It’s
important to teach your subject area, but it’s equally important to
teach digital literacy in today’s society to prepare students for the
workforce.
In this day and age, it is extremely important for
students to learn digital literacy with every subject area. While we
might say that most students have computers at home that they can use,
and that this makes them an expert with computers, that isn’t always the
case. With the recession, many families cannot afford a computer at
home, and, even if a student does have a computer at home, it may not
have up-to-date software or an internet connection. Equally important to
remember is that, even if students do have access to computers at home,
that doesn’t mean they were ever taught how to properly use the
software and the hardware. Furthermore, digital literacy applies to many
other electronic devices besides computers.
Classroom Blog
A
great way to start promoting digital literacy is through a classroom
blog. You can set up your classroom blog using any free blogging
software, such as Wordpress.com or Blogger, and post whatever you want
on it. You can use the blog to function as a homework hotline, post tips
and tricks for completing assignments, film video of the classroom for
absent students or students who just need a second viewing of the notes
for the day, or post related news articles and have the students respond
to them. The possibilities really are endless. By having students use
and participate in a classroom blog, you are teaching them how to
navigate through webpages, how to post comments on articles, and how to
interact with posts and other commenters. This is a valuable lesson as
more and more of our information is coming from digital sources, and
these digital sources are often interactive with the ability to leave
comments. In this way, with a classroom blog, you are teaching media
literacy as well as digital literacy, and these are both equally
important concepts to master before college or careers.
Emailing Assignments
Sometimes,
students struggle with what teachers see as the simplest tasks. Even
emailing an assignment as an attachment can be difficult for students to
do because they may have never sent an email with an attachment before.
It’s best to take a few seconds to show the entire class how to attach a
file to an email, and even have them practice it before having to do it
for real. It is also a great idea to teach students appropriate email
etiquette. Many students use abbreviated language with emails, which is
not seen as professional. Students also might send an attachment without
anything written in the subject line or body of the email. This is also
seen as unprofessional in a work environment. If you require that they
do these things with every email they send, it will soon become habit.
Computer Labs
If
your school has access to a computer lab, you should make use of it as
much as you can. Just allowing students to use the computers in an
educational setting is helpful to developing digital literacy. Whether
it’s a fun activity, or doing research, or typing a paper, just using
the computers for school work rather than surfing around YouTube or
Facebook can teach them all sorts of important uses for computers.
Cell Phones, E-Readers, and Tablets
It
is vital to remember that digital literacy is not just about computers.
More and more students are gaining access to cell phones, e-readers,
tablets and many other electronic devices. If your school allows, it’s
sometimes a good idea to have students to use these devices in class to
look up words and facts, take notes or just read electronic copies of
books. We live in a digital age, and monitoring students’ use of these
devices can help teach them how to responsibly use them outside of
school.
