We are now better than fifteen years into the 21st Century and educators are still discussing what role technology plays in education. The fact of the matter is no matter what educators, who are mostly products of a 20th Century education, think, our students today will need to be digitally literate in their world in order to survive and thrive. Digital Literacy is a 21st Century skill, but therein lies the rub. Most of our educators have been educated with a twentieth Century mindset using 20th Century methodology and pedagogy at best. I dare say there might be some 19th Century holdovers as well.
Digital literacy is recognized by the developers of common core to be important enough to be included as a component of the curriculum. This will however vary and be dependent on what each individual teacher knows, or does not know in regard to his or her own digital literacy. In other words teachers without digital literacy in a 21st Century education setting are illiterate educators for the purpose of this discussion. We can certainly wait for attrition to clean out the system, but that might take years at the expense of our kids. It also does not address a further infiltration of even more from entering the system.
These educators are not bad people. Many may be willing to change and learn to be digitally literate if it is prioritized and supported by administrators. The problem there is that digitally illiterate administrators fail to recognize the need, or understand how to support the new skills required using a new 21st Century mindset. That is not to say all administrators fall into this category, but certainly too many for any needed change to happen in a timely fashion do.
There certainly is enough blame to go around for what places the education system in this predicament and much of that lies in education programs from our institutions of higher learning. Unfortunately, too often student tech skills and digital literacy are assumed and not formally taught in schools of higher education. If students are getting by with email and desktop publishing it is assumed that they are “digital natives”, a term that has cut short education for digital skills in America.
The biggest problem we have with any digital education is the rapidity at which things change.This will only get worse as technology evolves. People learn something; they buy into it; they get comfortable with it; and then it evolves to something else. That comfort level is hard to shake, so change is slow, if it takes place at all. The system also generally fails to recognize the need to prioritize and support change in a way to keep all staff relevant. It is also failing to prioritize digital literacy for incoming teachers.
If we were to prioritize Digital Literacy as a job requirement it might speed up needed changes. Once colleges realized that placing their students in teaching positions required a knowledge of digital literacy they would need to revamp their curricula accordingly. An influx of digitally educated teachers would go a long way in changing the culture of elementary and secondary schools in regard to their acceptance and priorities concerning new tools for learning and the integration of technology and education.
We have always required new teachers to have specific skills in order to secure a job teaching. We also required that they demonstrate those skills before a job could be offered. I can’t think of one hiring committee, of the hundreds I participated in, that did not require a writing sample. How many teaching candidates are offered jobs without someone seeing them teach a class with a sample lesson? It would not be a stretch to require candidates to exhibit their technology skills for consideration.
Prioritizing digital skills will also signal a need for existing staff to get comfortable with change rather than retaining the status quo. It will shake up comfort zones to enable forward movement. It will also force administrators to get some game of their own. They will need digital awareness in order to objectively observe teachers using technology for learning.
Digitally illiterate educators will soon be irrelevant educators and that hurts all educators. As a community we need to support change and digital literacy or we may become as relevant as a typewriter, or film photography. If we are to better educate our kids, we must first better educate their educators.
Hi Tom, As a longtime advocate for digital literacy and someone who’s presented at many tech conferences on “The Myth of the Digital Native,” I agree that the absurd notion that your birth year someone grants you magical access to skills with devices has hampered the development of true digital literacy. However, I don’t think that technology education, even when done well, will actually change much in the learning experience our students have. We need a radical re-think to get back in touch with the notion of self-directed, interest-driven, real-world-relevant education. If we remove the military-style authoritarianism and demands for unthinking obedience which dominate the so called “discipline” systems in use in most schools, and have real conversations with our students about their interests, we can begin a real re-structuring of education, where what matters is what students actually learn, based on showing us what they know with meaningful interventions in the real world, then perhaps…
Great article! I
[…] We are now better than fifteen years into the 21stCentury and educators are still discussing what role technology plays in education. The fact of the matter is no matter what educators, who are mostly products of a 20th Century education, think, our students today will need to be digitally literate in their world in order to survive and thrive. Digital Literacy is a 21st Century skill, but therein lies the rub. Most of our educators have been educated with a twentieth Century mindset using 20th Century methodology and pedagogy at best. I dare say there might be some 19thCentury holdovers as well. […]
[…] How Do We Stop Illiterate Educators? @tomwhitby #edchat #edreform #edtech tomwhitby.wordpress.com/2015/09/01/how… […]
Wow. Thanks for this. I had thought of my kids’ teachers as anything but illiterate — but that is exactly what they are. They have denied, snubbed, refused, sneered and downplayed tech for far too long.
Now what do we call those who are actually moving in the other direction and removing tech opportunities from the curriculum?
