Lesson 6

Developing Basic Digital Skills

• As teachers adjust their teaching to effectively match the new digital world of information technology, they must be clear on what basic knowledge, skills and values need to be developed by digital learners.

• Knowledge  and skills that digital learners should develop must be clear and these literacies will be complemented by six essentials skills for them to be successful in the millennial world.

• These basic literacy’s will not replace the 3r’s.

        Reading                                                                                       Writing

 

                                    

Arithmetic

Six Essentials to Equip Students for Success

1. Solution Fluency

  o   This refers to the capacity and creativity in problem solving. 

2. Information Fluency

  o   This involves 3 subsets of skills, namely

   a)     An ability to access information, access may involve not only of the internet, but other sources like the CD-ROM software.

 b)     An ability to retrieve information, retrieved information may include not only texts, but images, sounds and video.

c)     An ability to reflect on, access and rewrite for instructive information packages.

Collaborative Fluency

   o   This refers to teamwork with virtual or real partners in the online environment.

   o   There is virtual interaction in social networking and online gaming domains.

Media Fluency

   o   Media refer to channels of mass communication (radio, television, magazine, advertising, graphic arts) or digital sources.

   o   There is a need for an analytical mind to evaluate the message in a chosen media, as well as a creative ability to publish digital messages.

Creativity Fluency

   o   Artistic proficiency adds meaning by way of design, art, and story-telling to package a message.

ü Font

ü Color            

ü Patterns

ü Layout

Digital Ethics

 

o   The digital citizen is guided by principles of leadership, global responsibility, environmental awareness, global citizenship, and personal accountability.

Higher Thinking Skills

    o   Entering the new world of information and communication technology opens the way for complex and higher cognitive skills.

   o   While Bloom’s Taxonomy of Thinking Skills can serve as a general framework of skills, a new era of creativity in the digital world has led to introducing a kind of framework that requires information processing, idea creation and real-world problem-solving skills.

The structured problem solving - process known as 4Ds also 

exemplifies the instructional shift in digital learning:

• Define the problem

• Design the solution

• Do the work

• Debrief on the outcome