What will you have to do to become confident of your 21st Century Skills as a learner and as a teacher in Digital Literacy?
The key to being confident as a teacher is to be confident in the content area yourself. As I became familiar with the websites and took the self-assessment, I am happy to say that I consider myself very literate in the digital world. I know how to manipulate most any Windows, IOS, or Microsoft Office programs and am confident in my internet abilities as well. In my college years, I use to design and manage a website for a small retail bookstore chain. I can read and write basic html. I use Google docs, sheets, etc. in my classroom as well as online game and review sites. I also have recently learn to use a smart board in the classroom. All that being said, I have much to learn!
In the area of technology, there are always new things to learn. Teaching technology is different than understanding it. As Doug Belshaw describes in his TED Talk, pre-literacy concepts with books (like right side up, and opening across form the spine) carry over into digital literacy. As students are thrown into the digital world now at such a young age, we as teachers much given them pre-literacy concepts in this area as well. Teachers must always be keeping up to date with new ideas and technology being used in education. I have seen one presentation on using a program similar to Skype in order to have a sister class around the world. I know that some classrooms require a lot more assignments done with technology than I do. Fortunately, the administration at my school is very gracious and excited when teachers want to attend staff development conferences in the area of using technology in the classroom. I plan to take classes or attend staff development in this area at least once per year.
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