We’re All Illiterate

Looking at all the data collected about our students’ (and our own) digital literacy is tragic. We’re all illiterate.

It really feels like there’s no hope. Let’s all join the Amish or go live in a cabin in the woods.

definition of illiterate

Teachers are there to make sure students become literate. Digital literacy is a natural add-on to this. It’s our responsibility as future educators to make sure our students are not illiterate, even digitally.

The first few curricula for Grade 12 Calculus.

Since I’m probably going to be primarily teaching high school math, I don’t foresee myself having a lot of time to spend on deliberately teaching digital literacy. And, in the Saskatchewan Curriculum, the high school math level curricula really have nothing to do with digital literacy, so I’m unsure as to how I could incorporate that in.

However, I believe in educating the parents and not just the child – so sending home helpful emails and information and hosting digital literacy events for parents and students would be within my abilities.

What you see when you go to the Spot the Troll website.

If I was teaching a subject that was less strict than math, I could devote more time to teaching digital literacy. Doing class games like Spot the Troll would be a great way to start. Probably the best and most helpful thing for the students is to speak to them directly in dialogue and educate them that way. I’m a big fan of class discussions – I think they are much more effective than lectures.

10 Types of Misleading News

Another great thing to teach students would be the 7 Types of Mis- and Dis- Information and the 10 Types of Misleading News. Teaching students about what kinds of information are false and why will help them identify falsehoods in their own lives and help others to identify them as well. Slowly, we can build up awareness and thus help society learn what’s true.

Bernice

2 thoughts on “We’re All Illiterate

  1. Hey there, thanks for the read. I am glad to hear that you have thought about how you could teach digital literacy in a math class to high school students. I think if you were to check out the NCTE Framework (its in the list of resources Katia provided) and it has some some goals that may help you figure out how you can incorporate it in your math class 🙂

  2. I agree Bernice, It can feel helpless. I think it is also important to keep up to date as teachers. I feel like I live in a very different digital world than my co-workers who are mostly 10 years older than I am. I think it is hard to teach on digital safety without first being a part of the current digital world.

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