It has not changed that the future of our world will be in the hands of our current students. What has changed, however, is the sheer number of jobs in their future that require digital literacy skills. Lawrence states that "increasingly, jobs in marketing, communications, advertising, and media are jobs that deal directly with social media and the Internet" (2022, p.15). In an ever-competitive job market, most careers include some use of social media and dealing with the Internet. If we want our students to be prepared for their future, then we must ensure that they are learning how to be digitally literate from an early age. This can be quite a controversial topic among educators. I have even been on the anti-social media side, but it is increasingly more important that students understand the digital world and are literate in digital writing. The future of technology and social media is constantly changing, so it is imperative that we prepare our students to the best of our ability.
I remember being in elementary school in the early 2000s and there being a computer lab where we played typing games and learned about Floppy Disks. At the time, this was considered the most appropriate approach for students to learn. However, this shows a drastic change between the skills that today's students need to learn and those of a generation ago. Not only do students need to learn how to type and use a computer, but they also need to be proficient in digital writing. For students to be successful, they need to be proficient in “emulating, experimentation, prototyping, optimization, interactivity, automation, and self-teaching” (Lawrence, 2022, p.71). Many of these skills are already being taught to students through literacy skills. Such as emulating by using example paragraphs from the teacher or prototyping by writing a rough draft and optimizing by revising a paper. These skills do not necessarily have to be directly taught in through social media, but teachers should help students make connections to how these skills are used in an online world. As much as we would like to keep students off social media and the Internet, the reality is that they will be much more prepared if they are properly taught the ins and outs of digital literacy.
The University of Iowa College of Education wrote a blog post that includes the importance of digital literacy and ways to support digital literacy education in your classroom. Check it out by clicking here!
Digital literacy: Preparing students for a tech-savvy future. (2024, September 12). University of Iowa. https://onlineprograms.education.uiowa.edu/blog/digital-literacy-preparing-students-for-a-tech-savvy-future
Everything STEM. (2023, October 12). Empowering the future: The importance of digital literacy [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSsQAvSGqvM
Lawrence, D. (2022). Digital writing: A guide to writing for social media and the Web. [eBook edition] Ontario, Canada: Broadview Press
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