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Speaker: OTAN, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

Anthony Burik: Hello. My name is Anthony Burik. I'm a project specialist with OTAN, and I welcome you to this OTAN Tech Talk on Acquiring Digital Literacy Skills.

Here's my agenda for this Tech Talk. First, we will review a definition of digital literacy to help us understand what the important components of digital literacy are. We will also consider what makes a person digitally literate. Next, we will take a look at a digital literacy framework for your consideration, also known as the Seattle Digital Skills Framework. And the 10 domains that are a part of this framework.

Next, we will review some digital literacy resources that you can use with your students, your colleagues, and your community members to help them acquire the digital literacy skills that they will need to be successful. Finally, you will also think about how to integrate these digital literacy resources and your instruction or other work that you were doing at your adult education agency.

There are two resources that I would like to share with you. One of the resources is a copy of the slides, and the second is a handout called notes with information that will supplement what I will cover in my Tech Talk today. You can find both of these resources by using the link bit.ly/ capital T, Tech, capital T, Talk, capital D, Dig, capital L, Lit, case sensitive and all one word.

As we begin this Tech Talk, it is important to consider what digital literacy is. Digital literacy may mean different things to different people. One way that we typically see digital literacy skills training show up at the adult education agency is through a computer basics course.

In this slide, I've included part of a flyer advertising a computer basics course at an adult school. Components of the computer basics course include an introduction to keyboarding, an introduction to computers, an introduction to Microsoft Word, and an introduction to Microsoft Excel. We want to make sure that we don't equate a basic understanding of computers with a person being digitally literate.

This computer basics course is an important first step for a person who would like to be digitally literate. But there are many other skills that a person would need to acquire in order to be fully digitally literate. Let's look at the American Library Association definition of digital literacy.

This definition has been around for about 10 years, and many organizations refer to this definition when they are talking about digital literacy. On this slide, I have taken the ALA definition and divided it into three parts so that we can look at each of the parts separately. According to this definition, digital literacy is the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information requiring both cognitive and technical skills.

If we think about this definition a little deeper, what this definition is saying is that a person is able to use many different technologies. Some of which were not even available 10 years ago. With these technologies, they will be able to do a wide variety of things. Finding, evaluating, creating, communicating, and so on.

And in order to do this, they will need not only the technical skills to use technology and become digitally literate, but they will also need to think about how they are using the technology and how they can take the skills that they have and use them in different ways and in different contexts. Let's take the definition a little further and review these considerations of how a person is digitally literate.

These five points come from the National Digital Inclusion Alliance or NDIA. First, NDIA believes that a digitally literate person possesses the variety of skills-- technical and cognitive, required to find, understand, evaluate, create, and communicate digital information in a wide variety of formats. This is very similar to the ALA definition of digital literacy, but this is only the first of five considerations.

Second, a digitally literate person is able to use diverse technologies appropriately and effectively to retrieve information, interpret results, and judge the quality of that information. In this consideration, it is very important that a person is able to understand information in complex ways and that they will be able to make sense of the information that they have acquired.

The third consideration is that a digitally literate person understands the relationship between technology, lifelong learning, personal privacy, and stewardship of information. As a person acquires more digital skills and uses technology on a more regular basis, they will begin to think about technology in deeper ways.

The fourth consideration is that a digitally literate person uses these skills, meaning the skills that are in the first three considerations. And the appropriate technology to communicate and collaborate with peers, colleagues, family, and on occasion, the general public. One way that we can see communication and collaboration, for example, is through the use of social media. The use of the word appropriate is interesting because it suggests that a person can match the tool with the task.

Finally, the fifth consideration is that a digitally literate person uses these skills. The skills that were previously mentioned to actively participate in civic society and contribute to a vibrant, informed, and engaged community. In this case, technology allows a person to become a citizen of the world, hopefully for good, but nevertheless in a context much larger than themselves.

With these five considerations from NDIA, this is a good opportunity to ask ourselves how digitally literate a person we are. Even for myself who looks at technology tools, topics, and usage every day as a part of my work, there are still moments when I know that there are things that I still need to learn and digital literacy skills in which I am deficient. So as we're thinking about our students and others and their digital literacy, it's also important for us to consider our own digital literacy and the study of technology that needs to be a part of our own lifelong learning.

As we continue through this Tech Talk, I'd like for you to take a moment to think about a digital literacy challenge that your students, your colleagues, or community members are facing right now in your classroom, at the school, or in their lives. Try to think of this digital literacy challenge as succinctly as you can and see if you can name the digital literacy challenge for yourself. I'd like you to think about this challenge as we take a look at the framework and the resources that we're going to talk about.

The framework that I would like to talk about is relatively new from within the last few years, and it is known as the Seattle Digital Skills Framework. This is not a framework that a group of people created from scratch, rather it's a comparison framework that examined six other digital literacy frameworks and nine other digital literacy curricula. This framework is divided into 10 domains that we will look at in a minute.

But it's important to note about this framework that the people who created this framework basically looked across other frameworks and curricula to see what were the skills and abilities that were common across these documents and reorganize the skills in a way that made sense. Let's take a look at the 10 domains that are part of this framework and which are listed in alphabetical order and not in order of importance or ability to use technology.

The first domain is communication, which is exchanging information with others on digital platforms using various strategies to collaborate, share, and communicate. In the table below the description, there are eight items in this domain. Some of the items include using and posting on social media and communicating effectively, especially by being aware of what is known as an etiquette.

The next domain is creation. Engaging in digital spaces to design, create, and revise content online. This domain includes eight items, including designing, adapting, and reusing digital content, and skills such as coding and programming. The next domain is device ownership. Encompassing practices that support device longevity, including physical care, protective software, and using technical support. This domain includes four items, including being able to find technical support and also being able to fix technical problems.

