Don’t Think Digital Media Literacy is Important? You May Want to Rethink That

Many teachers today worry that digital media may have a negative impact on students’ academic development as well as negate the importance of “traditional” literacy skills. However, digital media has not hurt the quality of "traditional" literacy skills for students today, rather it has built upon and expanded what it means to be literate in the 21st century. In reality, traditional literacy can be thought of as the building block upon which every other literacy is built, since many of the same skills that are necessary in order to make someone literate in the "traditional" sense are also needed to make someone literate in the "digital" sense.  Whether some individuals are willing to accept it or not, the new literacies of the 21st century are reflective of the times. Technology has changed the way that individuals locate, access, and send information, and as teachers we have a responsibility to prepare our students to be participants in this digital world.

   In order to empower students, teachers must recognize the digital media that students are already accessing and use those same tools in their classroom instruction. Teachers must accept the fact that students are going to access it and begin teaching them how to do so responsibly.

Students are choosing certain media formats for a reason, because they want to. Why not choose a platform that students are already interested in and use it for education? It seems like a win win situation to me.

Written by special guest blogger
Angela Wedel, High School English Teacher 

Email: angwedel33@gmail.com 

Twitter: @angela_wedel

What are the Five Digital Literacies?

Curious about the five digital literacies?  Here you go:

1. Locate and filter.  This means effectively sifting through all the massive amounts of information on (and off) the Internet to find reliable resources for accurate and relevant information.
2. Share and collaborate.  When we produce content on the Web, we contribute to the global knowledge base, which is expanding exponentially.  This can take the form of creating a web-based slideshow on Google Slides or maintaining a creative writing blog.  Students can feel greatly accomplished by being part of it!
3. Organize and curate.  Show kids kids how to add additional meaning to content that they've located and filtered using social bookmarking sites like Diigo or curation platforms like Scoop.it.  This helps them learn skills such as how to categorize, group, share, editorialize, review rehash, and archive.
4. Create and generate.  Students can create and generate content on blogs, wikis, or podcasts.  Examples might be a poetry blog, a podcast of rhymes, or digital flashcards to help people study bird species.
5. Reuse and repurpose.  Students take content that's already out there, then use it to serve a new, often unrelated, purpose.  Examples include creating a song mashup (blending two or more recordings to create a new song), creating a timeline of American presidents, or creating a video presentation using existing text, images, video, or other media elements.

If this is all new to you, why not take it in small steps and learn with your students together?  This can actually encourage your students to be more creative, take ownership of their learning, and be less likely to look to you for the "right answer."

Reference:

Sumney, D.  (2013).  New literacies in a digital world.  Developing Digital Literacies: A Framework for Professional Learning.  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Corwin.
 

Digital literacies actually utilize traditional literacies