Such a timely review on this issue….. The context for digital literacy includes skills that are based with inquiry learning, connecting learning to the real world, awareness of safe activity and digital foot printing and allowing for students to act as teachers for others. Many students have technical skills that allow them to navigate the digital world…..but those technical skills are the spring board to further learning…..the educational systems we work in are recognizing these priorities but also need to provide teachers and students with an infrastructure to allow them to teach and learn this way! Great thoughts on this subject.
[…] forget facts, teach kids how to learn… sometimes you gotta disconnect to connect… how does one stop illiterate educators?… QR […]
[…] How Do We Stop Illiterate Educators? | My Island View […]
Interesting post Tom, thank you for sharing your thoughts. I believe one reason that digital literacy has not been wholly embraced by educators is that it is too often divorced from authentic learning experiences. We say, “Get on Twitter and connect with the global classroom”, but fail to explain why, such as how this connection will augment current units of instruction.
An additional reason for educators being resistant to digital literacy initiatives is the lack of time and expertise available for teachers and administrators to engage in meaningful professional development around this topic. So many other issues – school safety, standards, evaluations, basic needs – seem to take priority over this necessary discipline.
[…] We are now better than fifteen years into the 21st Century and educators are still discussing what role technology plays in education. The fact of the matter is no matter what educators, who are mo… […]
This was the biggest reason I got into Twitter. I needed to gain digital literacy.
Growing up in the middle of a shift from digital immigrants to digital natives, I feel I have a foundation of digitalness. However technology changes so fast it is hard to keep up. At times I just grab a board and try to ride the wave as best I can.
It was very interesting participating in #satchatoc, and then reading this article. It made me feel I must infiltrate more people with social media: Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube Galore. We need digitally literate teachers to teach digital literate kids. Also digital literacy, just like reading literacy, helps empower people.
So my pledge is to expand my own digital literacy by participating, connecting via social media, and connecting with people face to face to spread the digital literacy goodness as best I can.
Thanks Tom for fighting the good fight. Lead on brotherman!!!
This essay is frustrating for a number of reasons, primary among them the lack of specificity about what you mean by “digital literacy.” Do you mean the ability to write code, or the ability to use Twitter and YouTube? “Digital literacy” is a term so vague as to be almost meaningless in the face of the myriad ways that technology is integrated into our lives. You seem to intend a call to action here, but the actions you have in mind are left to the reader’s imagination. What, specifically, would you like teachers to *do*?
The argument here also deploys a number of straw men that seem to reside in the quiver of most educational consultants. The first is that schools must maximize their use of technology because students are “digital natives.” Though if they’re already digital natives, do we need to teach them to use technology? And what, exactly, is the skill-set that makes a person a “digital native?” Can students no longer read and be enthralled by a book on paper simply because they also read on screens? Can students not participate in seminar discussions that analyze texts because that venue is not mediated by some form of technology? You seem to be arguing *against* something; trying to overthrow some system that you see as outdated, but you, and countless other consultants, particularly of the ed-tech variety, are never clear about what *exactly* needs to be thrown out, and *why*. The standard argument reduces to the imperative to “USE NEW THINGS BECAUSE THEY ARE NEW!”
The second major straw man here is that older teachers are not “digital natives” and know nothing about technology or how to integrate it into their classrooms. In fact, most consultants take it as a given that any teacher over forty is an unreconstructed Luddite who actively opposes the use of technology in school. I would genuinely like to know where you find this to be the case. I have never seen any sort of study demonstrating empirically that there is a demographic divide between the digital classroom habits of older and younger teachers, and I have yet to teach in a school where that is the case.
I’m am 46, and my colleagues both my age and older are some of the most tech-savvy educators I know. Are they not using “technology” in the way that consultants deem to be valid? I teach in the humanities. I use GoogleDocs to work with students on their writing, I show video clips to illustrate concepts, provide web links to resources on my course Moodle page, and I constantly exchange e-mail with students when they’re been absent or have questions or problems or want to share something that they read with me.
What I DON’T do is use Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, or Instagram as part of my courses. These are *social* media applications. They are for students to use amongst themselves, to socialize and share content They use these apps in the same way that I use my own Facebook account and Twitter feed for my own, personal purposes. I know of teachers who breathlessly declare their enthusiasm for using these applications. When they do this, I always wonder: has anyone asked the *kids* how they feel about having teachers intrude on their social media? Do we talk about privacy issues? Do I have the right to compel a student to link his personal Facebook or Twitter account to my class? I’ve asked my students these questions, and they overwhelmingly, year after year, tell me that they wish teachers would stay out of their social realm, which they see as their private social space. Why are se so aggressively disrespectful of their right distinguish between public and private arenas?
Finally, I’ll let Jathan Sadowski have the last word on the “digital native:”
http://thebaffler.com/blog/the-digital-native-a-profitable-myth
Edit: Apologies for my own lack of clarity: I agree with the author in opposing the useless term “digital native.” In my post above, I should have said that I oppose the idea that older teachers are not “digitally literate”, in the sense that they don’t know how to use technology in the classroom. That assertion discounts the fact that many teachers have good reason for limiting technology use, and they may carefully pick and choose what works best in their fields. Also should have rephrased my assertion that I question whether classrooms need to maximize technology to teach “digital literacy” when that term hasn’t been adequately defined, and the question of whether technology enhances learning hasn’t been addressed.
