In this digital age it is the responsibility of a teacher to
move away from being a Digital Immigrant, and become a Digital Native ("Digital
Literacy | Websites For Teachers | DigitalLiteracy.US," n.d.). Teachers must understand that in order to
teach students to become Digital Citizens, they themselves must be Digitally
Literate, Digital Natives. The following
are strategies for teachers to develop necessary information literacy skills.
1.
Teachers
must embrace change.
The very first thing a teacher must do if he/she wants to
digitally literate is to let go of everything they know about teaching in the
past, and embrace a new way of teaching that uses technology, critical
thinking, web tools, “apps,” video enhancement, etc. I’m not recommending that teachers forget
everything they know and have learned about teaching, but too often teachers
have a really difficult time letting go of traditional methods and it hinders
their ability to embrace change. “Becoming
truly literate means embracing a new framework of learning
that layers core content into a world rich in digital and media literacies
that will help students become future ready graduates in a globally
collaborative world.” ("Digital Literacy | Websites For Teachers |
DigitalLiteracy.US," n.d.)
2.
Teachers
must accept the fact that they will fail at this, in front of their students,
and it is okay!
A quote from Success Magazine promotes failure as a stepping
stone to success, “Society doesn't reward defeat, and you won’t find many
failures documented in history books. The exceptions are those failures that
become steppingstones to later success.” ("Why Failure Is Good for
Success," n.d.) If a teacher doesn’t accept the fact that there
is failure involved in becoming digitally literate, he she will not ever have a
place in the classroom to try new things.
No one is perfect, nor does a teacher have the resources to make every lesson
100% perfect every time he or she teaches something. In fact, sometimes the moments in which
students learn the most are those “on the fly” teachable moments. So how on earth would a teacher be able to
have ALL of the answers ALL of the time when it comes to something brand new
like offering a project in which students can use video enhancement for example. They can’t!
And that is okay. If you’ve built
a rapport with your students they understand that you are human and you won’t
have all of the answers. They appreciate
your effort more than you know!
3.
Teachers must
empower students.
Building on from strategy 2, teachers must also understand
that their students can become their teachers in this digital age. A personal example that comes to mind is
recently my students created a website as a showcase of their knowledge in
mathematics. I’ve done this before, and
I’ve asked students to do this, but the difference this time was that I didn’t
ask them to do it, my teacher partner and I simply made it an option as a showcase
for learning. Without me setting rules
and boundaries and making an elaborate rubric, students had the freedom to try
new things, and ultimately design a very effective website demonstrating their
knowledge of the subject area. Not only
were they highly successful, but they taught me a little bit more about
embedding videos into the website, and they taught many of their very impressed
classmates these skills as well. Now
they are building website for each of our content areas and keeping the world
up-to-date with what goes on in our classroom!
If we eliminate the power struggle, we can empower students to design,
create, and teach.
4.
Teachers
must increase their questioning skills.
Sometimes the best way to engage students is to ask a
powerful question. So what is a good
question? A good question is one that
doesn’t have a “yes” or “no” answer, or a simple answer at all. A good question has more than one answer, it
allows for different perspectives to be considered. A good question is a challenge that offers
students the opportunity to use multiple intelligences to seek answers. A really amazing question brings about even
more questions. Teachers need to “up
their game” when it comes to offering inquiry in the classroom. A powerful text that teachers can read to
help in this area is Teaching for Critical Thinking: Tools and Techniques to
Help Students Question Their Assumptions by Steven D. Brookfield.
5.
Teachers must
develop a PLN.
In order to become digitally literate teachers must participate
in a Personal Learning Network (PLN). As
a teacher myself, I always find that my biggest challenge is time. I always had so many ideas and so many things
I wanted to try. Little time was left
over for my own professional development…that is until I discovered
Twitter. Now I participate in Tweet
Chats weekly, and I share information with other professionals that are going
through the same thing I am. We share
articles, blogs, links, videos, and inspiration. I have learned more from Twitter as a teacher
than anything else. The ability to
access information from experienced professionals that have “been there, done
that” or that are struggling through some of the same things I am is very
powerful. Twitter works for me because
it is very timely, meaning I can look on my own time. Information is provided in short snippets and
if I want to research further I can, when I have the time. In order to become digitally literate,
teachers need to participate with a PLN.
I never knew how many ideas were out there, and how easy some of them
could be to implement in my classroom, until I met some of the wonderful people
in my PLN.
Becoming digitally literate doesn't happen in the snap of a
finger. It is a process that will
probably be forever changing, but as teachers, we have the responsibility to
take on these challenges. Our students
deserve our best and at times it can be daunting, but good teachers will do
their very best.
-Emily
Tweet
References
Digital
Literacy | Websites For Teachers | DigitalLiteracy.US. (n.d.). Digital
Literacy | Websites For Teachers | DigitalLiteracy.US. Retrieved from
http://digitalliteracy.us/
November,
A. C. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press.
Stripling,
B. (n.d.). Teaching Students to Think in the Digital Environment: Digital
Literacy and Digital Inquiry. School Library Monthly. Retrieved January
25, 2014, from http://schoollibrarymonthly.com/
Why Failure Is Good for Success.
(n.d.). SUCCESS. Retrieved from
http://www.success.com/article/why-failure-is-good-for-success
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