Blog 2: Why should teachers care about digital literacy?

For anyone born into an era where new technologies are established, Palfrey and Gasser (2008) have coined the term ‘Digital Native’ to describe such people. A defining characteristic of Digital Natives, according to Palfrey and Gasser (2008), is that their lives are ‘mediated by digital technologies...and they've never known any other way of life.’ This is why, as educators, we need to foster these children’s learning through the incorporation of digital literacy into our classrooms, and to draw upon the experiences they have had with such technologies.

Palfrey and Gasser (2008) have noted how ‘teachers worry that they are out of step with the digital natives they are teaching’ and explains how teachers feel the skills they have taught them over time are disregarded in place of new digital information available to them. Professionals within education have also been found to feel that ‘the pedagogy of our educational system cannot keep up with the changes in the digital landscape’ (Palfrey and Gasser, 2008) and this is exactly why teachers need to recognise the importance of digital literacy and the impact it will have on their classrooms.

It has been stated that ‘there is a huge risk that we, as a society, will fail to harness the good that can come from these opportunities’ of digital learning, as so much focus is placed on the problems and issues we, as educators, will face in doing so. Palfrey and Gasser (2008) believe that ‘we need to prepare our Digital Natives...to lead the way themselves toward a bright future in the digital age’ and also recognised how, for teachers, Digital Natives can guide them in this new ‘connected way of living’, therefore creating a two-way teaching system where everyone in the classroom can learn together. In all of this, the most important point for educators to remember is that our children have never-ending opportunities available for them ‘not in spite of the digital age, but because of it’ (Palfrey and Gasser, 2008) and that teachers ‘have the biggest responsibility and the most important role to play’ in making these opportunities available to our children (Palfrey and Gasser, 2008).

Palfrey, J. & Gasser, U. (2008) Born Digital: Understanding The First Generation of Digital Natives. New York: Basic Books (Introduction pp. 1-15)