Literacy for the New Age: Reading, Writing and Google?

For one of my classes I recently had to read this article by Tonya Roscorla where she lists five challenges to digital literacy that school librarians face.

Now I am not a school librarian, but as someone who works with children in a library setting, many of these challenges affect me too. It’s just as much my obligation to share the importance of digital literacy as it is the school librarian’s. Every program we put on can help expand and develop a child’s digital literacy; STEM programs, 3D printing opportunities, Hour of Code, etc. Even something as seemingly mundane as “How do I open this document?” can help better equip them to be able to preform these tasks in the future.

Critically analyzing a website to check its credibility? Righteous, dude.

One quote in particular struck me in the article. “While we say students are digital natives, digital natives don’t exist.” I think that’s what makes advocating the importance of teaching digital literacy so hard for some to understand. In addition to the concept being hard to define, we’re used to children picking up on certain aspects of technology since they were born into it. For example, we see babies swipe and operate the iPad like a pro all the time. (Side note: my parents have been swiping computer screens and laptops for years. It doesn’t make them a “digital native.”) But there’s a huge difference between being able to simply use technology and knowing how to use it to its full potential.

Social media is such a big aspect of many people’s lives. Whether it’s used personally or professionally, like it or not, we are all rapidly expanding our spheres of influence. To me, digital and media literacy go hand-in-hand. Since we are both consumers and creators in this digital media market, it’s important to really understand what we have at our fingertips. We need to help guide the younger generation on how to use these tools, just we helped them learn how to read and write. And this, as all important things do, takes time and practice.