In our ever-expanding digital world, digital literacy serves as the basic knowledge that a person must have in order to use digital resources. If we break it down into simple words, Digital Literacy means how well a person can keep up with digital trends and new technology. The skill and expertise in using web browsers, creating blogs, managing social media pages, composing emails and messages, creating simple Presentation slides, and other activities are all part of digital literacy. With the world going digital, consumers must adapt to the changing times. Brands must understand digital media to be able to thrive on various marketing social media channels. Learning the fundamentals of computer operation, the world wide web, and various online platforms are required to become digitally literate. Let us see how to teach digital literacy.
How to teach digital literacy?
Your way to spread and teach digital literacy depends upon your primary audience. Suppose you’re teaching a bunch of teenage students. In that case, teaching them information literacy is essential since they rely on social media and the internet as their primary news source, which might not always be accurate. It’s also vital to teach them how to protect themselves in the online world. How to protect their privacy and surf safely. Students also become the target of cyberbullying, so teaching them how to tackle digital bullies and seek help is necessary. Meanwhile, for students in colleges and universities, teach them how to avoid plagiarism when using resources from the internet to do assignments and homework. How to manage their identity online and limit the use of social media since excessive use of it is unhealthy. As for adults, there are newer and newer technologies getting announced every day, and some people who are not tech-savvy usually need help.
What to teach in Digital Literacy?
Critical Thinking
The vast majority of the information we consume presently comes from digital sources, some more credible than others. The fact that so much information, data, and knowledge is readily available in this age to anyone with an internet connection is an advantage. However, it also means that today’s people are more susceptible to propaganda, misleading, and false information. With this in mind, a significant portion while you teach digital literacy assists students in becoming critical information consumers. Begin by inspiring people to examine every piece of information on the internet and then seek reliability by going directly to the source and ensuring objectivity. These abilities are also crucial because they enable us to sift through the constant flow of information. Machines suffocate us in knowledge, but our responsibility is to analyze, assess, and judge its relevance. As a result, critical thinking keeps us from being duped.
Managing Digital Distractions
This constant connection culture has a professional and personal cost. We waste too much time, attention, and effort on irrelevant data and interactions, keeping ourselves occupied but actually creating little of value. People who juggle multiple streams of content on a regular basis pay little memorization or attention or manage their responsibilities, as well as those who concentrate on a single thing at a time. As a result, productivity and attention span suffer at work and at home. While digital distractions are not uncommon, they can be detrimental to your study habits, disrupting mental focus and rendering your reading or studying practices inefficient. Another digital literacy skill that should be addressed is the ability to control distractions while using digital technology for learning and professional purposes.
Protecting your identity and reputation online
Safeguarding your reputation online allows you to maintain control over your search engine results. Not only is it critical to protect your personal information, but establishing a positive reputation online can be highly beneficial to both your private life and your career. When someone Googles your name, the first search results they see determine the degree to which people can rely on you as a trustworthy and reliable source. Over 90% of Search traffic stays within the initial page of results. People should be taught about protecting their identity and private information online to prevent identity theft and protect their financial information. Also, if someone has to defend themselves in a legal proceeding, anything they share digitally can be used against them.
Adaption to new technology
The ability to quickly adapt to the latest technology is one of the most essential ingredients of digital literacy. This is the most critical skill because it allows the workplace to remain flexible and current with the new advancements in each sector. While we are all enjoying a certain level of comfort with our day-to-day tasks and the processes that surround them, the world isn’t frozen in time. The latest digital tools, technologies, and software will be introduced, and you must be prepared to make adjustments as needed. Above all, the most critical area of development for our continued prospects is to grow our expertise and comprehension of technology for their industries and job roles.
Using digital resources ethically
Give a class on intellectual property, digital rights, and how to cite online information properly. It is critical that plagiarism is defined and that everyone must avoid it. To teach plagiarism, explain the risks that students face when looking for data for writings, research programs, theses, research papers, and other tasks. Make sure to demonstrate how to avoid plagiarism. To comply with copyright requirements, individuals must comprehend how to use various techniques such as citation. Plagiarism is a severe offense in academia. Depending on the circumstances, a student may fail an assignment or a course or be rejected for re-enrollment at the institution. Whenever you use a resource from the internet, make sure you cite it correctly according to the specified citation method. Citation is done so that readers can trace back to the original information to understand the context better and might also use the resources for their research.
Step out of your comfort zone
When we talk or discuss technology, we are all guilty of having a comfort zone, but if we desire people to become experienced and skilled technology users, we must mentor them out of their bubbles whenever possible. Of course, everyone will interpret this differently. Some people, for example, might already be proficient at conversing in short and distinguishable paragraphs and trending topics on Twitter or Instagram, so venturing outside their comfort zone may entail sharing their thoughts in a more in-depth blog post. In other cases, some people may already have blogging experience and would like to try something a little more unconventional, such as multimedia journals or podcasts. Giving learners more free choice and inspiring them to use new tech in innovative and exciting ways is among the effective methods to help them hit the ground running once they join the workplace.
Communication & Collaboration
In this internet age, when everything is done and performed digitally, it is also important that people understand how to communicate and collaborate with each other digitally from all over the world. It is the ability to communicate and interact effectively using various digital means, traversing personal and social and collaborative, private and public borders, and fitting the discourse to the character traits of the methods of communication. It also means using collaborative digital tools to share information and messages for private and professional-related tasks and to take part in communities and digital networks through awareness and citizenship.
Using Social Media as a learning tool
Students today are engaged on social media, and in many cases, they may be more proficient than their teachers. As a result, rather than introducing students to the ins and outs of social media, the emphasis should be on displaying how it can be used in the context of education. Pinterest boards, for example, can be used to provide and receive feedback during group projects, Twitter can be used to generate polls for research data or obtain expert sources, and Facebook or LinkedIn communities can interact and work collaboratively.
Staying organized using tech
Web-based learning platforms such as Blackboard can significantly improve communication among teachers, students, and parents. With the curriculum overview in an easy-to-use portal, it’s simple to see previous academic results, present tasks, and key upcoming dates. It also makes it easier to communicate with students about missed assignments or sick days and maintains an open line of contact with parents of pupils who may feel left out.
Conclusions
Digital Literacy means the abilities required to live, gain knowledge, and collaborate in a society where conversation and access to information are increasingly mediated by digital technologies such as online media, social media, and portable devices. While our online world has the potential to provide enormous value, it also carries inherent dangers, particularly for children. While younger generations are dubbed “digital natives” when it comes to safety, they are frequently no more literate than their parents. Children are more at risk to criminals and bullies on digital platforms, especially during times of quarantine and social isolation. They can lead to feelings of inferiority, disconnection, exclusion, and even the advancement of mental health issues when students compare their lives to the frequently constructed online lives of others. They may also expose students to misleading information, deception, and fake news. These are the reasons because of which it has become so important to be digitally literate in this virtual era.
