Why should teachers care about digital literacies?

Why should teachers care about digital literacy and childhood in the digital age?

This blog is a brief exploration into digital literacies and their relevance in education, with reference to a collection of articles regarding the subject.

Turnbull (2004) and Evans (2004) explore weblogs within an educational setting and how children interact and engage with them. It is evident that new technologies have brought about a sea of change within classrooms (Evans, 2004).  Both authors provide insights into how this form of digital literacy supports children academically. Turnbull (2004) offers experiences from teacher’s who have implemented blogging into their curriculum, suggesting that weblogs engage and enthuse children in work that would otherwise not interest them.  Additionally, Turnbull (2004) states that through using weblogs, academic performance across the curriculum, particularly in literacy have shown greater advances that would normally be expected for their age group. Furthermore, Turnbull (2004) and Evans (2004) share the view that children are passionate about blogging, extending and building upon their blogs beyond the classroom.  In doing so, children are employing a range of advanced skills, such as critical thinking, using a combination of text and image to portray meaning as well as collaborative thinking, building upon initial ideas and developing them as a class (Evans, 2004).  A common issue for educators is the complexity involved with digital literacies and the time it takes to master them (Prensky, 2001). However, Evans (2004) argues that weblogs do not require much technical expertise and often are free. Therefore, it should be assumed that teachers should consider this form of digital literacy as they provide children with a range of educational benefits.

As aforementioned, this rapid emergence of digital literacies associated with this digital age are beginning to play an integral role in education and provides educators with opportunities to further enhance classroom learning (John and Sutherland, 2004).  Interestingly, Ward (2013) and Hudson (2013) explore the implications involved with using video games for educational purposes. Paul-Gee (2003) describes the process of learning to play a video game as learning a new form of digital literacy, interpreting images, symbols, artefacts and many other visual representations. Ward (2013) focuses on the impact ‘Minecraft’ has on children, noting that the video game has accumulated a fan base consisting of tens of millions of people.  Although video games are typically associated with negative connotations of mindless violence (Paul-Gee, 2003), Ward (2013) states how through playing ‘Minecraft’, children learn complex concepts and issues such as managing servers, the importance of creating back-ups as well as general technical competence.  Hudson (2013) also recognises the significance ‘Minecraft’ is having on schools, arguing that it is a perfect way to teach children about programming, an area in which the National curriculum for 2014 (2013) places significant emphasis on. Interestingly, ‘Minecraft’ is not the only big company to develop gaming for the classroom. ‘Rovio’, the developers of ‘Angry Birds’ have introduced a new scheme to support learning through gaming as well as through other digital technologies in addition to collaborating with book publishers (Hudson, 2013)

Despite these inevitable benefits associated with using digital technology in the classroom, some schools insist on prohibiting the use of video games within schools (Hudson, 2013).  However, Ward (2013) states how parents are beginning to acknowledge these benefits as well as claiming how these games have actually been used to establish social relationships, turning computing schools into social capital. Additionally, approximately 1500 schools are now using these digital literacies as a teaching aid to supplement learning across all subject in the curriculum (Ward, 2013).

Therefore, it can be assumed that digital literacies are not only important to children in terms of leisure, particularly in an increasingly digital society, but should be considered by teachers and implemented in teaching in order to ensure learning is maximised. However, it is important to note that Hudson (2013) expresses the view that digital literacies are important but not the most important factor when teaching, it is still crucial that learning is supported with high quality teaching.

Bibliography

Department for Education (DFE,2013) The National Curriculum in England: Key stage 1 and 2 Framework Document London: DFE

Evans, A (2004) The joys of text: TES Magazine

Hudson, A (2013) Angry Birds game fires into the classroom: BBC News, Technology

John, P and Sutherland, R (2004) Teaching and Learning with ICT: New technology, new pedagogy? Education, Communication and Information, 4, pp101-107

Paul-Gee, J (2003) What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. Hampshire: Paulgrave Macmillan

Prensky, M (2001) ‘Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Part 2: Do they really think differently? On the Horizon 9(6) pp.1-9

Turnbull, G (2004) The seven-year-old bloggers: BBC News, Magazine

Ward, M (2013) Why Minecraft is more than just another video game : BBC News, Technology