What is digital literacy?

The definition of digital literacy

Being digitally literate is not knowing how to use apps: students master those on their own. It is what they do not learn alone: searching with method, telling a reliable source from a dubious one, understanding what happens to their data and producing their own content instead of only consuming it.

The four layers of the competence

• Operational: handling devices, files and platforms with ease.
• Informational: searching, filtering and assessing the quality of information.
• Creative: producing original digital content: documents, presentations, programs.
• Critical: understanding bias, privacy and how algorithms shape what we see.

How to teach it without turning it into a subject

Digital literacy performs better integrated than isolated: evaluating sources is taught in social studies, organising data in mathematics, citing and producing in language class. The digital classroom is this competence's natural gym: every activity with devices is a chance to practise it with guidance.

Why it matters for your institution

A school that equips classrooms without building its students' digital judgment solves half the problem. The advantage of a school digital ecosystem is that it offers a protected environment where mistakes are cheap: the ideal place to learn to navigate before doing it without a net.