Week 5 - Why should teachers care about digital literacy?

The use of digital literacy within the classroom underlines many positive and negative aspects, which can facilitate learning when used appropriately. Digital Literacy is defined by Futurelab (2010) as critically engaging with technology and understanding how certain factors can be manipulated to outline when technology is used for different purposes. Thus, it is important that teachers care about digital literacy, to ensure that the materials used within the classroom and at home are suitable and beneficial for the children to learn.

Within this expanding digital society, children now have access to material that may not be suitable for their age group (Papadopoulos, 2010). Therefore, it is evident that the teacher’s role is to monitor what the content of the materials are, before using them within the classroom, to ensure they are appropriate (Stafford, 2009). Halsey (2007) believes that parents should be involved as partners in their children’s learning, and so parents also need to be restricting the use of inappropriate material at home, such as video games. According to Papadopoulos (2010) and Byron (2008), parents are more lenient to permitting their children to play age-inappropriate games which frequently contain violence, strong language and sexualised elements. These games can then lead towards negative behaviour and actions from children who are using them regularly.

The negative sexualisation of men and woman within the media can cause young children to develop body dissatisfaction, if they are exposed to it on a regular basis (Papadopoulos, 2010). This sexualisation can occur on a range of digital and print devices, making it almost impossible for children to disregard, especially due to the fact that most children are now ‘digital natives’ (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008). Hence, teacher’s need to provide a protective and welcoming environment in which children are admired for their capabilities and qualities (Papadopoulos, 2010). In order for children to feel valued for the way they are, teacher’s need to ensure that they use texts within their teaching that do not encourage the sexualisation of men and woman.

As the internet is a growing aspect of many children’s lives (Marsh et al, 2005), it is important that the websites visited and use of the internet is monitored either by teachers or parents. Halsey (2007) argues that internet technologies are capable of providing new literacies in the classroom. However Papadopoulos (2010) disagrees with this idea, as she claims sexual or even pornographic images and adverts can appear quite frequently without consent, suggesting the use of the internet to aid teaching should be restricted. Therefore, it is necessary to check the content of websites before letting children use them within the classroom and ensure that a filter is installed to remove inappropriate material. Teachers can also encourage and teach older children to be able to filter and decipher varying materials themselves, to be able to recognise when information is inappropriate (Papadopoulos, 2010).

Mobile phones are a further digital platform in which children have access to a vast amount of online material that can be occasionally unsuitable (Papadopoulos, 2010). Consequently, Papadopoulos (2010) believes that exposing children to images and messages that they do not have the ability to cope with, can have a negative impact on aspects such as behaviour and attitudes. These negative behaviours and attitudes can lead to cyber-bullying, where victims are harassed and intimidated (Papadopoulos, 2010), thus teachers need to be aware of when this could occur to prevent it. Cyber-bullying is addressed within the computing curriculum through the teaching of e-safety, as it states “children should be taught to use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly and recognise acceptable/unacceptable behaviour” (DfE, 2013), highlighting how teachers need to be aware of the problems technology can cause in order to emphasise these within the classroom.  

Bibliography:

Byron, T. (2008) Safer Children in a Digital World: The Report of the Byron Review. London: DCSF Publications. P.2

DfE. (2013) The National Curriculum – Computing Programmes of Study: Key Stages 1 and 2. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/239033/PRIMARY_national_curriculum_-_Computing.pdf (Accessed: 29.10.14)

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: 29.10.14)

Halsey, S. (2007) ‘Embracing emergent technologies and envisioning new ways of using them for literacy learning in the primary classroom’ English Teaching; Practice and Critique 6 (2) pp.99-107

Marsh, J. Brooks, G. Hughes, J. Ritchie, L. Roberts, S. Wright, K. (2005) Digital Beginnings: Young Children’s Use of Popular Culture, Media and New technologies. University of Sheffield. P.21-37

Palfrey, J. and Gasser, U. (2008) Born Digital: understanding the first generation of digital natives. New York: Basic Books.

Papadopoulos, L. (2010) Sexualisation of Young People Review. Home Office.

Stafford, T. (2009) ‘Teaching Comics’ in Duncan, D. (2009) Teaching Children’s Literature: Making stories work in the classroom. Abingdon: Routledge. P.117