From his research, Doug crafted Eight Essential Elements of Digital Literacy:

 

 

He explained each along with “soundbites” from his research to guide the discussions.

 

Cultural - We need to pay attention to the culture in which the literacies are situated.

 

Cognitive - We can’t just consider the procedural ways in which we use devices and programs. It’s the way we think when we’re using them.

 

Constructive - We can’t be passive consumers of technology/information. We should strive to use digital tools in reflective and appropriate ways to be constructive and be socially active.

 

Communicative - Digital tools and power structures change the way we communicate. An element of digital literacy is how we take command of that structure and use it to communicate effectively and contribute meaningfully.

 

Confident - Doug believes that in order to be a proficient user of technology, one must have the courage and confidence to dive into the unknown, take risks, make mistakes, and display confidence when “messing around” with new tools.

 

Creative - Doug shared this quote from his research, which, to me, said it all:

 

“The creative adoption of new technology requires teachers who are willing to take risks… a prescriptive curriculum, routine practices… and a tight 

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target-setting regime, is unlikely to be helpful.” Conlon & Simpson (2003)

 

 

Critical - Digital literacy involves an understanding of how to deal with hyperspace and hypertext and understanding that it’s “not entirely read or spoken.” Can we critically evaluate the technologies we’re using?

 

Civic - Something I think many schools are beginning to embrace, we must use technology to improve our lives and the lives of others in our world.

 

There was a discussion in the session about the term “digital native” and most participants disagreed that digital natives actually existed, and instead the term “digital wisdom” was suggested as an alternative.

 

So, as someone who is currently working on drafting a sort of elementary “technology curriculum” for her district, based around ISTE’s NETS for Students and aligned to our content curricula, I see a great need to infuse these digital literacy elements into that plan. But, alas, how to do that when digital literacy is so “grey?” How to make a plea for these characteristics and competencies to be modeled by our teachers and administrators when due to our current state, teachers may just revolt if I ask them to veer from the script they’ve been tasked with delivering to spend time on topics and tasks that won’t be progress monitored, standardized-tested or used in their professional evaluations? Alec’s comment in the chat caused me to mutter, “Uh, yes” under my breath when I read it:  “Which is where curriculum planners always get stumped by deliverables.” How can we design standards for digital literacy when we’ve proven how contextual it is? And how best to marry these digital literacy elements with the strictly enforced content area curricula our district prescribes?

 

All questions I shall continue to ponder.

 

Click here to view a fantastic digital literacy slideset shared by Doug. Check it out, and ask yourself: In my school, how do we approach these eight elements of digital literacy with our students? Teachers? Administrators? Community? If we don’t, how can we start? If you have ideas/advice/resources to share, please do so in the comments below!

 

 

 

This post was originally posted on my blog and my #etmooc reflections blog. For those of you who are unfamiliar with ETMOOC, check it out! This massive open online course focuses on educational technology and media. Topics of discussion include digital literacy, digital storytelling, open access, connected learning, and more. Webinars are archived and the conversations that have emerged in the various online communities are rich.