After reading through multiple articles on digital literacy I have chalked digital literacy up to be reading and writing skills with the use of technology. Of course, reading words on real paper and writing words with real tools will always be the start of literacy but with change in time, literacy can be virtual by reading on screens and writing with touch screens or keyboards. Reading a book with paper pages versus reading a en ebook or pdf shows the differences in time and evolution of technology and how it has been incorporated into our everyday lives. 30 years ago you couldn’t pull up the newspaper online, in fact it was hand delivered to your house, not with the click of a button. Technology improves literacy skills in our everyday learning, this is why digital literacy is such a major topic right now.
Digital literacy allows students to communicate, evaluate, discover and create. Digital literacy has brought a whole new curve on learning and it can be convenient to both educators and students. Students can be creative and publish their own videos, blogs, emails, discussion posts, and classroom assignments. This allows students to communicate amongst each other all at the tip of their fingers.
I took a college course on technology and actually learned quite a bit about digital literacy and digital citizenship and how to incorporate it into the everyday classroom but I am eager to learn more about the fundamentals and the actual break down of digital literacy. I learned how to use a few different tools such as Google Docs which I think is a great way for both teachers and students to communicate. I have seen many apps that are great assets to our everyday learning of reading and writing in classrooms. I think it is actually the most organized way to keep students writings and documents because they can keep all of their items in virtual folders and it takes away the hassle of losing papers and keeps the paper load down from the teachers desk which is more than likely already messy.
In order to become effective digital learners and leaders we need to be safe with the use of technology above all other things. With the use of the internet it is important that things are private and only shared with selected people. We as educators also must be proactive in making sure that our students are using their time on the internet appropriately. Kids can easily be distracted when comes to using technology.
Below is a link where I found some great information.
Education Week Link
Chrystal Cooper 