Digital Literacy

Robin Lynch-Woodley
Spring 2015
Western Oregon University

In todays society, almost every aspect of our lives has gone digital
making face-to-face communication the exception rather than the norm. This
is even more of a reality in the lives of our children and teenagers whose
homework assignments, report cards, and social interactions increasingly
have a digital or online component. In addition, there have been significant
changes in education during the last couple of decades. Nowadays,
educators must be conscientious of promoting digital literacy in the
classroom. This includes putting the proper utilization of digital tools and
technology on the same level with reading and writing. Digital literacy needs
to be taught at all grade levels and viewed as important and relevant as
other core subjects like reading or math if we are going to adequately
prepare students to be productive members of society.
Literacy has always been an important part of our education process.
Traditionally, it has meant books and paper, and reading and writing.
Literacy has a long history in the American education system, beginning with
handwriting practice in the elementary years, running through the book
report era of middle school, and continuing to the glorious five-paragraph
essay experiences of high school. These three examples have a common
bond: they somehow involve words on paper or some other physical media.
But the prevalence of computers, smartphones, tablets, iPods and pretty
much every other recent technological advance has expanded the definition
of literacy.

There are certainly numerous benefits to this new digital age.

Communication is far easier now than it was a few years ago but significantly
easier than a generation ago. Unfortunately there are also disadvantages.
This ease of communication has also helped move bullying beyond
harassment at school or on the playground and into cyberspace. This should
come as no surprise since bullying tends to occur where there are kids.
Today, more than two-thirds of students go online every day to do school
work, connect with friends, download music and catch up with news about
their favorite stars.
The New Type of Bullying-Cyberbullying
In a 2006 study, one in three online teens reported experiencing a
range of cyberbullying activities, including receiving threatening messages;
having their private emails or text messages forwarded without consent;
having an embarrassing picture posted without permission; or having rumors
about them spread online (Hinduja, 2010). One of the most concerning
parts about this study is that most of these teens have not been taught or
given the tools to handle these types of situations. For the most part,
cyberbullying is defined by the same characteristics as other bullying. In
the studies, the students were informed that cyberbullying was defined as
when someone repeatedly makes fun of another person through email or
text message, or when someone posts something online about another
person that they dont like (Hinduja, 2010).

In more recent research, where cyberbullying was defined broadly, one

in five students 11-18 years old said that they had been cyberbullied in the
last year. However, the same percentage of students admitted to
cyberbullying someone at least once in the past. Older students or
teenagers may bully via text messaging, social networking sites, chat rooms,
and other forms of digital or online communication. This cyberbullying is
being ignored for the most part but educators, parents and other adults.
This is largely due to the adults not being completely sure of what needs to
be done in order to reduce or eliminate bullying altogether. Even though we
have made great strides in preventing bullying in face-to-face interactions in
schools, we still have a long ways to go to make sure this carries over into
the digital world.
A real concern is that cyberbullying can be anonymous. Children who
are being cyberbullied may not even know who the bully is, or specifically
why they are being targeted. This can range from very mild bullying that is
subtle to vicious and severe bullying that can be detrimental to the students
mental health.
Additionally, the impact of cyberbullying can be wider-reaching than
bullying done in person. The speed and breadth of the internet have
permitted groups of youth to create websites just to make fun of other young
people, to impersonate other teens on social media sites, and to circulate
embarrassing photos, all within a matter of minutes.

Finally, cyberbullies can be teens who might not otherwise have

engaged in bullying behaviors. It is often easier to be cruel when the bully is
sheltered from their targets responses which can over time include
devastating consequences such as withdrawal from family and friends,
depression, diminished performance in school and in the most severe cases,
self-harming behavior and even suicide.
Todays national media coverage of bullying often focuses on cases
that come to an extreme and tragic end, with parents, schools and entire
communities weighing in to express strong opinions about how to deal with
the bullies, and wondering what, if anything could have been done to protect
the victim. And even more often, parents and teachers and the community
express surprise at the ordinariness of the children who engaged in bullying
behavior, and how unlikely it seemed that they would be involved in
something so terrible.
Current research shows that approaches to help prevent bullying
behavior are essentially the same as those that will help youth withstand
other types of harassment. These approaches, which are closely linked to the
Search Institute Developmental Assets, but include building strong and
positive family ties, peers and community, and fostering the values of
empowerment and self-control. There seems to be a strong correlation
between the needs of children who react most dramatically to bullying, and
those engaging in bullying behavior may in fact be the same (See, 2006).

