As I witness the rapid changes online regarding education, I continue asking why digital literacies are still not taught more regularly in lessons. The need for learning and practising digital literacies goes beyond any
digital divide (though obviously, the various divides do affect how digital literacies are practised and taught in formal education).
In a recent report published by
Stanford History Education Group, the authors point out how a study undertaken in November 2016, showed that young people lacked basic skills of digital evaluation. Later, in another more recent study (from June 2018 to May 2019), another assessment of 3,446 students was carried out. This study was a national sample in the USA of a demographic profile of high-school students, with the focus on their ability to evaluate digital sources on the internet. Among the results this stands out:
"• Two-thirds of students couldn’t tell the difference between news stories and ads (set off by the words “Sponsored Content”) on Slate’s homepage.
• Ninety-six percent of students did not consider why ties between a climate change website and the fossil fuel industry might lessen that website’s credibility. Instead of investigating who was behind the site, students focused on superficial markers of credibility: the site’s aesthetics, its top-level domain, or how it portrayed itself on the About page."
Change happens slowly in education. There may be pockets where educators are striving for educational change, who do provide learners with the necessary skills to be skilful in relation to digital literacies, but frankly? Too little is done.
The report (mentioned above) concludes:
"Reliable information is to civic health what proper
sanitation and potable water are to public health.
High-quality educational materials, validated by
research, and distributed freely are essential to
sustaining the vitality of American democracy.
Educational systems move slowly. Technology
doesn’t. If we don’t act with urgency, our students’
ability to engage in civic life will be the casualty. "
It is not only American democracy - this is something which affects everyone everywhere. In particular, it affects a generation who is still learning how to manage and juggle their digital lives, still students and who are not being taught the necessary skills they need to fully function in a changing, digitalised world .
Digital literacies are not something that is taught/learnt only through books either. There are many publications and plenty of books/articles which do clarify and add to the different dimensions of what constitutes digital literacies (see
Digital Delights and
Voices in the Feminine, for example, both which have plenty on Digital Literacies). From
digital safety to considerations on one's digital
identity, from the basics of learning how to read a screen and follow instructions to use a digital tool/platform to thinking critically about the use of AI in our lives, all these require exposure to ideas and debate, opportunity to practise and learn, and most of all, time to reflect critically on their uses.
Furthermore, it is possible to access a wide range of sources for information and educational frameworks on digital literacies - this is not something only an elite few can have access to or know about, gatekeeping others out of their ivory towers of knowledge. Certainly there are those who do the much needed research into the field; however it is a wide, wide field which is constantly evolving. Educators who place digital literacies in the forefront with their learners, are equally needed, for they are the ones who really are in the frontline, testing and trialling new tools/platforms and educational practices with their students. They are the practitioners raising awareness among learners, preparing them for their contemporary world.
Future worlds?
Unpredictable shifts?
The future is today.
With all its unpredictability.
ENOUGH from
Anna Mantzaris on
Vimeo.
