Digital Citizenship - Element 4: Digital Literacy
Learning Objectives
By the end of this workshop, you should be able to:
Describe digital literacy.
Explain how the lack of digital literacy knowledge can negatively impact a student.
Determine examples of digital literacy in your personal or professional life.
Describe digital literacy.
Explain how the lack of digital literacy knowledge can negatively impact a student.
Determine examples of digital literacy in your personal or professional life.
Digital Literacy Overview
There are nine elements to digital citizenship. I will be discussing each element on its own page. The fourth element is digital literacy. It is important to not only know how technology works but also to know how to use it appropriately (Ribble, 2015). According to Ribble (2015), we use technology in education on a daily basis and it is as common as the dry erase board but teaching students how to use the technology has not kept up the same pace. Sometimes the teachers have not received the appropriate professional development. How are they expected to educate the students on the technology if they aren't even properly trained? Students want new ways to learn and teachers should find ways to use the new technology to engage the students, but it's important that everyone is also educated on how to appropriately use the technology. This is especially true as newer things are constantly being introduced.
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According to Ribble (2015), some examples of inappropriate digital literacy are: students choose other educational options because their school does not offer online classes or distance education and teachers do not provide online resources to their students (i.e. blogs, websites, podcasts). And examples of appropriate digital literacy are: students take online classes to stay interested in the material and teachers use technology in new and innovative ways to keep the students' interested (Ribble, 2015).
Connections to Personal Experiences
I'm not sure how much training or education I received on new technology. I think I'm personally able to figure these things out. I know not everyone has that skill. I have also grown up as these new technologies come to be more and more important in our daily life. I was in college when Facebook launched and I remember when it was just for college students. As Facebook has changed, I have adapted and learned along the way. It was a big deal when we could store photos on Facebook. But, I see people in my life, like my dad and grandma, and they have no idea how to navigate these things. My grandma had separate Facebook accounts on her cell phone and computer. I feel like I'm the person that teaches my family how to use these things.
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Connections to Field and/or Discipline
When our students arrive at medical school, we teach them how to find things on our learning management system. Every course in the first two years looks the same and can be easily navigated. So, we explain where things are located, how we have it organized and where they should look to find things. They also take a course in their second year on clinical decision making. A larger portion of this course requires the students to use the library resources and find appropriate sources. They spend time with our librarian to learn the different databases and systems available. They will be doing this for the rest of their lives, so they need to know how to find articles and use online resources like PubMed.
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NPR Radio Broadcasts
In this section you will find three NPR broadcasts related to digital literacy.
NPR Broadcast #1
Headline: From Silicon Valley, a new approach to education
Date: April 18, 2012
Length: 4:05
Summary: Two Stanford colleagues have created a program called Coursera. This program puts classes online and people around the world can take them for free. Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Michigan will be joining Stanford in the project. They are hoping to change lives around the world by giving thousands of people the opportunity to work together and learn from elite university curriculum. Below you will find a link to the article.
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2012/04/18/150846845/from-silicon-valley-a-new-approach-to-education
Date: April 18, 2012
Length: 4:05
Summary: Two Stanford colleagues have created a program called Coursera. This program puts classes online and people around the world can take them for free. Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Michigan will be joining Stanford in the project. They are hoping to change lives around the world by giving thousands of people the opportunity to work together and learn from elite university curriculum. Below you will find a link to the article.
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2012/04/18/150846845/from-silicon-valley-a-new-approach-to-education
NPR Broadcast #2
Headline: AltSchool promises to reimagine education for the 2030s
Date: May 7, 2015
Length: 3:44
Summary: AltSchool blends traditional Montessori school with high-tech tools. Each school has 20-25 students and two teachers and the class is composed of mixed ages. They currently have four schools and are planning to open four more. Each student has a laptop or tablet and they spend 30% of their day on it. The students are video and audio recorded and they are developing a tool to track their movements. The teachers say this is a great learning tool for them and the other teachers. The schools are a for profit, which does not have the best track record.
http://www.npr.org/2015/05/07/404859293/altschool-promises-to-reimagine-education-for-the-2030s
Date: May 7, 2015
Length: 3:44
Summary: AltSchool blends traditional Montessori school with high-tech tools. Each school has 20-25 students and two teachers and the class is composed of mixed ages. They currently have four schools and are planning to open four more. Each student has a laptop or tablet and they spend 30% of their day on it. The students are video and audio recorded and they are developing a tool to track their movements. The teachers say this is a great learning tool for them and the other teachers. The schools are a for profit, which does not have the best track record.
http://www.npr.org/2015/05/07/404859293/altschool-promises-to-reimagine-education-for-the-2030s
NPR Broadcast #3
Headline: Your kids' brains on touch-screens
Date: March 24, 2013
Length: 6:29
Summary: Parents are worried that all of the screen time is turning their child's brain to mush. Many children focused television shows have considered research when developing these shows. When you watch shows like "Dora the Explorer" or "Blues Clues", you will notice that they incorporate a pause to give the child time to respond. This is because you children have trouble trusting characters on television, they don't know the difference between real people and people on TV. Technology is a part of our lives, so we need to deal with it and figure out how to handle it with our children. The woman on the broadcast does an experiment with her own child. She just gave him the iPad to use whenever he wanted. At first, he was on it constantly but eventually it became a part of his regular toys and he plays with other things too.
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/24/175173111/your-kids-brains-on-touch-screens
Date: March 24, 2013
Length: 6:29
Summary: Parents are worried that all of the screen time is turning their child's brain to mush. Many children focused television shows have considered research when developing these shows. When you watch shows like "Dora the Explorer" or "Blues Clues", you will notice that they incorporate a pause to give the child time to respond. This is because you children have trouble trusting characters on television, they don't know the difference between real people and people on TV. Technology is a part of our lives, so we need to deal with it and figure out how to handle it with our children. The woman on the broadcast does an experiment with her own child. She just gave him the iPad to use whenever he wanted. At first, he was on it constantly but eventually it became a part of his regular toys and he plays with other things too.
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/24/175173111/your-kids-brains-on-touch-screens
Ribble, M. (2015). Digital citizenship in schools: Nine elements all students should know (3rd ed.). Eugene, OR: International Society of Technology in Education.