What is digital literacy?

[Terry Freedman]

Here are my views about digital literacy. Challenge me.

Digital literacy should be one of the key parts of any curriculum.

What is digital literacy? Let's express this in behavioural terms.

I believe that it should not be possible for young people to leave school without being knowledgeable enough to be safe online (not just from sexual predators but from financial, racist, and other types of predator too).

It should not be possible for anyone to leave school and then leave laptops in the back of cars, usb sticks containing sensitive data in pub car parks, or sell hard disks containing data on eBay. All of these kinds of actions are undertaken by digitally illiterate people in my opinion.

Digital literacy should not be seen only in defensive terms:

A digitally-literate person will be able to express herself by creating a presentation, a podcast or a video. She will be able to validate data before putting it into a model, and then verify the results of the modelling process in terms of the accuracy and plausibility of the data.

A digitally-literate person will be able to use software applications in elegant and efficient ways, and even perhaps in ways that could not have been foreseen by the program's creators.

There are, or should be, lots of opportunities for pupils to apply and practise their digital literacy skills, right across the curriculum. However, in order to do so, they need a deep, not a superficial, understanding of the processes involved. These are not trivial. Take, for example, the concept of data validation. It's quite sophisticated, and quite necessary. It's summed up in the adage, "garbage in, garbage out", meaning that if you put rotten data into a computer you'll get rotten results. Someone has to be able to ensure that the data going into the computer is not full of errors, or of the wrong type.

It's been found recently , by the government inspection body in England, that teachers tend to teach technology up to the limit of their own knowledge, and that this effectively holds children back. In my experience, where technology is taught by non-specialists, this kind of "dumbing down" goes on as a matter of course. It's not deliberate: teachers don't know what they don't know. It's therefore not a criticism as such. If I taught English, it would almost certainly be superficial, because I'm not an English specialist, even though I've been speaking the language for over half a century. Why should we assume that if we send someone on an interactive whiteboard training course and give them a laptop for producing their worksheets, and they book their vacations online, that they're qualified to teach technology?

In fact, if we are really serious about embedding technology in the curriculum, the answer is not to get rid of it as a subject and farm it out across the curriculum, but to do the precise opposite and increase the amount of time spent teaching it. That would give pupils a much firmer skills base to employ in other subjects. It would also give non-tech teachers more confidence in using technology in their classrooms because of the knowledge that the youngsters pretty much know what they are doing.

Thoughts? Comments? Let me know!

[Mitch S]

Digital literacy is the idea being smart with computer technology. The word digitally literate means that you could be safe on the internet.it also could be that your good with technology.

[Terry Freedman]

I agree, Mitch. Maybe it also means being comfortable with technology?

[AlexanderM_TIGS]

I agree with what you are saying. Here are my thoughts on digital literacy.
Digital literacy is to have the ability to be able to communicate and work with other people through the use of technology. Digital literacy can come in many different ways. It could be the ability to: locate, organize, understand, evaluate or create

All these things can be achieved by using the digital technology of today. People who are digitally literate are more likely to work co-operatively with each as opposed to those who aren’t. Many career paths require some form of skill in relation to technology.
During a student’s time at school, they should be learning the basic fundamentals of operating a work station and how to use the technology appropriately. Because of the rapid improvements in technology, schools are forced to update and upgrade to keep up with the fast-moving technology. But this rapid improvement can be beneficial if teachers understand what they’re teaching and the students can follow they can grasp an understanding of a computer easily.
Having understood digital literacy at school in relation to society may help when working in social networks such as MySpace or Facebook or maybe when working co-operatively with another student over the internet.
Another benefit of learning digital literacy is that because of the knowledge you have, the likely-hood of you obtaining a job higher. Many jobs involve the correct handling of technology and computers.
Therefore, it is very important to get a grasp on today’s technology while you can before it just takes off and becomes too much to learn. If you do so, the chances of leaving school and obtaining a steady job and income are very high and it’s all thanks to your understanding of digital literacy.

[Terry Freedman]

I agree, Alexander. Thanks for putting it so clearly.