Research shows that teaching kids to be resilient can help them to

avoid more types of risky behaviors, including bullying. This would be a
benefit for all students from elementary to high school aged students and
beyond.
Keeping Children Safe
Most experts agree there are approximately 77 million students online
daily. This means that there are almost as many students as there are things
to do online. The Internet has infinite possibilities, and it is easy to get lost.
Sometimes when you are lost you discover wonderful new places, but just as
easily you can find yourself in a dangerous situation. Students must learn to
protect themselves from the dangers lurking online. The site i-SAFE America
has come up with these tips for keeping children safe:

Guard your identifying information (name, sex, age, address, school,

teams).
It only takes a little information for a predator to identify you.
Remember, responsible adults do not pursue relationships with kids

and teens.
Make your username generic and anonymous.
Make your online profile generic and anonymous.
Know how to exit an inappropriate website.
Attachments in e-mails from strangers can contain Viruses and Worms.
Pictures are great to hand to a friend, but it's not cool to send them to

an Internet 'friend.'
Posting your pictures on the Internet gives hackers the chance to alter

your picture and make fun of you to everyone online.

Chat room 'friends' are not always who they say they are.

Know the rules about Intellectual Property. Do not illegally download

music and movies.
This means that students, of all ages, need to know how to handle

themselves online. It also means keeping the computer in a part of the

house that is not secluded and that where other people can see what a
child is doing online. It has been proven that computers in public areas
for children to use are much safer and is better overall for the mental
health of children. The biggest issue now is that students can get online
using their phones and those are much more difficult for parents and
teachers to manage. The creation of Facebook has also challenged
parents and educators. Even though profiles are supposed to be created
by real adult people and only contain fully truthful information. The fact is
many profiles belong to minors and numerous profiles contain false
information. Some profiles are completely false from the photos to the
names. These profiles are designed to let the person hide who they really
are and in some cases, they are used to do harm. This new network has
changed the way we share information. A post on Facebook can literally
be seen by and shared by hundreds of people within minutes. This can be
both positive and negative. When schools need to get information out
quickly, texts and posts on social media reach the most students as
quickly as possible.
Digital Literacy Promotes Higher-Order Thought Skills

Whether your state is transitioning to the Common Core State

Standards or revamping its own independent state standards set, the key
movement is to steer instruction away from memorization and, instead,
promote the acquisition of higher-order skills (analysis, cooperation, creating,
explaining, etc.). This has drastically changed not only how we teach but
also what we teach. Instead of having students learn standard algorithms in
math, students are now learning multiple ways to solve the same problem.
The idea is that not everyone thinks the same way and by presenting
different strategies, more students will be reached and able to solve math
problems successfully.
Digital literacy skills are transferable from the tech world to real world
and meet many of the basic needs required by today's learning standards.
Instilling strong levels of digital literacy creates great avenues to learn and
practice these higher-order skills, ranging from students working collectively
via a Google Doc to developing the ability to analyze web sources credibility
and everything in between (Pew Charitable Trusts, 2008).
According to Marc Prensky, Futurecation is a term for quickly
communicating where it is we want to go in education. Past-ucation is a
term for what educators have always done and what should be avoided.
Prensky believes that Futurecation is a realistic and attainable goal for
everyone to not only achieve but demand from all educators and schools.
Everyone involved in the education of our youth, including technologists,