Christina
I have written maybe two dozen posts and two books on what kids may need in the way of digital skills in order to survive thrive and be competitive in their world, as well as what teachers need to provide for that to happen. Coding although very important has never been my issue. It is difficult to restate that all in every post that I write. I do not believe in Digital Natives. Kids are more comfortable using and exploring technology than most adults and that seems to be a threat of sorts to many adults, but that gap is a learning gap not necessarily a generational gap. I have been collecting social security for a few years now, and I access my account digitally. I, more than you are well aware of generational differences.
Social media in addition to being social is also collaborative and therein lies its advantage for learning. Kids need to be taught the power of collaboration through the use of technology to curate, communicate, collaborate, and create in terms that will be employed in a computer-driven society. Whether they choose to read a book on paper or screen makes no difference to me as long as they read.
I would hope you explore this further with an open mind to change. If doing what we have done as educators for so many generations was still working well, we would not be having this conversation on this digital platform for so many others to follow and comment. Technology will continue to influence the way things will be done, and we need to be willing to explore and accept change when needed. As educators we have an obligation to teach kids in preparation for what is to come in their lifetime and not what has already passed in ours.
“I would hope you explore this further with an open mind to change.”
It’s disappointing but sadly common to see a consultant make the assumption that teachers are narrow-minded rather than that they have valid reasons for making their own choices about what technology is most appropriate in helping students learn in their disciplines. It shows a breathtaking disrespect for people who are experts in their fields and experienced and effective teachers. You’re excited about the possibility of social media to enhance education. That’s great, and though I have some concerns about matters of privacy and gender equity in social media, I respect that enthusiasm. But the respect is never a two-way process. Teachers with questions, concerns, and critical thoughts always seem to be branded as enemies of progress.
“If doing what we have done as educators for so many generations was still working well, we would not be having this conversation on this digital platform for so many others to follow and comment.”
This is a very difficult sentence to unpack. Did students not learn effectively in the 1970s and 1980s? The United States seemed to produce a fair number of scholars, engineers, poets, writers, Nobel laureates, filmmakers, and well-educated college graduates back then. I’m confused by the notion that education didn’t “work” prior to the 21st century. In fact, the United States produced the very people who created the technology that we are using at this moment, which seems to point to a fairly effective educational system, however unevenly accessible due to racial, economic, and political obstacles.
I had a car in the 1980s that was a good car for the time. Now I have a car that is much nicer: it has airbags, heated seats, and connects to my iPhone. It’s great. But it doesn’t mean my 1985 CIvic was a bad car, nor does it change the nature of driving or the basic mechanical principles according to which cars function. It’s just nicer, safer, and more comfortable. Hardly anyone drives a 1985 Civic anymore, because we all embrace positive change. (“Change” by the way is value-neutral. It’s neither good nor bad in and of itself. If the change turns out to be good and useful, we call it “progress”). But I don’t expect everyone to drive the same car as me, because we all have different things that we need from our car. And the things I need from ed-tech are different from the things my colleagues in other schools, other grade levels, and other disciplines need.
“As educators we have an obligation to teach kids in preparation for what is to come in their lifetime and not what has already passed in ours.”
I teach history. My obligation is to help students learn to read, think, write, and discuss in ways that gradually broaden and deepen their worldviews and inform their understanding of themselves, their place in the world, their empathy for others, their sense of what they value and oppose, and they ways they make meaning out of daily life. A strong and sophisticated understanding of history is an essential component of human life. As are the critical habits of mind that enable a person to continue learning about the world and the past while avoiding demagoguery, cutting through salesmanship and deliberate obfuscation, and working honestly and rigorously toward the truth. And you think that I can’t do that effectively without TWITTER? Please.
Although I may be consulting now to some degree, I was a classroom teacher for 40 years. It is not a question of good or bad, but rather what is relevant for today. Good enough is not a great goal. If technology addresses the needs and makes up the tools kids will need to communicate, curate, collaborate and create then we should use those tools where and when appropriate. By the way Twitter is one of the best places to connect with educators willing to have these discussions. You might want to try it before you write it off. Thanks for the push back on this, it has strengthened my resolve.
http://derekoldfield.edublogs.org/2015/11/15/will-you-show-me-how/ Tom, as always, I really enjoyed your writing. I’ve been beating around this topic a lot recently in conversations with some local colleagues. I wrote the above post in response to a conversation about educators refusal to engage in learning opportunities unless they are provided by the school-district. I thought my post related to what you wrote. Thanks for your insight once again!
[…] Tom Whitby, My Island View, How Do We Stop Illiterate Educators? […]
[…] I responded with a link to Tom Whitby’s post here. […]