Sinduja Ragunathan

In recent years, especially in the wake of the 2016 US Presidential election and Brexit, there has been a growing concern about false information derailing civic and political life. When public engagement is highly regulated by the Internet, it makes sense to say that literacy is linked to democracy itself (Polizzi, 2020).

Digital literacy

It has often been difficult to for a fixed definition of digital literacy to evolve as the field is constantly changing to encompass new developments (Buckingham, 2015).

Back in the 1980s, this skill meant getting someone to become literate about operating a computer. Then, in the 1990s, it meant being able to navigate the web and understand the hyperlink modality. Later, in the 2000s, being literate meant we could have the basic means to do much research online creatively, collaboratively, and through effective communication. Recently though, it has meant that children are able to distinguish between credible and fake news (Silvhiany, 2019).

But generally speaking, the definitions of critical digital literacy have tended to shift in two directions: first, it has been defined as the ability to be be proficient at using the digital medium for various purposes. And second, it is conceived as the ability to critically deal with the information received from this medium. Let us discuss both of these (Pangrazio, 2016).

Proficiency at using the digital media – How do we teach and assess?

If students have to be digitally literate, it is important that they are not just passive consumers of content. They must learn to employ various digital tools to solve problems and engage in innovative projects on which they can creatively collaborate (Silvhiany, 2019). This will build awareness on when, how, why, and to communicate to whom they need to use digital tools. And yet, despite the proliferation of digital media around us, most schools employ print-based texts in classrooms.

From my own practice, I have seen that students enjoy collaborating with the use of digital tools as it brings in an element of novelty in the class. It also makes them feel like they were a part of creating something.

Ability to evaluate information effectively – How do we teach and assess?

Studies have shown that misinformation spreads faster than real news (Ali et al., 2021). It becomes important then to educate students on how to evaluate various sources of information. Further, it has been found that way a platform is designed can also affect how it is used, and it is hence important to educate students on media affordances (Seargeant & Tagg, 2018)

Digital literacy – The Road Ahead

We are now entering a phase in which the more significant shifts are no longer technologies that are used by people but those which are used on them. This is an era of data-driven automated technologies and AI (Ali et al., 2021). The future is likely set to be increasingly inundated with text, images, audio, and video that will be hard to source back or distinguish from real. This is especially risky for children.

The new era of critical digital literacy then requires us to prioritize AI literacy too, which can be said to consist of the following:

• An ability to know when data-driven automation is being used
• Knowing the fundamentals of how data-driven automated systems work
• Learning to work effectively with generative AI systems such as ChatGPT
• Learning to work around AI systems to avoid data surveillance

References

Ali, S., DiPaola, D., Lee, I., Sindato, V., Kim, G., Blumofe, R., & Breazeal, C. (2021). Children as creators, thinkers and citizens in an AI-driven future.  Computers and Education Artificial Intelligence. 2 (1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2021.100040

Buckingham, D. (2015). Defining digital literacy: What do young people need to know about digital media? Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 10 (1), 21-35

Edutopia. (Jan 6, 2016). Tech Literacy: Exploring tools through content [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW6j0_Z65aE

Now This News. (Jul 23, 2020). Watch This Incredibly Convincing Deepfake of Richard Nixon | NowThis [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rkQn-43ixs

Pangrazio, L. (2016). Reconceptualizing critical digital literacy. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. 37(2). 163-174.

Polizzi, G. (2020). Digital literacy and the national curriculum for England: Learning from how the experts engage with and evaluate online content. Computers & Education, 152, 103859

Seargeant, P., & Tagg, C. (2018) Critical digital literacy education in the “fake news” era, in Digital literacy unpacked. Facet, pp. 179–190. Https://
doi.org/10.29085/9781783301997.015 (Accessed: 12 December 2021).

Silvhiany, S. (2019). Critical Digital Literacies in Education 4 .0 : Preparing
Students for the Uncertainties of Post-Truth World. LINGUA, 19(2), 102–109.
https://ejournal.unsri.ac.id/index.php/lingua/article/view/11092/5251