How to Teach Digital Literacy

[Here is an insightful local perspective on integrating digital literacy into the learning environment from the East Alton Illinois Rotary Club blog, Wednesday, June 02, 2010.]

I n 1900, a girl consults her McGuffey Reader and traces out letters on a small piece of slate as the teacher in her one-room schoolhouse checks her work.  In 2010, a boy leans over his laptop computer, preparing to type out a story about his dog; his teacher shows him how to insert a picture into the document. The technology has changed, but the scene is the same: A child learns to be literate.

Today, computer education is part of literacy. The term digital literacy, which describes that combination of traditional reading and writing with computer skills, is about more than learning to type on a keyboard. “The most direct way of fostering digital literacy is to have our students write and produce in digital environments,” says Mark Sample, a professor of English and new media at George Mason University. “It’s not until students produce their own digital texts that their digital literacy can really expand.”

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