Today developing technical skills is crucial, and a person needs to find valuable content in electronic devices after a thorough evaluation. Digital literacy doesn’t mean IT proficiency. An individual can find valuable content in electronic devices. It is essential for teachers in the 21st century as education has become dual-mode.
We should consider digital literacy as the fourth pillar of the learning system. Apart from reading and writing, becoming digitally literate is important. Thus, it should be resourced and taught accordingly. Moreover, it is essential due to the current social requirements:
- It is needed to become a digital citizen responsible enough to use the technology to interact and share proper knowledge with the world.
- It is giving people a new world in the workplace.
- Research shows it is now vital to thrive and survive in the internet-dominated world along with papers and hard copies.
Importance of Digital Literacy to Develop Skills
The essential component of digital literacy is that it develops critical core skills. The importance of digital literacy in point are:
Collaborative works
Collaborative work means working with others as a team which develops strong interpersonal skills. Teamwork in a digital platform is challenging, but assignments intended for a group of students to complete are a good idea to engage students in partnership.
Critical thinking abilities
Digital literacy increases the ability to think critically, evaluate information and argument, identify patterns and connections between two things, and construct meaningful ideas. Through the knowledge of these critical thinking skills, students and teachers can apply them in their life and outer world.
Creativity
Creativity gets better when it is applied through digital platforms. People weigh up opportunities and use them for entrepreneurship. They also ask the right questions and generate new ideas faster.
Communication skills
Communication gets better in the digital world as many practical tools are used to reach more people, not just around but globally. Different range of audiences increases knowledge and confidence.
Why digital literacy is important for the teachers
Young students are taught by their teachers to grow up as responsible citizens of their country. Similarly, a virtual world should also have accountable citizens to maintain a healthy atmosphere. Therefore, the teacher should encourage students to comprehensively understand the digital class.
Teachers should use proper digital media.
Before motivating students about digital media, teachers should learn and practice using authentic websites. Students are proficient in using the Internet but need to know the appropriate digital knowledge. In addition, teachers should teach them that using social media is not just for personal posts but can use it as an established tool for showcasing their projects and best practices.
Use of digital learning in subjects
Teachers can use digital media by creating teacher courses in nearly every subject area. Moreover, they can use different platforms to conduct classes based on the subject and create content accordingly. Using and knowing various tools and techniques to conduct education literacy shows the importance of digital literacy in education in this new normal time.
Enhances scholastic performance
Digital literacy can improve the student’s academic performance. Both students and teachers play a vital role in this segment. Students can create original content, such as presentations, videos, and blog posts regarding a subject matter. As a result, many students dig well into the subject, understand the topic well and retain the information far better.
Teachers can learn and create digital literacy by innovatively sharing students’ projects, ideas, and discoveries to gain academic excellence.
Creates more possibilities for teamwork
Online teaching depends on communication, and teachers promote information literacy by engaging students in collaborative work with their peers. Students understand the lessons and make something new with the help of their co-students. They can construct and edit their presentations or notes through cloud-based software.
Safe use of the digital world
Teachers should teach their students about academic plagiarism, which is unethical in the digital world. Copying and sharing information without giving credit to the writer or the website is an evil practice. Teachers should always check this point with the students to build their self-study habits and original writing.
Cyberbullying is a threat in the digital world and is a significant concern among schools and educational institutions. Unfortunately, Theis irresponsible behavior takes place in electronic media too. Teachers should make a point so that students can prevail themselves from this deviant behavior.
To Sum Up
When using digital literacy in teachers, one cannot bury their heads searching for a platform in the sand. In this new normal era, we have plenty of options to perform well in spreading digital literacy in education. Classplus is a unique platform where teachers get a chance to combine their educational and technical skills and sell courses online. Through Classplus, teachers, in their way, can help the students to find their creativity and maintain digital etiquette.
