Introduction to Inclusive Digital Literacy
Contents
- 1 Description
- 2 Module 1: What is Digital Literacy?
- 3 Module 2: The Fourth Industrial Revolution, and Workplace Trends
- 3.1 The Fourth Industrial Revolution: What you can do
- 3.2 Reflective questions
- 3.3 Workplace Trends and the Importance of Digital Literacy 1#
- 3.4 Workplace Trends and the Importance of Digital Literacy 2#
- 3.5 Workplace Trends and the Importance of Digital Literacy 3#: Future Work Trends
- 3.6 Reflective questions
- 4 Module 3: Child-Centred Innovation and Inclusive Digital Literacy
- 4.1 Child-Centred Innovation as Applied to Digital Literacy
- 4.1.1 Six Steps to Introducing Child-Centred Innovation in Digital Literacy to Your Learner Community
- 4.1.2 STEP 1 THINK ABOUT THE LEARNER
- 4.1.3 STEP 2 THINK ABOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
- 4.1.4 STEP 3 THINK ABOUT MEANINGFUL ACTIVITIES
- 4.1.5 STEP 4 THINK ABOUT APPLICATION OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
- 4.1.6 STEP 5 START THE LEARNING JOURNEY!
- 4.1.7 STEP 6 HOW DID IT GO?
- 4.2 Overview: Achievement for All Inclusive Digital Literacy Learning Path
- 4.3 To find out more about Achievement for All
- 4.1 Child-Centred Innovation as Applied to Digital Literacy
- 5 Quiz
- 6 Source
Description
Digital technologies are now ubiquitous in the home, in school, in the workplace. It is easy to take this for granted... but can we make available and emerging technology work harder for us?
How can we equip every young person (especially those with special education needs and disabilities) to be digitally literate in a world where government is now on-line, banking is now on-line, insurance is on-line, shopping is on-line... as well as much of our social and leisure lives too? Young people adapt well to changing environments and demands when it comes to social media, gaming and streaming media content: but they need more.
Another critical question: are we (as teaching practitioners) exploiting the digital resources we already have to the full? Is technology simply replacing tasks, or is technology opening new frontiers in terms of accelerating learning and personalising the education experience?
We are delighted to be working in partnership with Microsoft to help your education setting transform the impact of digital technologies on the progress of all learners. This unit attempts to set the scene for your education setting's development of digital literacy, whatever your starting point.
Disclaimer: Achievement for All acknowledges and celebrates the abundant sources of information advice and guidance that are available on the world wide web. Whilst every care is taken to check the credentials and authenticity of these third party sources, Achievement for All accepts no liability for any content referred to and supplied by such third party sources.
Module 1: What is Digital Literacy?
Digital technologies are now ubiquitous in the home, in school, in the workplace.It is easy to take this for granted but it is important to consider these questions:
- Can we make available and emerging technology work harder for us?
- How can we equip every young person (especially those with special education needs and disabilities) to be digitally literate in a world *where government is now on-line, banking, insurance, and shopping are on-line..as well as much of our social and leisure lives too?
- Are educators exploiting the digital resources we already have to the full?
- Is technology simply replacing tasks, or is technology opening new frontiers in terms of accelerating learning and personalising the education experience?
Reflective questions Have the teachers and non-teachers in your education setting developed a shared understanding of the term digital literacy?
"Digital Literacy is as important as reading writing and maths" Discuss with colleagues.
"Everyone is our setting has to be an English teacher. Everyone in our setting has to be a maths teacher. Everyone in our setting has to be a digital literacy teacher." Discuss with colleagues. What are the differing views? Where is there common ground?
Module 2: The Fourth Industrial Revolution, and Workplace Trends
The Fourth Industrial Revolution: What you can do
Watch the video from the World Economic Forum.
