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Module 1: What is Digital Literacy?

Welcome to Module 1 of the Ed Tech Academy!  In the first of this new series on Education Technology, we’ll explore the central question: What is digital literacy?
We invite you to begin with this intro video featuring our founder, Anthony Bloome.

Learning Objectives Module 1

  1. I definitely wrote learning objectives
  2. But now I can’t find them anywhere
  3. So I’ll have to redo them

Key Resources

DQ Framework

DQ comprises 24 digital competencies. It focuses on 8 critical areas of digital life– identity, use, safety, security, emotional intelligence, literacy, communication, and rights. These 8 areas can each be developed at three levels: citizenship, creativity, and competitiveness.

  • Citizenship focuses on basic levels of skills needed to use technologies in responsible, safe, and ethical ways.
  • Creativity allows problem-solving through the creation of new knowledge, technologies, and content.
  • Competitiveness focuses on innovations to change communities and the economy for broad benefit.

ICDL Framework

ICDL Europe is an international organisation dedicated to raising digital competence standards in the workforce, education and society. Our certification programmes, delivered through an active network in more than 100 countries, enable individuals and organisations to assess, build and certify their competence in the use of computers and digital tools to the globally-recognised ICDL standard.

Offerings:

DigComp Framework

The European Digital Competence Framework, also known as DigComp, offers a tool to improve citizen’s digital competence. Today, being digitally competent means that people need to have competences in all areas of DigComp.

The report called DigComp 2.0 presents the updated list of 21 competences (also called the conceptual reference model) whereas the eight proficiency levels and examples of use can be found in DigComp 2.1. Take a look at the new infographic explaining the 8 proficiency levels using a metaphor of “Learning to swim in the digital ocean“. 

Check out our expert round table video here . . . 

Expert Interviews

DQ Institute- who, what, why short description 

Rwanda DOT- who, why, why short description

European Commission- who, why, what, short description 

Case Studies

Intel She Will Connect Digital Caravan

Train my Generation Gabon

Connect to Learn Myanmar

A mobile caravan, the latest addition to the Intel® She Will Connect program, is helping to empower young Kenyan women looking for opportunity by bringing technology to them.

The training sessions, based on the Intel® Learn Easy Steps digital literacy curriculum, introduced the participants to computers, the Internet, and computer programs for word processing and productivity.

A three-year project to provide training on how to develop applications for mobile phones, operate cyber cafés and set up cooperative maintenance centres, through the Train My Generation: Gabon 5000 project.

The Connect To Learn program is a public-private partnership that brings mobile technology and 3G/4G-based Internet access to underserved schools in Myanmar, offering students the opportunity to leapfrog to a 21st century education. The program promotes universal access to quality secondary education by providing user-friendly learning devices for teachers and students to use in the classroom. Connect To Learn aims to effectively integrate teacher training programs to enrich learning experiences and improve workforce readiness. 

 

Top 3 Additional Courses

Top 5 Bonus Resources

Stanford Media Literacy has a free Civic Online Reasoning Course

  • “Students are confused about how to evaluate online information. We all are. The COR curriculum provides free lessons and assessments that help you teach students to evaluate online information that affects them, their communities, and the world.”

World Bank: Digital Skills: The Why, The What and The How

  • A course on “developing digital skills proficiency at the intermediate and advanced levels for students in higher education and TVET” 
  • Self-paced e-learning, must sign-in to enroll

TBD

  1. World Bank Podcast with Yves
  2. How to Develop Work-Ready Digital Skills in African Youth? 
  3. WorldBank EdTech Podcast:
    • Exploring the Potential of Digital Technologies to Innovate Education and Training Practices: A Conversation with the European Commission – Part I and Part II
  4. Instructional Tech Talk Podcast  with Jeff Herb https://instructionaltechtalk.com/
  5. What works in EdTech?

Top 3 Resources K-12

Top 5 Resources for Practitioners

Mediasmarts Digital Literacy 101, K-12​

  • “The Digital Literacy Training Program for Canadian Educators workshop provides an overview of essential digital literacy skills and key concepts of media and digital literacy, familiarizes participants with the digital experiences of Canadian youth, and introduces the resources and tools that are available through MediaSmarts’ USE, UNDERSTAND & CREATE digital literacy framework.”
  • “The intent of these resources is to support teachers in implementing digital literacy into their teaching practice and to help them to develop digital literacy lessons and activities that suit their students’ needs.”

