Digital & Media Literacy

Digital literacy is “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.”

-- The American Library Association’s Digital Literacy Task Force


Digital and Media Literacy

Technology broadens our understanding of literacy. Digital tools and media are shaping how educators engage with its fundamental components, as young people grow their language skills in a culture that promotes a rapid flow of easily accessible information. Teachers develop traditional communication skills in the classroom, but in an age when technology touches virtually every aspect of human activity, they also integrate a digital and media literacy education to help students navigate and make sense of their digitally-entrenched surroundings.

The American Library Association’s Digital Literacy Task Force defines digital literacy as “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.” Education Week, May 23, 2019

One and Only Ivan.mp4

Students develop multimodal literacy skills with video book trailers.

This ALA definition is evident in our K-5 classrooms. Students learn to use digital tools and online resources to communicate, locate and evaluate information, and create original, literacy-rich projects that reflect their understanding of curriculum. The result might look like digital drawings layered with annotations and voice recordings; multimedia stories produced with audio or video editing tools (see Joann Mraz's 4th grade book trailer video above); gaming narratives made with programming applications; or blogs that intrigue readers with the author’s interests, insights, and creative writing skills. Digital tools offer students new paths to directly engage audiences that are global and genuine, while inspiring them to find their voice, share their passion, and recognize their talents.

Media literacy is a critical component of today’s reading and writing workshop. According to the National Association for Media Literacy Education, “media literacy builds upon the foundation of traditional literacy and offers new forms of reading and writing. Media literacy empowers people to be critical thinkers and makers, effective communicators and active citizens.”

As students become more frequent travelers on the Internet and dependent on personal devices for information and communication, they must hone their skills for evaluating and understanding content. Today’s media consists of web-based print, videos, music, images, podcasts, and more. Students routinely engage with these media, but often lack the critical skills to recognize their message and motive. A media literacy education promotes healthy online skepticism, while equipping students with the skills to assess media content for accuracy, credibility, purpose, and bias. Most important, media literacy can engage students with contemporary issues, encouraging them to become informed, civic-minded participants in our democracy.

Integrating digital and media literacy with the District literacy curriculum also puts students on track to meet our District’s elementary technology standards, which are aligned with those of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE):

      • Empowered Learner: Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving, and demonstrating competency in their learning goals.

      • Digital Citizen: Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning, and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act in ways that are safe, legal, ethical, and self-aware.

      • Knowledge Constructor: Students make meaning for themselves and others by critically curating resources through the use of digital tools.

      • Innovative Designer: Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to solve problems by creating new, useful and/or imaginative solutions.

      • Computational Thinker: Students identify authentic problems, work with data and employ algorithmic thinking to propose and automate solutions.

      • Creator and Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.

      • Global Collaborator: Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives, increase empathy and understanding and work effectively in teams.

Students are learners and creators in a digital age, which means for teachers, the domain for teaching literacy has expanded. This wide terrain can be covered through a collaborative effort of classroom teachers, administrators, librarians, technology teachers, reading specialists, learning resource teachers, art teachers, aides, and other expert staff members and parents. This team of teachers can also help students become well-versed in the literacies by attending district workshops featuring today’s digital tools, training sessions organized through the Scarsdale Teachers Institute (STI) and the Scarsdale Teachers Collaborative (ST@C), and out-of-district conferences. When district and building staff develop professional partnerships and learning communities, they are better suited to lead their students into the digital universe.