Ubiquitous, mobile supercomputing. Artificially-intelligent robots. Self-driving cars. Neuro-technological brain enhancements. Genetic editing. The evidence of dramatic change is all around us and it's happening at exponential speed. Previous industrial revolutions liberated humankind from animal power, made mass production possible and brought digital capabilities to billions of people. This Fourth Industrial Revolution is, however, fundamentally different. It is characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies and industries, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human.
Reflective questions
Think about your education setting: the children and young people in your classes, the way learning is organised, managed and delivered within your education setting. Whatever age you teach, be it pre-school, primary or secondary, the learners in your care are on a life-long learning journey into, and in some cases, beyond the 21st century:
- Does your education setting's mission and vision statement say anything about what you do to prepare the children and young people in your care for the social and economic challenges that they will face over a working life of perhaps 60 years and a longevity that may well see them active well past the age of 100?!
- Laying the foundations for life-long learning should be the imperatives that drive any education setting. How does your education setting articulate these imperatives? Literacy and numeracy goals? As standards of exam performance? As social and societal outcomes? As a set of capabilities, attitudes and social/cultural expectations?
- How do you create a learning culture that acknowledges the role technology plays in supporting working, learning and living in the 21st century? After watching the video, how could your setting do better?
Answer one of these questions in the comments below to share how your school prepares its students for the future.
Workplace Trends and the Importance of Digital Literacy 1#
Some would say that the workplace is changing four times faster than schools.
A recent global survey of Chiefs Executives, Educators and students conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (The Skills Agenda: Preparing students for the future 2015) asked contributors to try to identify what skills might be required to learn and earn as we enter the third decade of the 21c.
Workplace Trends and the Importance of Digital Literacy 2#
The world of work that our children and young people today will face as they grow up in a rapidly changing world will look quite different. Explore an interactive that looks into future work trends.
Click here to Open the interactive
Workplace Trends and the Importance of Digital Literacy 3#: Future Work Trends
"...As technology becomes more pervasive, traditional trades disappear and the world of work becomes more globalised, the skills considered to be valuable for the future are shifting.
Problem solving, team working, and communication (commonly known as "21st century skills") are the most-needed skills in the workplace, according to our recent surveys of business executives, students and teachers. Digital literacy and creativity — and the latter's close relative, entrepreneurship—are expected to grow more important in the next three years.
Incorporating these skills in existing education systems, however, is far from straightforward. Teachers report that lack of time in a strictly regulated curriculum is the biggest barrier to teaching 21st century skills, while digital literacy is one of the areas where they would most like further training (31%).
Meanwhile, the young have become more comfortable learning on their own, especially on topics of interest: 62% of teachers report that students are becoming more independent and able to gather information themselves. As one expert interviewed for the report puts it, 'young people have an innate affinity with technology, and it would be a shame not to utilise that effectively'..."
Zoe Tabary The Economist Intelligence Unit 2015
Reflective questions
Consider the workplace of tomorrow in light of your current curriculum offer to children and young people:
- In what ways does your curriculum offer prepare children and young people for these future work trends, and the skills required to thrive in a changing world of work?
- What are the challenges that children and young people with SEND face as the world changes rapidly? Can you think of how technological advances can help?
- How does digital literacy, and self-confidence in a digital world, relate to these predicted work trends?
- How well does your setting's digital literacy policy and practice rise to the challenge?
Module 3: Child-Centred Innovation and Inclusive Digital Literacy
Professional learning can sometimes seem piecemeal and not "joined-up". Sometimes, you learn something, and because you do not have an immediate opportunity to apply the learning, it is lost, and the training is wasted.
Achievement for All has developed the concept of child-centred innovation:
- influenced by our coaching model,
- supported by our needs analysis process,
- aimed at affecting change with a target cohort or identified learners, and ,
- building on overarching principles and practice established in tailored modules such as 'Collaborative Action Research' (this Module, and many others, can be accessed if your education setting becomes a full member of the Achievement for All community of practice- see Achievement for All website for further details).
It also acknowledges the need to put the individual child or young person at the centre of all school development activity.
