Literacy Skills

• Literacy skills are the next category of 21st Century skills.

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• They’re sometimes called IMT skills, and they’re each concerned with a different element in digital comprehension.

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• The three 21st Century literacy skills are:

• Information literacy: Understanding facts, figures, statistics, and data

• Media literacy: Understanding the methods and outlets in which information is published

• Technology literacy: Understanding the machines that make the Information Age possible

• Information literacy is the foundational skill. It helps students understand facts, especially data points, that they’ll encounter online.

• More importantly, it teaches them how to separate fact from fiction.

• In an age of chronic misinformation, finding truth online has become a job all on its own. It’s crucial that students can identify honesty on their own.

• Otherwise, they can fall prey to myths, misconceptions, and outright lies. 

• Media literacy is the practice of identifying publishing methods, outlets, and sources while distinguishing between the ones that are credible and the ones that aren’t.

• Just like the previous skill, media literacy is helpful for finding truth in a world that’s saturated with information.

• This is how students find trustworthy sources of information in their lives. Without it, anything that looks credible becomes credible.

• But with it, they can learn which media outlets or formats to ignore. They also learn which ones to embrace, which is equally important.

• Last, technology literacy goes another step further to teach students about the machines involved in the Information Age.

• As computers, cloud programming, and mobile devices become more important to the world, the world needs more people to understand those concepts.

• Technology literacy gives students the basic information they need to understand what gadgets perform what tasks and why.

• This understanding removes the intimidating feeling that technology tends to have. After all, if you don’t understand how technology works, it might as well be magic.

• But technology literacy unmasks the high-powered tools that run today’s world.

• As a result, students can adapt to the world more effectively. They can play an important role in its evolution.

• They might even guide its future.

• But to truly round out a student’s 21st Century skills, they need to learn from a third category.

Source- https://www.aeseducation.com/blog/what-are-21st-century-skills