Life in a networked world

How are 21st Century people using digital technology?

Digital literacies in practice

In 2014, Simon Bates - a professor at UBC - presented an Anatomy of the 21st Century Teacher. (Here is the new Extend site: extend.ecampusontario.ca). You can read more about the Anatomy on this site: 21st Century Educators.

We have taken that idea and tried to apply it to the why of technology integration in adult literacy programs. This is a vision of how we meet learners where they are at and what knowledge and understanding learners are looking to strengthen in literacy programs.

6 ways some of us are using digital technology now or may want to use it soon:

Communicator - we use digital technology to enhance our ability to communicate effectively across a variety of platforms
Curator - we research, curate and organize digital resources that are helpful in completing tasks
Digital Citizen - we are learning to operate legally, ethically and safely in an interconnected world
Collaborator - we use digital technology networks to broaden our perspectives and to share ideas
Learner - we use digital technology to learn in different ways and contexts
Experimenter - using digital technology enhances our capacity to be open to change and to work with change

What do you think of this anatomy?

Which of the digital literacy curriculum-planning frameworks are best aligned to strengthening these uses of technology?

A digital-equity initiative digital-skills framework

from Digital skill sets for diverse users: A comparison framework for curriculum and competencies

The City of Seattle’s Digital Equity Initiative provides a roadmap to reach the City of Seattle’s vision to become a more digitally equitable city, where technology’s opportunities equitably empower all residents and communities.

They defined 5 learner types

Beginner users (gateway skills)
Life skills (applied tech skills)
Youth education (HS prep for college and career basics)
Parent engagement
Work (employment foundations)

and then looked at a variety of essential digital skills frameworks to compile a set of 10 skills categories that promote digital equity:

Communication: Exchanging information with others on digital platforms using various strategies to collaborate, share, and communicate.
Creation: Engaging in digital spaces to design, create, and revise content online.
Device ownership: Practices that support device longevity, including physical care, protective software, and using technical support.
Gateway skills: Foundational skills required to use a device and participate online.
Information skills: Skills to apply, evaluate, and manage information across digital and physical environments.
Lifelong learning: Engagement in self-assessment of digital skills. Using self-reflection to tailor accessible digital environments and continue digital skills learning.
Mobile: Understanding basic functions of a mobile device to communicate and access goods and services.
Online life: Access to online resources that support digitalization of daily tasks and socialization within a broader digital community.
Privacy and Security: Maintenance of practices to secure digital identity, recognize threats, and understand the broader safety implications of working in a digital environment.
Workplace: Advancing workplace success and professionalism through engagement with an organization's online tools and other supportive digital systems.

EdTech @ World Education is creating an Digital Library app based on the City of Seattle’s Digital Equity Initiative digital skills project framework.

This app is designed to help you find strategies, resources, and activities to support meaningful edtech integration and digital skill development.

When it is ready, this app will consolidate and expand resource lists like this:

The resources will be categorized based on the 10 skills categories and a set of sub-categories described here.

Digital literacies for learning / learning digital literacies

from Digital Literacies - EAL Teachers' Guide

EAL = English as an Additional Language

Definition of Digital Literacy:

To be digitally literate means to have a rich repertoire of skills, knowledge, understandings and ways of thinking to interpret, create, manage and share meanings through different digital channels, for different purposes, in various contexts and with different audiences.

The Role of Technology:

This definition of digital literacies challenges a traditional approach to technology use in EAL contexts. It shifts the focus from 'use of technology for language learning' to 'learning language to be able to use technology for different purposes'.

It suggests that language education needs to move beyond using technology for learning grammar or vocabulary and development of main language skills. In addition to these traditional learning objectives, it is also important to provide students with opportunities to learn how language (and non-language) resources are used in different digital environments and across different social contexts.

For teachers, who are interested in embedding digital literacies in language curriculum, a useful starting point may be thinking about digital literacy practices as activities that people do in digital spaces. Some examples of digital literacy practices include:

Reading a web page - Using search engines - Searching for information - Navigating a Google map - Reading a computer code - Evaluating information - Managing personal data - Communicating via email - Online discussions - Commenting on an article - Creating a digital profile - Creating a web page - Collaborating on a Google doc - Making a YouTube video - Making a meme -Modifying software - Sharing on Facebook - Developing networks - Text messaging - Sharing images on Instagram - ...

What does this mean for adult literacy educators who work with learners fluent in the language of instruction?

Does it reflect the emergent-curriculum or project-based learning approach where learners use online resources and tools to access information and communicate, collaborate and network in authentic ways?

This framework is interesting because it takes the ideas from an applied digital-literacy framework -- how are people using online tools and resources --and focuses on how to scaffold activities. In this way, this framework seems to build on the ideas in the Triple E framework described under Technology Planning - Learning Experience.

You can see examples of this framework in action under the Teaching Ideas tab.

A digital-literacy roadmap

If you click on the image, you will go to the Roadmap navigation. The navigation is linear which gives the impression that building digital technology skills for employment, education and daily life starts is best done using a building blocks approach. This is not the approach described or recommended by Michael Wesch. The roadmap refers to the work of ISTE but does not apply all the standards in the way that ISTE recommends. The roadmap uses grade levels because it is designed for use in developmental education contexts. People familiar with the Ontario Adult Literacy Curriculum Framework (OALCF) will find the way the roadmap describes tasks and competencies familiar.

Digital Literacy and Skills Roadmap

Recognizing the need for a better understanding of digital literacy in Canada, the National Leadership Taskforce on Education and Skills, facilitated by ICTC (Information and Communications Technology Council), developed a Digital Literacy and Skills Roadmap or “map” for Canada.

This national roadmap or “map” is a guide for building digital literacy and skills for Canada to be used by education, industry, government, individuals and interested stakeholders. The model is intended to be flexible and fluid and areas may cross-over while also offering a continuum. To navigate the tool, it is suggested to start with the “Discover” Stage and work your way through the document to the “Lead” Stage. The “Discover” Stage is the starting point for building the foundation for digital literacy and skills. This tool is intended to be inclusiveness as digital is everywhere. This is why, under Learning Pathways, you will note 3 pathways – Education, Occupation and Personal. The education path introduces digital to learners through education; whereas the occupation path introduces digital to workers and the citizen path introduces digital to individuals and society.

The roadmap includes a compilation and elements of various digital literacy models, including the extensive work done by MediaSmarts, ESDC (Employment and Social Development Canada), ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), ISED (Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada), and other digital literacy experts, and has been built by ICTC’s Canadian Leadership Taskforce on Education & Skills.

Thinking through what digital literacy might be

More digital literacy frameworks

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