Child-Centred Innovation as Applied to Digital Literacy
Click here to Open the interactive
that explains Child-Centred Innovation in the context of Digital Literacy.
Six Steps to Introducing Child-Centred Innovation in Digital Literacy to Your Learner Community
STEP 1 THINK ABOUT THE LEARNER
Think about a learner, or small group of learners, that will be your target group.
Think about an area of learning where you would like to see accelerated progress. How will you measure progress? What evidence will you need to collect? As you proceed through the Courses, keep reflecting on this initial selection, to see if your new learning is relevant to their needs and their learning objectives.
STEP 2 THINK ABOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
Use one of the Audit Tools in "Developing a Digitally Literate Pedagogy" to self-evaluate your current digital literacy levels, or to give you ideas about what areas of digital literacy you would like to personally develop.
STEP 3 THINK ABOUT MEANINGFUL ACTIVITIES
After completing "Developing a Digitally Literate Learner", reflect on the Digital Literacy abilities and capabilities of your target cohort:
What can you do to make them aware of their own personal next steps in terms of digital literacy development?
How can you build meaningful activities into their overarching learning objectives that enable them to rehearse and develop these "next steps"?
STEP 4 THINK ABOUT APPLICATION OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
After completing "Developing a digitally Literate Curriculum" decide on what digital technologies you will choose to support the ambition outlined in Steps 2 and 3:
You may wish to liaise with colleagues with IT responsibilities so that you use language and approaches already in train within the educational setting.
STEP 5 START THE LEARNING JOURNEY!
Collect some baseline evidence from your target cohort, then apply some new learning, or new approaches, to your target cohort
STEP 6 HOW DID IT GO?
Review and evaluate the progress that has been made.
How can the practice you have developed:
a) be applied to other learners
b) be shared with other colleagues
c) what next steps need to/ Can be taken?
Overview: Achievement for All Inclusive Digital Literacy Learning Path
Introduction to Inclusive Education is the first course in the full Achievement for All Digital Literacy Learning Path. Other courses in the learning path will include The Digitally Literate Learner; The Digitally Literate Teacher; The Digitally Literate School and Building a Digitally Literate School Community. These courses have been carefully written so the underlying principles have a direct relevance to all ages and phases, from primary to 16+, and all settings, from mainstream to specialist.
This course is about the Learner. Whatever age group you serve, it will give a sense of the progression pathway young learners are on, before they get to you and after they leave. This is important knowledge- if you are a subject specialist, you may be very familiar with progression in your area of expertise... but not necessarily in terms of age-related expectations for digital literacy. P-Scales, spikey profiles and how standards relate to learners with special education needs and disabilities are also covered in this Module Unit.
This course is about you, the teacher. It is quite possible that many professional educators have only had a smattering of technology-focussed training. It may have been centred around how the interactive whiteboards work, or how to enter registration, assessment and behaviour data into a school information management system. This module unit gives professionals a chance to reflect on their own digital literacy competencies, then choose areas of personal development that are small-step, achievable and immediately applicable to the young learners in their care.
The Digitally Literate School is all about the way digital literacy learning is organised within and beyond your classrooms and your curriculum, helping you to reflect on building the digitally literate school. Again, the learning is organised so that you can quickly review the big trends, learn from other professionals through case studies and interactive reviews, choose one or two areas to explore, learn and apply (all the time considering the needs of the learners in your classes)... then begin the cycle of self improvement again. This, though a series of small step cycles of collaborative action research, your setting will rapidly improve its collective approach to digital literacy development.
This course pulls the strands together around the needs of learners with special education needs and disabilities, looking at how assistive technologies are able to transform learning outcomes by helping to overcome impairment... a central theme within the progressive social model for disability.
To find out more about Achievement for All
Please visit our website: Achievement for All
Remind students and staff about the accessible features available across Office 365 with this convenient one page document.
O365 Education - Learning Tools one pager.pdf
