Are you capable of finding useful information online? Can you use social media to communicate effectively with the rest of the world? Are you able to use your smartphones smartly?
These are the questions we, as educators, need to address in order to comply with the requirements of the digital world we are preparing our students for.
According to Wikipedia, Digital literacy is an individual’s ability to access both information and methods of communication through a technologic tools including, but not limited to, smartphones, tablets, laptops, and traditional desktop PCs. A digitally literate person should also be able to successfully analyse, search for, and critically evaluate information presented on the web. While digital literacy initially focused on digital skills and stand-alone computers, its focus has shifted to network devices including the Internet and use of social media.
The Evolution of Literacy
As parents and educators, have you ever asked yourself why the traditional schooling, which still dominates the educational systems of many countries, fails to meet the requirements of the modern age? It’s simply because the Three R’s (Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetics) are still used as the foundations of a basic skills-oriented education program in schools, although they were first introduced in about 1795, some two centuries ago, as a direct result of the Industrial Revolution, intended to create the necessary workforce that would be able to manage the new emerging technologies of the post-industrial era.
Many of us still tend to think that literacy means to read, write, and do mathematics, and we forcibly impose these skills on the new generation of digital natives, born in the age of digital technology, thus confining their true potentials within an educational setting deprived of creativity and incentive to move away from the rigid structure defined by the requirements of an era long gone. But if we really do the maths, by remaining on the pedestal of its past academic attainments, traditional education simply condemns itself to a sterile authoritarian process, incapable of transforming its legacy into a paradigm that would deliver the necessary set of skills to shape the future minds in alignment with the new emerging technologies of the digital era we live in.
“Teacher, Leave Those Kids Alone!” – Pink Floyd
But, should we?! Should we allow our students to go through the digital jungle on their own, without showing them the safe way through it?! If we stay confined within the safe zone of traditional education, we risk losing our students’ faith in education, which could have serious consequences on their future academic and professional development.
Ever since Pink Floyd warned us teachers to leave those kids alone, we should have abandoned the professional titles that turned us into dogmatic patronisers, and become brave explorers of new approaches in making teaching a process of continuous enlightenment. It is not the kids to blame, nor the system for not providing the necessary equipment and training to enable teachers to deliver the necessary educational outcome. It is up to all of us, as educators, to take this opportunity and indulge into a new age of enlightenment that emerges as a dire result of the Digital Revolution we are all part of. That is why the Three R’s no longer capture the imagination of the young minds we need to shape. We all need to move away from our comfort zones and develop new approaches to define the areas that would enable our students to acquire digital literacy skills, regardless of the contents or the subjects we teach, in order to help them meet the demands of the digital reality they live in.
So, what are the digital literacy skills we need to develop with our students? Take a look at the following video explaining what digital literacy implies.
BBC Learning English provides a comprehensive overview of the digital literacy skills required for students to maximise the chances of their academic success. Some of the skills are: searching for information on the Internet, staying safe online, using a virtual classroom, developing English language skills, using social media effectively, creating digital content, developing presentation skills, building an online community of learners, as well as dealing with technology problems and troubleshooting.
Digital Literacy for EFL Students
Pegasus ELS is a pioneer in promoting a new and adventurous approach in teaching digital literacy skills to students of EFL. The Digital Literacy for EFL Students program offers a step-by-step process that enables EFL students to develop quality contents for their blogs, websites, videos, and acquire proper presentation skills for social media promotion of their digital outputs. Our program was a finalist at the ELTons 2017 Innovation Awards, organised by the British Council, and was evaluated by an expert panel of judges as a new and adventurous way of teaching digital skills to students of EFL, which makes use of important workplace skills to motivate learning in a creative and comprehensive package.
By using a set of digital tools, we help our students search for useful information online and create quality contents in English for their blogs, build a blogging community, use a virtual classroom (Edmodo), design a website, produce videos, promote their digital outputs on social media, as well as deal with troubleshooting effectively.
In this way we help our students develop both their linguistic competences through the use of digital technology, introducing them with the essential digital literacy skills to maximise their success in the learning process.
In the next series of blog posts I will explain the step-by-step process of developing students’ digital literacy skills in relation to Cultural Heritage as the foundation for content production for their digital outputs.
I would encourage both educators and students to indulge into this adventurous exploration of the world’s Cultural Heritage through the use of digital tools in their educational settings, and make a significant impact into the development of students’ digital literacy skills, thus enhancing their academic and professional success in the future.
You will never know until you try it! So, go for it! Be the change you want to see!