Commonsense.org: Digital Citizenship Curriculum, K-12

  • “Use digital citizenship lesson plans to address timely topics and prepare students to take ownership of their digital lives. Browse lessons by grade and topic below, or see an overview of the curriculum.”

Virginia Tech Digital Literacy Framework Toolkit

  • “This toolkit is intended to help you put the digital literacy framework from the University Libraries at Virginia Tech into action. Use this toolkit to align your work with digital literacy learning outcomes, get inspired when revising or creating a workshop, curriculum, program, or other learning experience, and learn more about the digital literacy framework.”

Digital Citizenship Toolkit by Cheryl Brown

  • Chapter 1: Introduction to Digital Literacy

UNESCO: Global Framework of Reference on Digital Literacy Skills 

  • Goes over definitions of Digital Literacy, Mapping of ICT and digital literacy frameworks and examples of competencies, Mapping of digital literacy competencies in examples of digital technology use & Pathways for digital literacy development and assessment: An example application of a Digital Literacy Global Framework

ITU: Digital Skills Toolkit

  • “This Digital Skills Toolkit … addresses the many complexities of devising and advancing digital skills at the policy level. It maps out how digital skills take their place within a wider framework of soft, twenty-first-century skills. It offers clear guidance on bringing together – and leading – different stakeholders and moving forward under one clear and focused framework.”

UNICEF: Digital Literacy for Children

  • This paper presents the results of a scoping exercise on children’s digital
    literacy that has been undertaken with the following objectives:
    • to understand the current digital literacy policy and practice landscape;
    • to highlight existing competence frameworks and how they can be
    adapted to UNICEF’s needs;
    • to analyze the needs and efforts of UNICEF country offices; and
    • to reflect on policy and program recommendations, including a
    definition of digital literacy for UNICEF.

UNESCO: Digital Skills for Life and Work

  • This paper presents an overview of key digital skills and competencies

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Jax Chaudhry

Jax Chaudhry leads Project Invent, a national nonprofit that empowers youth with future ready mindsets for individual success and global impact, through invention. Originally from the Southside of Chicago, Jax loves working with students, families and partners to ensure every student can attain success as they define it. For more than 10 years, she has worked with elementary schools, high schools, education nonprofits and led regional teams and operations to ensure student success.

Michael Leventhal

Kenneth Y T Lim operates at the intersection of neuroergonomics, the learning scienceMichael Leventhal is co-founder of RobotsMali, a pedagogical and AI4D laboratory and STEM education center in Bamako, Mali. RobotsMali has trained thousands of students from elementary school to high school in computer science, robotics, and artificial intelligence, coached national robotics teams that have won 32 medals in international competitions, and developed technologies using AI and robotics for the social and economic development of Mali. Before becoming an educator in Mali, Michael worked as a technologist in Silicon Valley.s, and cognitive psychology. In 2023, he and his team were identified by UNESCO to share their work on the affordances of Generative AI for meaningful teaching and learning, during UNESCO’s first annual flagship event Digital Learning Week, international forum on the implications of Generative AI for education, in the session on ‘Preparing students and teachers for responsible use of AI’.

Enouce Ndeche

Enouce Ndeche is the founder and Director of Vijana Amani Pamoja ,VAP a community scheme based in Nairobi Kenya that uses the power and the popularity of the game of soccer/football as a catalyst for social, educational and economic empowerment.Enouce holds a degree in sociology from Egerton university and he is also the 2020 individual award recipient “Diversity and Inclusion Eminent Leader Award Enouce is also a certified Sports Philanthropy and Executive, George Washington University and is a 2023 Gratitude Network fellow.

Kenneth Y T Lim

Kenneth Y T Lim operates at the intersection of neuroergonomics, the learning sciences, and cognitive psychology. In 2023, he and his team were identified by UNESCO to share their work on the affordances of Generative AI for meaningful teaching and learning, during UNESCO’s first annual flagship event Digital Learning Week, international forum on the implications of Generative AI for education, in the session on ‘Preparing students and teachers for responsible use of AI’.