Theme 4 of 9 is digital literacy. Sometimes this gets overlooked because we hear the kids we currently teach referred to as "digital natives" all the time, so often the assumption is that kids know how to use technology since they've had it in their lives from the very beginning. However, being born into an era of technology doesn't mean being born automatically knowing how to use all that technology.
I was at a conference not long ago, and the speaker told us, "Take out your phone and look at it. Do you have a current, state of the art phone? Take a good look at it and realize that for our young students, the ones in elementary school, this is the worst technology they will have in their lives." That statement hit me like a ton of bricks. My cool, current iPhone was going to be my students' equivalent of a Motorola Razr or a Nextel phone???? But this begs the question, "How do we prepare kids to be able to use technology that doesn't even exist yet?"
The key to this is NOT learning how to use the current technology at hand. Rather, the key is learning how to learn. So as not to put anyone on the spot, I'll use myself as a quick example.
When I learned Dr. Henkle was hired as our new superintendent, I also learned about what he had done at his previous district with Chromebooks and strongly suspected we were going to be using them here soon, too, so I bought a Chromebook for myself to try it out. What I did to figure out some of the things that I wasn't used to included Googling problems I had or "how do I" questions as well as watching videos on YouTube. Things I could remember, I kept in my head. Things that I was afraid I would forget got written on Post-It notes and stuck to my Chromebook until I could keep them in my head. I did nearly the same thing when I switched from an iPhone to a Pixel phone -- lots of Googling, bookmarking websites that I knew would be good sources of information, and talking to people who I knew would be good go-to people for advice on my phone.
So, how did I learn?
- Google searching
- Saving resources online
- Watching instructional videos
- Making notes for myself
- Consulting experts
This is how we can help our students develop digital literacy as well. When they go to try a new piece of technology or a new technology tool, don't feel the need to instruct them on every little detail; show them the basics and then let them try it out. Productive struggle is a great learning experience! Encourage kids to help each other when they are stuck. Let them Google the solutions or watch videos on how to do something. Don't feel like you need to be the expert -- you don't! Kids can be resourceful; we just need to encourage it and give kids the opportunities to try new things.
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