The post for today will be talking about digital literacy. What is digital literacy? Why does it matter? Can it be useful in the classroom? These are all important questions to think about when becoming a future teacher in this time period. Some of you might not know what digital literacy is. Cornell University defined digital literacy as “the ability to find, evaluate, utilize, share, and create content using information technologies and the internet.” In this age, almost everything we do is digital literacy. Just reading this post is digital literacy. Another term to consider is digital fluency. This is being able to use digital resources fluently or easily in different situations. These could include writing, reading, or explanation.
There are a couple different elements of effective digital learning. The first is quality content. When a student is researching, they need to make sure the content is from a reliable source and not just an opinion but facts. This will make the students work reliable as well. A way to ensure this is teaching students how to tell if a source is credible or not. Usually, if a source is reliable, they will state their credibly as an author, as well as outside sources they may have used. If you are unable to find these things, youshould probably find a different source. Another important element is student access. There are a ton of useful journals online but there are also multiple useless website. A way to avoid this as a teacher is finding general websites that the students can find multiple subjects on.
Taking “Literacy in the Digital Age”, I am excited to learn the different elements of digital literacy. One thing I really want to take away from this class is learning how to incorporate digital literacy into my classroom as a future teacher. I think this is essentialbecause students are online more and more as the days go by. If you are able to teach them correct ways of digital literacy, they will be more successful as the technology advances. In the ISTE Standards for Teachers, the first standard is “facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity”. This standard is so important because any form of technology can be useful to student if used effectively. This all depends of the presentation of the subject and the students themselves. All students react differently and some will not like digital literacy but it is all trial and error.
Overall, digital literacy is almost a guaranty in the classroom. These are just different forms of lessons we will have to learn.
Until next time.
-Rachel
Rachel's Mind 