The next domain is essential foundations or gateway skills. This is a domain that many people probably equate with digital literacy. This domain includes 12 items, including understanding the computer and the internet and getting and using an email account. The next domain is information skills, which are skills to apply, evaluate, and manage information across digital and physical environments. This domain includes seven items, including using search strategies and organizing and evaluating the information that you retrieve.

The next domain is lifelong learning, which includes engagement and self-assessment of digital skills, as well as using self-reflection to tailor accessible digital environments and continue digital skills learning. This domain has three items, including being able to adapt to new technology. The next domain is mobile, and this includes understanding basic functions of a mobile device to communicate and access goods and services. This domain has six items, including identifying basic mobile features and using apps to shop and for other services.

The next domain is online life, which includes access to online resources that support the digitalization of daily tasks and socialization within a broader digital community. This domain has 11 items, including being a good online citizen, accessing community resources, and using technology responsibly. The next domain is privacy and security, which includes maintenance of practices to secure digital identity, recognized threats, and understand the broader safety implications of working in a digital environment.

This domain has seven items, including keeping kids and adults safe online, managing your online reputation, and understanding privacy policies. The last domain is workplace, which includes advancing workplace success and professionalism through engagement with an organization's online tools and other supportive digital systems. This domain has nine items, including finding a job online, managing projects, following rules, and creating and managing professional online networks.

Now that we have briefly reviewed the 10 domains in this framework, I want you to think about the digital literacy skills challenge that you have identified for yourself. And if you were to use this framework, which domain with this digital literacy skill fall under? Once you find the domain where your digital literacy skill is mentioned, also notice the related items in the domain.

So for example, if the digital literacy skills challenge that you were thinking about is related to the use of email, you will find that email is mentioned in the essential foundations domain. And in addition to getting an email account, also notice that sending and receiving email is one of the items in this domain, as well as creating safe passwords. That would be a part of the email account creation.

Finally, a related item is understanding the internet and the web and learning that when you create an account online, for example, at your bank, at your workplace, at your favorite restaurant, or at your favorite clothing store, you will also need to use your email as a part of the account creation for those other sites. Again, when we teach our students and others the digital literacy skills that they need, we need to consider a number of factors that our students and others need in their lives to be successful, not just what we consider to be the primary challenge.

So as we are thinking about the digital literacy skills that we want to teach and where they are included in the framework that we are studying, we also want to think about the resources that we can use to teach these specific skills. On the notes document that I've included that I mentioned at the beginning of this presentation, there is a set of digital literacy websites with resources that you can use. And we will take a look at those shortly.

The list of websites that I've included basically go from basic skills to more advanced skills and topics. You may already be familiar with some of these websites, but I hope that some of them are also new for you to further explore. So here is a list of digital literacy resources. It's not an exhaustive list, but these are sites that a lot of teachers have come to use for digital literacy skills training.

So for example, some sites that focus on basic digital literacy skills include Typing.com and TypingClub for keyboarding. And sites like GCFLearnFree, DigitalLearn, Northstar, and TechBoomers. If you are looking for more advanced skills training, take a look at the sites that are mentioned at the bottom of the list, including 21Things4Students, the Basic Computer Skills MOOC, Learn My Way, and Applied Digital Skills from Google. Also note that some of these websites have corresponding materials for teachers, including Teacher Guides, Teacher Tools, and Teacher Resources.

So what I recommend that you do is choose one of these digital literacy websites and see if there are resources, activities, tutorials, and other materials that you can use that address the skill that you're trying to teach. And if you happen to find one at one website, also visit a different website to see if it has resources that correspond with the skill. You may find in looking at a couple of different websites that they cover different approaches to teaching this skill. And one website may have more information about teaching skills than others.

The final point is, how are you going to integrate this resource into your instruction or the work that you were doing at your adult education agency? So think about some ways that you and your colleagues are already teaching digital literacy skills. With these new resources in hand, what are some ways to integrate these resources into your instruction or work, whether you're currently doing digital skills training or not.

On the notes document that I previously mentioned, I also have a section that includes a list of instructional resources for teaching these digital literacy skills. You can visit these websites for lots of ideas about how to teach with lesson plans and classroom materials that use specific technology tools or how to address topics using technology.

These include resources at the LINCS site, which is specifically for adult educators, the Teaching Skills That Matter program, NDIA, Digital Promise, and also some of the work that is being done at the state level in other states across the country. So for example, the Maryland Digital Literacy Framework and the corresponding instructor implementation guide.

If nothing else, the last two years of hard work during the COVID-19 pandemic have amplified the importance of everyone having as many digital literacy skills in their tool belt as possible. Digital literacy is important not just for school, but for the workplace, for family life, for important community services, and really for living as a citizen of the world.

So as I finish today's Tech Talk, I would invite you to reflect on the information that I provided for you today. Think about three things that you've learned today. Think about two things that you would share with your students, with your colleagues, or with others in your community.

And think about one thing today that you will try. Maybe it is better understanding the Seattle Digital Skills Framework. Maybe it will be deeply exploring one of the digital literacy resources that I mentioned a little bit earlier. Maybe it will be one of the teaching resources and using that resource as a guide to include more digital skills training in your instruction or in the work that you were doing back at your adult education agency.

If you would like more information or a longer presentation on digital skills training, make sure to reach out to us either by calling us or emailing us. We would welcome the opportunity to talk more about digital skills training with you and your colleagues back at your agency. And with that, thank you so much for attending today's OTAN Tech Talk.