Digital Literacy- What Skills do Students Need?

I chose to listen to this webinar on digital literacy because to be honest, the internet scares me. The things that happen on the internet with kids is scary and I want to make it a point to really educate myself on this so that when I do use the internet in my classroom, it is beneficial to the students and that they are staying informed. It is important that they know the difference between real and fake news and this webinar helped me learn about this.

More than 60% of Americans now rely on social media for the information about political controversies. 

This is scary because social media is filled with fake news and people fighting over voicing their views on social media platforms. I would like to talk about a statement that the speaker made during the presentation. Kate Shuster states, “So, a lot of what we’re trying to teach our students to do is to switch domains and be able to transfer knowledge from one domain to another domain and to be able to make connections across what seem like unrelated fields” (Shuster). Since our brains are wired to look for connections, students will look for connections and in the classroom, that is great. We want them to bridge previous knowledge to new content but for internet purposes, this can hurt them. This is because they are reading conspiracy theories on the internet and trying to make connections in areas where there aren’t any. On top of this, they are reading the same false theory over and over again on the internet and therefore, our brains start to adapt to it and believe it and think we know it as the “correct” answer.

I want to focus now on how I can work in the classroom to combat these issues of perusing on the internet and believing everything we see to be true. So, how can we teach our students to think critically when they are using the media. They need to think about what they are reading and question whether it is true or not. So to do this, I can become familiar with the digital literacy framework that is presented in this webinar. This is a framework for the students to follow and so it is one I need to study before presenting to the class. There are seven layers to the framework and I will list them below.

Students…

1. Can locate and verify reliable sources of information.
2. Should understand how digital information comes to them.
3. Can constructively engage in digital communities. 
4. Understand how online communication affects privacy and security. 
5. Understand that they are producers of information. 
6. Understand their role as customers in an online marketplace. 
7. Can evaluate the value of the internet as a mechanism of civic action. 

These are skills that students need to be able to do. These skills are ones I want to take into my classroom and show my students how to do. Students should know how to locate sources that are reliable and not fake news. There are many sources and activities that can be found to do with students to teach this. They should understand how the digital information is presented and be able to engage civilly online. That is, to not say bashful comments over the internet. The online marketplace wants to draw people in and this can sometimes be scary because they will do anything to lure people in. How do we sort through the information and evaluate it? This is what students need to know and be able to do in order to use the internet successfully and safely.