Redefining "Digital Literacy" in Public Education

By Daniel Hoisch on August 13, 2013

Photo uploaded by Vancouverfilmschool

 

In today’s day and age, the word “literate” has many meanings. While the first form that comes to mind is still the simple act of reading a book, it is no longer the most prominent. 21st century technical innovations have skyrocketed beyond what anyone could have predicted thirteen years ago, and while public users may be plugged into their electronic devices, their knowledge of usage and programming may be moving too slow compared with the speed of the digital millennium. Without a solid computer curriculum in public education, much of a student’s computer knowledge comes from outside of the classroom setting. The truth is that American public schools are neglecting to teach the right technical skills in today’s digital empire.

I speak partially out of self-experience. The first computer class that I ever took was in 2004 in middle school. It was a computer elective course that taught basic skills with Microsoft Office. My second computer course was another elective in 2006, which covered basic typing and word processing skills. Throughout high school, I was never even once assigned a computer program to work with other than Microsoft Word. Of course, this was over two years ago, so perhaps certain policies have been implemented to increase technical exposure. During my time in public education, computer science was nothing more than an elective that defined “digital literacy” as knowing how to use computer programs, but with the increasing demand for technical expertise in the work force now, it is no longer enough just to be able to use the program. Now, it is vital that every student gain some understanding of the inner-mechanics and languages of software design.

For some reason, many students think that computer coding is an advanced subject reserved for geniuses and mathematicians. They don’t think of themselves as capable computer programmers. I will admit that the thought of computer programming can be discouraging to some people. As the only liberal arts major in an apartment with five STEM majors last school year, I felt a little shook up myself. I began to question whether or not a degree in literature was really the right way to go in this world. I later realized that what I major in doesn’t make as big a difference as the skills that I build, and that as long as I have the technical knowledge to back myself up, there wouldn’t be any need to discourage my choices. So I took matters into my own hands and found a site called www.code.org to teach myself the necessary language for computer programing and web design.

Photo uploaded by 75th Trombone

The knowledge is out there, but the issue is a lack of motivation to find it. So the job falls to public education to redefine digital literacy and start teaching students to create, rather than just to understand. “[W]e can’t keep preparing students for a world that doesn’t exist…And above all, we must stop disparaging digital prowess just because some of us over 40 don’t happen to possess it,” says New York Times writer Virginia Heffernan in her article, Education Needs a Digital-Age Upgrade. Heffernan proposes that the educational environment in America faces a sort of gender gap between students who move towards the digital age, and the teachers who try to tie them down to the world they once lived in. We’re not living in the 1990s anymore, and in many cases nowadays, a student could benefit more from exploring the internet on his laptop or cell phone than he could from one hour in class with a grudging conservative teacher. I now know for a fact that I could have learned more Spanish online than from my high school language program.

Phot uploaded by NatalieJWilliams

I am not saying that we should replace high school teachers with laptop computers. There is only so much that a machine can do to connect with its user. But American public schools need to take a stronger advantage of the technology in this century if we are going to build the digital revolution of tomorrow, and teachers who do not utilize this technology need to be replaced by those who do. According to statistics given from the DigitalWish Channel on Youtube, 75% of teachers from schools with a 1:1 laptop program agree that an improvement of student achievement, engagement, participation, and motivation has occured, whereas 85% of students agree that technological exposure is important for their future. Still, funding priorities in public schools go to subjects in state testing, but with the generation gap between students and teachers, a technical upgrade in both teaching and school experience might be the best way to reach the student majority.

 

Other useful sights for learning computer code:

  1. http://www.dreamincode.net/
  2. http://www.w3schools.com/
  3. Also check out http://www.javacodegeeks.com/2012/09/computer-science-education-high-demand.html for links to other code learning websites.

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