Digital literacy

Digital literacy _ definition

• Digital literacy nowadays mostly concerns with the skill to gain information.
• Digital literacy- digital literacy is also defined as the skill owned by a person
to grasp and use information in many types of formats from a number of
sources obtained through computers.
• Digital literacy – the ability to use digital technology to accomplish a daily
tasks and solve daily problems
• Technology- renewed interest in education & led to a significant paradigm
shift in education
• Teachers- rethink their teaching practices & curriculum in order to focus on
the students’ digital priorities
• digital natives
Why is digital literacy essential?
• Digital literacy – is part of everyday life.
• Digital literacy- enables people to be fully engaged in the learning process.
• Reading/writing/vocabulary/grammar teaching should go beyond printed
word.
• Building ideas outside the formal education matters

• Multiliteracies- recognising the knowledge people bring to learning

environment including linguistic diversity as a resource.
• Multiliteracies include multimodal forms of expression – involving image,
video, audio, gesture and touch along with traditional written text to
support learning.
Source: Kurek and Hauck (2014)
Affordances of&digital
Collaboration literacy
multimodality
• Collaboration Multimodality
• sharing and giving feedback  Various modes (e.g. word,
• Revising and editing (writing) sound, image) to produce a
• ownership & social skills written text (Jiang, 2017)
• Improves fluency and accuracy  Text is not viewed in isolation
• Sense of responsibility All elements combine to make
• Scaffolded performance text communicative
• Visible to the public – purposeful & efficient  Diverse communication
choices
a new way of thinking
• affordance
Students create
communicative genre
Participatory culture
• Allows interactivity
• Engages in a community and sharing of creations
• Supports language learning in a wider community
• Personalized tasks- people write about their preferences.
• People are no longer simple recipients of officially
sanctioned information, instead they have become
participants and collaborators.
Acquisition of digital literacy
acquisition

Provide social support

Learning should be It is important to that can consists of
carried out in the experiment the digital teachers, tutors,
digital world technology family members or
peers.
Digital andragogy

• Andragogy - the method and practice of teaching adult learners; adult

education.
• Digital andragogy- “the practice of educators to equip and encourage
adult learners to choose and use the affordances of acceptable
digital technologies to personalise their learning and facilitate their
interactions with peers and tutors” ( Sheffield, 2015, p. 408)
• Digital andragogy- learners should learn something rather than
learning to be prepared for something unknown in the future.
• Adults should have a reason to acquire before they invest their time
into doing it.
Willingness to experiment
• Experimentation is essential
• Experiments can be accompanied by repetition of new skills and the
integration of these skills into everyday life.
• Students (as well as lecturers) should get over the fear of technology
and be willing to experiment digital tools.
• However, the ability to try new things best occurs within a supportive
social environment.
 Disadvantages of using digital tools in the
classroom
• Distracting Students - Smartphones have a bad reputation in classrooms and
there have been strong cases for banning them in schools.
• Solution: create engaging, inspiring, and stimulating lesson plans that
incorporate technology. For example, smartphones can access educational apps
that promote learning as well as time management.

• Requires Management and Training- The rise of EdTech means that being
effective in the classroom requires that teachers are effective on the screen and
tech platform. New tech in the classroom also means needing IT professionals
to help set it up, maintain it, and support teachers and students in its use
• Solution: Clear and transparent communications among administration, faculty,
and tech vendors that clarify how adopting a particular device, platform, or
program will benefit students and teacher alike
 Disadvantages of using digital tools in the
classroom
• Leads to Tech Disparity-. Tech disparity refers to how much access students have to
the necessary devices. The differences in access can be seen between school
districts, with more affluent districts having greater resources
• Solution: Teachers and administrators can take practical steps toward bridging the
tech divide. Assuming unequal access to devices, schools can focus on technology
that can be shared among classes, for example, shared tablet computers and school
computer labs, not to mention school-based Wi-Fi..

• Cost Money- Nothing in this world is free, and buying cutting-edge electronics for a
classroom is downright expensive. Some applications are not free of charge either.
• Solution: Cloud-based computing also reduces the need to keep expensive
hardware on-site, which can save in administrative costs, reduce payroll costs
(fewer IT techs),
 Disadvantages of using digital tools in the
classroom
• Less Face Time. No amount of technology in the classroom can
replace talented, inspired teachers. As the adage goes, any teacher
that can be replaced with a tech device probably deserves to be
replaced. Face to face interactions between teacher and student can
help students not just acquire facts, but to understand, interpret, and
apply these facts into useful and interesting knowledge.
• Solution: There are lots of ways to synthesize tech into real-world
activities, but sometimes teachers just need to switch off the tech and
get down to personal interactions.