Cover image credit "DIGITAL-CITIZEN-3"by Electronic_Frontier_Foundation is licensed under CC BY 2.0
What?
This reflection is in response to articles by Alexander et al., (2016), Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development (2017) and Netsafe (2018) on the subject of digital literacy and citizenship.
Livingstone et al. (2017) recognize that the ‘digital natives’ term coined by Marc Prensky, for those born in the digital age can be misleading as it can paint a picture of learners “who need little support in making the best of digital media”. Based on their research, they point out that...
“few have received much guidance from school or home, too many lack skills other than basic functional skills, with particular gaps in their critical information literacy skills that merit urgent attention, especially as part of any programme that uses digital media to meet its objectives” (Livingstone et al., 2017, p. 2).
Research has shown that technology immersion does not always equate to confidence and competency (Alexander et al., (2016). All articles mentioned above call for an educational approach to ensure the development of digital literacy that equips learners with the necessary skills and dispositions required to thrive in an ever-evolving world.
However, globally, there is a lack of consensus about what is digital literacy, also known as digital fluency, and many educational institutions provide definitions and policies that are varied and vague (Alexander et al.; 2016; Netsafe, 2018). A number of aspects from the readings were helpful and three that stood out for me were:
I believe that the ALA definition incorporates other literacies such as information and media that are relevant and important to today and tomorrow’s education. It is, “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills”. Netsafe’s (2018) definition and model adequately incorporates both digital fluency and literacy.
Figure 1. ALA Digital Literacy definition
"The ability to use information and communication technologyies to find, evlautate, crate and communicat information, requiring both cognitive and technology skills."
Source: ALA, 2021, Digital Literacy section
Figure 2. Netsafe’s Digital Citizenship definition
Source: Netsafe
Figure 3. Netsafe’s Digital Citizenship Model
Source: Netsafe
Figure 4. Recommendations for Improving Digital Literacy
Source: (Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, 2017, p. 14)
So What?
My role, and that of my team of Educational Technology Coaches (ETC) and Library Media Specialists (LMS), is to oversee and lead digital literacy at the school for all stakeholders (students, parents and staff). To do this, we utilize two key documents which are our school’s Technology and Information and Literacy Framework (TILF) and the Common Sense Media Digital Citizenship (CSMDC) program. The TILF is an amalgamation of standards (Figure 6) from the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) and the American Association of Schools Library (AASL) which sit under the International Baccalaureate (IB) Approaches to Learning (ATLs). The CSMDC program (Figure 7) is implemented from kindergarten to grade 10.
The above mentioned definitions and models have provided me with an opportunity to review with my team, our current approaches to ensure clarity, consistency, coherence and continuity. For example, in Netsafe’s view of online safety, they call for a balance of protective and promotional approaches that are developmentally appropriate (Netsafe, 2018) and their chart illustrated in Figure 8 provides a nice visual of this. From an educational and systems perspective, it makes me reflect on how this approach compares to what we are currently doing.
Figure 5. TKS Information and Digital Literacy Framework
Figure 6. Commons Sense Media Digital Literacy Curriculum
Source: Commons Sense Media
Figure 7. Learn-Guide-Protect
Source: Netsafe (2018)
Now What?
Action items that I plan to review with my team are:
Bibliography & References
Alexander, B., Adams Becker, S., & Cummins, M. (2016). Digital literacy: An NMC Horizon project strategic brief. Volume 3.3, October 2016. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development. (2017). Digital skills and digital competencies: An overview. In Working group on education: Digital skills for life and work (pp. 22-36): UNESCO.
Livingstone, S., Nandi, A., Banaji, S., & Stoilova, M. (2017). Young adolescents and digital media: uses, risks and opportunities in low-and middle-income countries: a rapid evidence review. Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence.
Netsafe. (2018). From literacy to fluency to citizenship: Digital citizenship in education (2nd ed.). Netsafe.
ALA Literacy Clearinghouse. (2021). Digital Literacy. American Library Association [website] https://literacy.ala.org/digital-literacy/
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