Unit 11: Digital Literacy

When looking at digital literacy, I feel like that is such an encompassing word that it can really mean almost everything that has to do with technology and using it properly.  When looking at Alan November's website, he does a good job of providing many resources to help people understand what digital literacy is and the importance of it.  Of all the links and resources he provides, my favorite one is the one talking about the use of google.  It is amazing to me how google could be used much better, but not many people, including myself, know how to use it properly.  Like most people, I just type something into google, look through the top few links, and use those.  Odds are, if our students do not know how to use google properly, they are not finding what they possibly could that is out there on the internet.  This is something that I feel needs to get stressed in all schools to make sure students and staff know how to use google properly.

As a school leader, the way that I want to help all staff members become digital literate is to provide quality professional development on digital literacy.  I think it is important for me as a school leader to stress the importance of being digital literate as that is the society we live in now.  We are not going back to the 1950's, so why should we focus on education the way they did in the 1950s?  I think once all the staff realizes the importance of digital literacy and understand how they can utilize it in their classroom, they will then pass that information along to the kids in their classes.  Another thing that I have been considering is building into the calendar a couple of professional development days during the annual TIE conference and making the entire staff participate as that will help them progress the school and hopefully open up their eyes to things they did not realize were possible.

My reaction to the Teaching Zack to Think is not surprised.  Unfortunately, there are so many students, and staff members, who are not digitally literate enough to understand that just because they read something on the internet does not make it true.  Checking references or links that are quoted along with looking into who the author is are such simple things that people often overlook.  I feel like people today want instant results and instant data that they just find something that fits their narrative and go with it without realizing if it is a good source or not.  

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