[RahilV_TIGS]

What is digital literacy? According to Wikipedia “Digital literacy is the ability to locate, organize, understand, evaluate, and create information using digital technology. It involves a working knowledge of current high-technology, and an understanding of how it can be used.” Digital literacy is the future of the world and these days more and more people understand the concept of digital literacy. However, I believe everyone should know about digital literacy as there is so much to learn and in the current time of globalization, many will benefit. To me digital literacy means using digital information and digital technology in a correct manner. A common and obvious example is a computer, which is widely used now.
These days’ schools are trying their level best to teach students on how to become digitally literate. In order to do this, teachers regularly use computers in classrooms as well as set assignments that are to be completed using computers. I believe that digital literacy should be taught to all students in schools so they are able to understand about the sexual, racist and financial predators. Also, most schools have blocked inappropriate sites on their computers as to make sure no harm is done to the students along with teaching us children that there is a negative side to this, again resulting in making us digitally literate. Teachers still like to get their students to research most of their information from books but we students do not always follow these instructions as we have become more reliant on the internet to get our information. Another way in which schools are increasing technology to enable students to be digitally literate is by replacing whiteboards with the new smart boards. The smart board is a large touch-sensitive whiteboard which allows the teacher to be interactive in the classroom environment. A projector is used to display a computer's video output onto the whiteboard, which then acts as a huge touch screen. Another key change highlighting the digital era is that text books have also included an interactive disc which has the whole text book data in it.
Most teachers help us with the understanding of digital literacy; however there are a few teachers who do not like the digital technology. These are generally the older teachers who did not experience technology at a young age and they generally find that the current technology is moving to fast a head for them to keep up. Sometimes even the digitally literate teachers do not want the students to use computers as students can get easily distracted thus resulting in no work being done at all.
Personally I enjoy computers in the classrooms to do work as it makes us more interactive and it’s a new fun way to learn. But sadly the school population to computers ratio is dropping and the computers are being booked out quickly so most classes cannot access the computers.

[Terry Freedman]

Thx Rahilv. I agree with most of what you say, but am not quite sure how a smart board has anything to do with digital literacy...?

[Matt Schoonover]

Thanks, I think I finally get digital literacy. But can somebody tell me what it has to do with entertainment? That is my topic for digiteen.

[Vicki Davis]

Well, your generation likes to be "entertained" - that is the item that you are talking about - there is a reading assignment from Don Tapscott that your teacher has in his/her email that can also help clarify what is meant by entertainment. But basically, no matter what you do you like to be entertained. It could perhaps mean that digital literacy is best taught when you ARE entertained - in the form of a movie, etc. rather than dry, dull lecture about digital literacy. You like to experience it - you like to do it. You like to laugh as you work and also to be involved an interested in what you're doing - these are the trends of your generation and this particular trend "entertainment" as it relates to digital literacy is important. Also, do you know how to download video? Audiobooks? Are you literate in these things as well as even watching things online like hulu.com -- just some thoughts for you.

[Terry Freedman]

Matt, let me ask you a provocative question: if you finally get digital literacy, how come you can't say what it has to do with entertainment?
How about this, in addition to what Miss Vicki has said, which I agree with:

People who are digitally literate will have expectations about the form they want their entertainment to be in. For example, I might read a book (I love reading), but I expect to be able to read it online, comment about it online, discuss it in a live chat room, and video myself talking about it and uploading it to Youtube.

If I am interested in the latest Star Trek movie, I want to be able to go to a website, discuss the film with other fans using my cell phone, etc.

I hope that gives you some ideas to start with and play around with.

[Vicki Davis]

I think getting rid of technology and expecting it to be across the curriculum means that it is not going to be taught. Teachers have their speciality and that is what we do whether we wish it or not - it is the reality. And although some of our classes here have teachers who actually teach other courses, the largest part of our classes are teachers who have a MISSION to make sure that students understand digital literacy AND who believe it happens when students are involved in their own research and coming up with guidelines after education and discussion with others.

[Terry Freedman]

Dear all, I just wanted to say thank you for responding, and I am really sorry about not having replied to anything yet. I'd meant to, then I forgot, and then it was only recently that I started receiving email notifications for some reason. I will start responding now, so I hope that it will be a case of better late than never.

[Julie Lindsay]

Thanks Terry, we are half way through Digiteen 09-3 and students are responding once again to your question. Thanks for coming in to interact.
Julie