shaping student digital skills and the tools they can use are both fun and offer long-lasting benefits.
Building digital literacy skills starts with daily exposure to digital technologies and creating a comfortable environment for students to learn. Because of the importance of technology in the modern world, experts are now saying that students should be given the opportunity to learn with digital devices every day they’re in the classroom. In fact, the schools with the highest rates of digital literacy have gotten there with a lot of help from routine technology use in the classroom whether it’s computing tools or STEM tech. This helps children build digital skills and, believe it or not, helps them become more prepared for when the time comes for when they have to navigate through the various functions of a computer in order to complete an assignment. Any tech tool has the potential to reinforce key digital skills through repetition.
There’s also the “technology natives” factor to consider when introducing students to digital literacy. Children in elementary school today have grown up with technology always within an arm’s reach and, because of that, are “native” to it. This results in them being better able to quickly adapt to using technology in learning—so long as they have the proper instruction to supplement their experience. With online testing in particular, kids who have more exposure to technology throughout the school year tend to score higher. So, why don’t school districts build off of this and make an honest effort to teach students in the way that best helps them learn? Digital literacy is not only something teachers should teach their students and leave at that. It has become a vehicle for enabling deeper learning once students have the basic skills they can then build on.
Elements for Developing Digital Literacy Skills in Students
The current and future needs of developing student digital literacy skills—like all needs in the education world—have arisen due to a particular issue. Today’s students are not as well-versed as they could (and should) be when it comes to digital citizenship—something they desperately need to be in control of when they enter the real world. We’re not trying to be too cute here with our insistence that digital literacy is only important in a select few niche careers. The fact is that a student’s future employability is now more than likely going to hinge on their digital skills as well as things like creativity and collaboration. In order to thrive in a digital-first society, today’s students need to develop their digital literacy prowess early.
Since today’s students will grow up to live, learn, and work in a digital society, there are a few crucial digital literacies they need to possess. These encompass a few different areas with some being more important than others or some being more relevant to some students than to other classmates. Digital literacies can refer to proficiencies in a number of different 21st century areas. They include but are certainly not limited to digital creation, digital identity, digital learning and development, and information, data, and media literacies. Of course, nowadays there are more types of media than ever before, so molding students to be proficient in all of them is not something that’s easily accomplished overnight. But, believe it or not, there are a lot of super simple things teachers can do to start laying the groundwork for bolstering their students’ digital and 21st century literacies.
To create digitally savvy students, it’s important to start by reviewing your own support for digital proficiency to remember why you’re doing this and to establish some priorities that might be a bit more specific. Next, it certainly won’t hurt to create a buzz around the school. You’ll be surprised how much you might want to try things other teachers have done and how interested they might even be in trying your ideas! Hopefully, this leads to a renewed commitment among the entire school staff as they try making a larger impact on student digital literacy. Besides that, working digital literacy activities into the curriculum so nothing has to be eliminated at its expense is another step in the right direction. Finally, teachers should listen to student feedback for how they’re liking an approach and always keep mental notes for how to better attack the important task of teaching digital literacy for many years to come.
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