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5 Ways To Help Students Develop Digital Literacy

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32 views2 pages

5 Ways To Help Students Develop Digital Literacy

Uploaded by

Maybelle
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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5 ways to help students develop digital

literacy
BY STEPHAN TURNIPSEED
June 25th, 2020

Student engagement and critical thinking will be key in developing digital


literacy skills to take students from school to the workforce’s commonplace to be
impressed when we hear of excellent test scores and educational backgrounds from top
institutes, no matter the type of degree or accolades. However, preparing our kids with
test-taking strategies and admission into the best universities is not enough–and will be
an extinct ideology with the changing demands of society and global economy.

We need to begin preparing the next generation of learners with appropriate tools and
digital literacy to thrive in the Digital Age–and this can be done even if schools are
physically closed during a pandemic. So, what should we do to ensure our kids are not
operating at a disadvantage?

Related content: 8 qualities of a digital literacy curriculum

1. Stress the importance of coding and basic technology application skills. In


today’s world, the “mother tongue”—or, better said, the “lingua franca”–is found in
coding and basic tech skills needed to communicate with the devices in the Internet of
Things. Any child not equipped to speak this new language of coding will be lost, as if
they were in a foreign culture with no cultural language skills.

5 WAYS TO HELP STUDENTS DEVELOP DIGITAL LITERACY

As soon as 2030 – a workforce currently in the first grade – there could be over 500 billion
connected devices in the world, and coding will be the basic literacy. Through coding
experiences, students build digital literacy and are able to develop abstract concepts like pattern-
recognition, while other education tech solutions, like robotics, give students an opportunity to
apply physical interpretations in a real way.

Students must begin using coding and robotics to learn to speak this new language and, as an
essential tool creating brain pathways essential for developing abstraction skills, so that they can
know how to take on simple and complicated problems.

2. Encourage innovation by revising vs. reinventing the wheel. We must push students
towards innovation and understanding the operation and design of how devices work. Innovation
does not occur serendipitously, but rather through the application of existing knowledge to new
circumstances or needs.
For example, one of the patents I co-created with my colleague Paul Uttley is based on a collet
and pin idea that I used when I worked in the oil industry. The TETRIX® Quick Rivet
Connector and Peg system allows for robots to be rapidly assembled, with a simple insert-and-
click, and disassembled, with a click-and-pull to release action. Instead of reinventing the wheel,
we modified this application to work as a quick connector for Pitsco Education’s TETRIX
PRIME building. This was not a novel idea that came about through happy coincidence; it was a
reapplication of pre-existing knowledge on how that collet and pin worked.

In order for the majority of innovations to occur, children need to know how things work and
how to work the thing.

3. Teach students how to determine the reasonability of an answer. Nowadays, it’s less
important to own content knowledge; a greater emphasis is on asking the right question to get
useful information from search engines and knowing how to acquire knowledge. There are many
correct answers out there. However, there are fewer effective or reasonable correct answers.

A new digital literacy skill we have to prepare young minds for is how to sift and sort through
data to determine the reasonability of an answer.

This is best understood in the effective use of Wikipedia, as stated by David Barnett in a recent
article, Can we trust Wikipedia? 1.4 billion people can’t be wrong: “The general message with
Wikipedia is that here, on the face of it, is what we know. But it’s up to you to click on those
links and citations and decide whether the information comes from sources you ultimately trust
and are happy with. Wikipedia shouldn’t be anyone’s final stop when it comes to seeking
knowledge, but rather the gateway to us being able to make up our own minds.” We need to
equip our students to be able to answer: Why is this data reasonable and useful?

5 ways to help students develop digital literacy

4. Prioritize student engagement over all else. Nowadays, teachers and parents worry about the
amount of time children are spending in front of the screen. Technology is not so much about
screen time as it is about the experience. Research shows that children learn preferentially in the
kinesthetic or hands-on domain.

Consequently, the time spent with a prescriptive screen app needs to be only as much as is
required to enable the child to return to a hands-on project-based learning experience. The
priority needs to be driven by the learning value and outcomes for a learner rather than the
duration of time a child spends with on screen digital technology. Student engagement and
learnability should be the main focus.

5. Push for access to technological resources and solutions in schools. For schools without
access to technological resources and solutions and even for those fortunate to have the
resources, it is important to seek support from the community. The community is comprised of
stakeholders willing to get involved in the education of children as sources of mentoring, success
definition, and economic impact on the community.

Additionally, student resources are readily available through smart phone apps, libraries, and
NFP/NGO efforts that exist in most communities. And, of course, there is YouTube, the single
largest educational outlet in the world, coupled with Khan Academy and Code.org. The solutions
are out there; it is important to find a reasonable solution for your communities, schools, and
students.

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