Week 5 (Part 1) – Why should teachers care about digital literacy?

According to Futurelab (2010), digital literacy involves actively engaging and applying knowledge of technologies in ways that express social awareness, cultural understanding and a familiarity with the ways in which technology can express meaning and convey information.

The main aim of this text is to provide educators with suitable information as to the importance of digital literacy for young learners growing up in the 21^st century as well as implications for practice. It provides the opinion that digital technologies have become integral to most people’s lives, regardless of age along with the view that the world that children are growing up in is becoming increasingly dependent on technologies. This is supported by Turvey et al (2014) who suggest that digital literacy has the capability to be a critical factor in aiding both practitioners and pupils to utilize technologies to develop their learning. As a result, it is believed that encouraging children to be digitally literate may place them at an advantage in later life as they are more likely to adapt to the developing technologies in the wider world.

‘Digital literacy can be said to support children in becoming active meaning-makers’ (Futurelab, 2010).  This could be widely seen as a useful assumption as children tend to arrive at school with some existing understanding of the technologies around them. In my own view, after reading the Futurelab text, it is the teachers’ role within computing lessons to facilitate the children’s learning and guide them to develop their knowledge to that of a more sophisticated user. We as practitioners should give children every opportunity to creatively use technology to express their own ideas across the curriculum, but it should be considered that ‘creativity is about more than just artistic ability, it is also about how we think and how we construct and share knowledge.’ (Futurelab, 2010)

Helping our learners develop their creativity for example through exploring the needs of particular audiences and altering what they produce to suit, could be seen as having potential links to Literacy as it provides the opportunity to look at not only texts but from a more digital point of view, adverts and study the way that they are tailored to a particular audience. Furthermore, giving children time to reflect on the meaning of texts or adverts etc. may lead to more culturally and socially understanding learners. (Futurelab,2010)

In conclusion, it seems from this reading that digital literacy is an integral element to preparing children for the world in which they live and possibly ensuring that they become more socially aware.

FutureLab. (2010) Digital Literacy Across the Curriculum: (Sections 3.1 – 3.4 Digital Literacy in Practice) [online] Available at:http://www2.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/handbooks/digital_literacy.pdf (Accessed: 30/10/14)

Turvey, K., Potter, J., Allen, J. and Sharp, J. (2014) Primary Computing and ICT: Knowledge, Understanding and Practice (6^th Edition) London: Sage