enGauge 21st
Century Skills: Literacy in the Digital Age
The paper tackled
about topics concerning the digital age, as well the types of learners we now
have, and the methodology teachers must now use at the advent of the said
digital age. In addition with this, the paper also discussed the different
century skills and the digital-age literacy. Such literacy involves that of
inventive thinking, effective communication and high productivity. Moreover,
the paper also stipulated that at the current digital-age, we should have the
following literacies; basic, scientific, economic, technological, visual,
information, and multicultural literacies in addition with global awareness.
Thus, to be called literate nowadays, we must at least be oriented with the said
literacies. This is in contrast with what we had during 1900s, wherein knowing
how to read, write, and calculate makes individuals literate. Summing up, we
now live in a world where in technological advancement is blazingly fast. We
now belong to a world wherein information can easily be disseminated with just
a simple click. Almost everyone has an access to the internet, especially
children, thus as adults, and as future teachers, we must as well orient
ourselves at the said digital-age. We must update ourselves through obtaining
such different literacies in order to catch up with this fast paced world, so
that we won’t be left behind by those persons who are younger than us.
The
above paragraph can be supported by my experiences as a field study student
teacher at Limay National High School. Truly, learners nowadays are very
familiar at the wonders of the internet, together with the advent of different
gadgets. From note taking by means of writing, they are just taking pictures of
notes that are written at the board. They even have pocket wifi, thus they can
easily look for answers that are asked to them. At this age, they now prefer
typewritten assignments in contrast during our days wherein we prefer
handwritten assignments than being typewritten. Well, as of now, I am not
seeing any negativities concerning their styles, however, if they keep on being
too dependent on technology, they might not be able to obtain optimum learning,
since they want everything at an instant. Thus, as a future teacher, I must
utilize their knowledge of technology in a way that they will still obtain
optimum learning even if they rely on such technologies. This can be obtained
by requiring them to read every bit of literatures posted on reliable science
websites and requiring them to make journals of their experiences in reading
such articles.
Thinking
about the implication, or possible future effect or result of the said digital
age, it only means that we will have learners that will have to learn a new
multitude of set of skills. Moreover, it means that there are more things to
learn, and more skills to acquire, thus teachers should offer more things to be
taught, so as to fill and quench the thirst of our digital-age learners. We
should help our learners in making use of technology at their advantage.
Nowadays, they have access to a plethora of data in the internet, however, not
all information that are obtained in the World Wide Web is reliable, since it
cannot be denied that the network is also harboring a huge number of trolls,
thus there is a danger that our learners would fall into misleading. Thus, as
adults, who are expected to know more things that youngsters, must be smart
enough not to fall from tricks that are being imposed by the internet. We,
ourselves must be equipped with relevant knowledge and skills in order to ward
off such malicious intent by internet trolls. Also, in the digital age, we are
not only discussing about the network, but also the advent of gadgets and
different electronic paraphernalia. Well, the key is always to look for their
advantages for the benefit of the users.
This ends my blog.
