- Access to technology
- Filtering (school's restricting access to websites like YouTube and Facebook)
- Sharing the importance of digital literacy (learning it isn't optional anymore)
- Instructional time (digital literacy is not incorporated into set instructional time)
- Teaching young children (kids believe what they see and the internet is full of opinions)
Although all the issues above are important I believe 1,2,3, and 5 are not the biggest challenges when it comes to cultivating digital literacy. A large number of students have access to technology either at home, school, or at the library; many schools have taken to trying 1 to 1 initiatives and it has become easier to convince administrators of the fact that technology is a necessary part of the budget. In the article there is mention that requests can be put in to have websites evaluated that are blocked when cases are made for the potential of the site as a tool for student learning. Librarians are aware of the importance of digital literacy and teachers are aware as well how necessary these skills are. Teaching young children how to understand when something is legitimate is an ongoing issue that educators and parents have faced for a long time. Kids are more willing to accept what they see and well assessed lessons will help with finding the best way to teach them.
From my own personal experience as a student I would consider instructional time to be the most challenging obstacle to overcome. Instructional time to teach digital literacy is something librarians have to do outreach for from everything I have studied and seen. As a student my teachers did not begin to bring up digital literacy until I was almost in college and even then they did not teach me how to be digitally literate; they simply told me what sites I could not use for research. In college my writing instructors actually set aside class time to visit the library and learn how to properly search for and evaluate information. This was taught by the University librarian. While digital literacy is a part of the common core and librarians learn it is their responsibility to help the children they work with become digitally literate they are not given set time with all students in every school. Librarians have to reach out to instructors to have digital literacy sessions occur in a class. Given librarians are not required in all schools in Illinois; that leaves some schools without any push for having digital literacy lessons being built into instructional time during the year. Due to all this to me just getting the instructional time for every student to learn these skills is the most challenging obstacle out of the five listed.
From my own personal experience as a student I would consider instructional time to be the most challenging obstacle to overcome. Instructional time to teach digital literacy is something librarians have to do outreach for from everything I have studied and seen. As a student my teachers did not begin to bring up digital literacy until I was almost in college and even then they did not teach me how to be digitally literate; they simply told me what sites I could not use for research. In college my writing instructors actually set aside class time to visit the library and learn how to properly search for and evaluate information. This was taught by the University librarian. While digital literacy is a part of the common core and librarians learn it is their responsibility to help the children they work with become digitally literate they are not given set time with all students in every school. Librarians have to reach out to instructors to have digital literacy sessions occur in a class. Given librarians are not required in all schools in Illinois; that leaves some schools without any push for having digital literacy lessons being built into instructional time during the year. Due to all this to me just getting the instructional time for every student to learn these skills is the most challenging obstacle out of the five listed.
An Australian survey of a sample of children who have access to computers and the internet.
Still want some more information on how the digital age has changed things. Check out this video Did you know?
excellent points!
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