What is digital literacy and why is it important?
Borrowing directly from the PDF made available to the public by the Government of BC, “Digital Literacy is the interest, attitude and ability of individuals to use digital technology and communication tools appropriately to access, manage, integrate, analyze and evaluate information, construct new knowledge, and create and communicate with others.” In other words, Digital Literacy is being able to use digital technology in an effective and safe manner.
It is super important in any aspect of life as the world is becoming increasingly more integrated with digital technology, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic. It is extremely important in education as a lack of digital literacy on the teachers end may cause a distrust with their students in their ability to teach any material – incompetency in one area may elude to incompetency in any other area. Also having knowledge in the subject matter that you are teaching is essential to having a student understand the lesson, so a teacher must be digitally literate as to facilitate for the increase in students’ digital literacy.
UBC – The BC Digital Literacy Framework
Government of BC – BC’s Digital Literacy Framework (PDF)
Department of Didactics of Mathematics, Social Sciences and Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Málaga, Teatinos Campus, 29071 Málaga, Spain (Link)