teachers, school staff, parents, and particularly students need to buy into
this goal. What Prensky suggests is that every school and every teacher
adopt the view of having Futurecation as one of their primary goals. If
someone asks: What do you do here? the answer is We dont just educate
our students, we Futurecate (Prensky, Future*cation, 2013).
Futurecation means consciously re-balancing our education away
from being only past-oriented to being far more future-oriented than it is
today. That doesnt mean we will ever stop reading and writing but finding a
balance between the old and the new (Prensky, Future*cation, 2013).
Schools that can find this balance will be the standard for all other schools to
follow because students from these schools will be well prepared for the
future and life beyond school.
Part of Futurecating, of course, is moving quickly to the tools of today
and tomorrow. But Futurecation goes way beyond that simple statement.
Futurecating also means viewing technology as the new foundation of our
education. This means putting technology on the same par with the reading
and writing from the past. We wont stop reading and writing, but we all need
to be seeking a better balance between the old foundations of education and
the new. Is what I teach really what my kids need to learn? was asked by a
teacher online recently. In too many cases around the United States the
answer is no. At its heart, Futurecating is educating with an eye on in
addition to the tests and the current curriculum the real things our kids

need in their future, as we, their educators, perceive them, (Prensky,

Future*cation, 2013). This is something that most schools are struggling to
accomplish. Many schools today are lacking the technology to make an
impact on students. To fully embrace this idea, everyone involved in
education must make teaching to the future a priority. Currently, schools are
so focused on high-stakes testing, that little thought or attention is given to
what students really need to be successful adults, especially when it comes
to technology.
Stuck in the Past
Marc Prensky also describes the opposite of Futurecation as Pastucation. Past-ucating is continuing to do things in only the old ways. Its
continuing to value the old over the new, rather than trying to seriously
rebalance for the world of tomorrow. This type of educator values
worksheets over technology and is very much focused on rote memorization.
These types of educators might have SMART boards, but either use them
minimally or fail to use them at all. Instead of preparing students for the
future and challenging them to become higher level thinkers, they are
satisfied if students can answer a question correctly even if the student has
no idea the real meaning of their answer.
In fact, Marc Prensky recently had a personal experience with this type
of situation when his son had a Past-ucator for his second-grade teacher.
This teacher was not comfortable with technology and never gave it much

importance. Her classroom appeared to be stuck in the past. The four

computers on the side of the classroom room were rarely turned on and
almost never used. There were no computer-generated pictures or writing on
the classroom walls. There was no balance between the expository and nonfiction writing of the past, and the technology and graphics-based
communication of the future. Eventually, this teacher did allow his son to
make a PowerPoint presentation for one of his assignments but, it only
consisted of his written paper pasted in, with a couple of pictures. Then he
was required to read his text to the class word for word. In fact, Marcs son
recently told him that asking Siri to help him find a definition is cheating,
and that Wikipedia lies, (Prensky, Future*cation, 2013). These were ideas
were directly coming from his past-ucator and was a demonstration of just
how much she was stuck in the past. The worst part about Past-ucation is
that the Past-ucators biases are communicated daily, both consciously and
unconsciously, to their students.
Technology Natives
Todays students in kindergarten through college level, represent the
first generations to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their
entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music
players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the
digital age. Todays average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours
of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to

mention 20,000 hours watching TV). Computer games, email, the Internet,
cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives (Prensky,
2001). As a result, students today are very comfortable with technology and
have never known a world without it. They dont look at technology as
something new and scary, but as another aspect of everyday life.
Technology needs to be embraced and encouraged in education. Using
technology can only enhance and promote learning, if it is used correctly. It
can also push students to higher level thinking and come up with unique and
original ideas that they might not have otherwise come up with. The future
of education is now and should be centered on the use of technology.

Works Cited
Hinduja, S. a. (2010). Cyberbullying fact sheet: Identification, Prevention and
Response. Cyberbullying Research Center.
Pew Charitable Trusts, P. I. (2008). Writing, Technology and Teens. Washington DC.
Prensky, M. (2001, October). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon.
Prensky, M. (2013). Future*cation. Educational Technology.
See, O. a. (2006). Bullying prevention: Creating a positive school climate and
developing social competence. Washinton DC: American Psychological
Association.