Your children go to school to master the tools they need to become successful members of society. As our world shifts toward a tech-focused way of life, kids should be learning to use modern technology just as they learn history, science, English and math.
Specifically, experts have noticed the need for what they’ve defined as digital literacy. You already know that literacy means the ability to read and write. But the addition of the descriptor “digital” completely changes what this skill encompasses. Being digitally literate might mean that your child can read their homework from a tablet, rather than a paperback book. As they get older, they might learn in school how to discern between a real and fake website. Or, a teacher might show them how to create and share educational YouTube videos of their own.
The American Library Association’s digital-literacy task force has come up with a definition of what all of the above means. They say that “digital literacy is the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.”
The best way to become digitally literate, then, is for kids to learn how to use today’s technology. Here’s what kids should learn — and how digital tools are already helping them along the way:
1. Digital Learning Caters to All Skill Levels
Technology has helped society in a myriad of ways, but perhaps its most valuable asset is its customization options. Think about it: a grandmother and her grandson might both use the same brand of smartphone. He might use the technology for more — social media, online banking, texting and so on. But they can both pick up the phone and use it easily for what they need.
Digital learning suits students in this way, too – it makes technology easily accessible to a child of any skill set. An educational computer game, for example, will have different levels to suit those who understand computers or those who are just starting out. They can learn on their terms and climb the ranks as they advance. No child will be left behind in this, either — instead, kids learn concurrently and at their own levels.
2. Digital Learning Makes Educational Materials More Engaging
It can be quite boring for students to read through a textbook, then answer questions at the end of each chapter. On top of that, they probably won’t retain much of what they learn if they’re unengaged or distracted.
Digital learning helps to make these lessons fun again by moving textbooks from their physical form to tablets. Once they’re digitized, books can become more interactive. For instance, a digital textbook will automatically grade a student’s answers to an end-of-chapter quiz to ensure they’ve learned what they needed to. It might read each paragraph out loud so they can skim along, really taking in the information. Even animated images and sound effects can help transform a boring homework assignment into something fun and engaging.
3. Digital Learning Provides Ample Resources
Unfortunately, schools in America don’t fit a mold. While some have seemingly endless resources for their students, some have a very finite amount for their pupils. Once again, technology changes all of this. Even if students don’t have a full library from which they can check out books, they can log onto the internet and find the information they need for a project or report. Plenty of academic collections make their resources free to students who access them online as well.
The only problem on this front is that some schools can’t provide their students with in-class resources, let alone digital ones. Fortunately, plenty of charities and initiatives have worked to close this gap across the country. They provide low-income schools with computers — sometimes one for each student — so that they have access to the outside world of resources. President Obama also boosted internet speeds at schools across the country, and he proposed expanding that program to students’ homes, too.
Once kids have access to technology, though, their worlds open up. Computers, tablets and the internet provide an endless amount of educational resources for students in our current digital age.
4. Digital Learning Provides Marketable Skills for the Future
Can your child discern between a reputable website and an amateur one? Can they create digital slideshows and present them? Do they know how to update a blog or send out a tweet? All of these digital skills will help today’s students secure tomorrow’s jobs. It’s vital that every child has a well-rounded education, of course. But digital learning provides today’s youth with the skills that will help them to succeed in college or in the workplace, long before they even need that technology.
In all of the above scenarios, digital learning helps kids learn because it’s a hands-on lesson. You can’t simply show a kid how to log online and find a website that’s legitimate. You show them the basics, then let them try it on their own. Perhaps you show a teenage student how to make a Twitter, but then you allow them to fire off their own tweets. All of it’s hands-on, so it’s learning that’ll stick as time goes on.
So, you shouldn’t hide your kids from technology — instead, you and their teachers should work to make it a part of their everyday lives. Such a setup will lay the groundwork for a successful future using the internet, computers and any other new tech that comes our way. Your digitally literate kids will be ready, and that’s a major reason why technology can and should help them learn.
