Reading AND Seeing The Code

Digital literacy has been a critical skill students need to develop and its importance only grows as distrust and contention grows within politics and social issues. One of the best ways to educate students in this aspect is to contextualize their learning. With respect to Mathematics, my major, one way I would introduce students to digital literacy is showing them how easy it is to lie with selective statistics and visual proofs. For example, this video by 3Blue1Brown explains how one can be deceived by convincing illustrations. These strategies are often used to lie in media and is effectively explained in this article by Data&Society and this video by Mark Liddell.

In relation to the curriculum, the Broad Areas of Learning (BALs) are developing lifelong learners, a sense of self and community, and engaged citizens. Digital literacy ties perfectly in all three BALs. Since the digital landscape is constantly changing, lifelong learning is necessary to be aware of what’s new and how are thinking must also shift. Moreover, effective use of the internet and its tools allow students to curate their identity and collaborate with others – cultivating a sense of self and community. Lastly, digital tools give students the opportunities necessary to be an engaged citizen not just within the classroom, but beyond their locality. Tools such as finding proper resources exist to aid students in this endeavour – for example, the extension Escape Your Bubble helps to show users resources they may not have seen if they solely relied on the precise algorithm developed by social media platforms.

Incorporating the NCTE framework is also critical for developing a rich and diverse curriculum for digital literacy. In my time, digital literacy was purely about cyberbullying. Although this is an important aspect of digital literacy, it is much more complex than this one topic can cover and requires further exploration of nuances to immerse students in the reality that we face today.