What is “digital literacy?”
According to Media Smarts, the idea of “literacy” as we once knew it only partially covers what is required to communicate in a modern, digitally integrated world.
An effective digital literacy program incorporates traditional, print literacy but incorporates new elements such a technical know-how (e.g. skills to create and edit media such as video, image editing, etc.) as as well as critical thinking skills and ethical behaviour.
B.C.’s Digital Literacy Framework
The provincial Digital Literacy Framework elaborates on six characteristics identified by educational leaders in B.C. that help define what it means to be digitally literate:
- Research and information literacy
- Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making
- Creativity and innovation
- Digital citizenship
- Communication and collaboration
- Technology operations and concepts
These elements are based on criteria and standards developed by the National Educational Technology Standards for Students and the International Society for Technology in Education along with the knowledge and skills identified as key to successful learning in the 21st century.
What “digital well-being” means
Living, working, and studying in a digital society means developing healthy, informed, and safe habits when connecting to Internet and using technology. Digital well-being can mean any (or all) of the following:
- Limiting or restricting your child’s screen time to certain times of day and/or creating “technology-free zones” in your home (e.g. the dinner table).
- Supporting your child’s digital literacy by helping them understand how to search for information on the Internet and evaluating their credibility.
- Having open and honest chats about the benefits and dangers of using the Internet, including conversations about cyberbullying and trolling, and addressing potentially uncomfortable topics like online dating, sexting, and pornography.
Tips on staying safe in a digital world
1. Balance your digital and real-world lives
- Know how and when digital affects your child’s mental and physical health.
- Social media can contain harmful content that may cause anxiety or lead to developing unhealthy habits that disrupt sleep.
- Create a plan for your family that establishes rules on using technology in your household, including when and when not to use devices.
- Include your child in the planning and allow them to provide some input.
2. Develop safe digital habits
- Help your child creative a positive, authentic online identity.
- Understand not everyone is who they appear to be on the Internet. The identity many choose to share almost always includes only the good and rarely the bad. The personalities you meet online are often only a fraction of the real individual.
- Limit the amount of personal information shared online, especially information that can be used to contact you and/or find where you live/work/study.
- Teach your child to think before posting anything online and to avoid uploading photos or videos of themselves without parental knowledge and permission.
- Understand online activities leave a permanent footprint and often can never be truly “deleted”.
- Archiving websites and even users downloading or taking screenshots guarantee content lives on in some capacity, online or on somebody’s hard/cloud drive.
3. Understand and care about privacy and security
- Use strong passwords and do not share them.
- Change your browser’s settings to maximum privacy/security where appropriate.
- Learn how to identify scams and to avoid clicking on suspicious links.
- Never post images or videos of other people without their permission.
- Respect other’s privacy and the creative rights they have over their own work. Do not claim ownership of somebody else’s work.
4. Be kind and do not cyberbully and create online drama
- Teach your child to communicate respectfully with others online, as they would with people in the real world.
- Understand the risks and benefits of online connections and that actions (e.g. messages on social media) have consequences.
- Teach your child to leave and ignore uncomfortable interactions with online users and block users (if possible) before telling a trusted adult of the negative interaction.
- Help your child understand cyberbullying, what it means, and how to avoid it.
5. Approach online information and content critically
- Teach your child not everything they see online is necessarily true (or even real).
- Help your child develop basic online research skills using child-safe sites.
- Teach your child critical thinking skills and help reinforce them through activities.
Resources
- MediaSmarts.ca
- commonsensemedia.org
- BeInternetAwesome – Google digital safety resource
- ProtectKidsOnline.ca
- ParenTeenConnect.org
- Cybertip.ca – Reporting online sexual exploitation of children
- GetCyberSafe.gc.ca – Government of Canada
- NeedHelpNow.ca – Reporting and getting support to deal with online sextortion
- B.C. Digital Literacy