Evaluate

Socio-Emotional Literacy within Digital Literacy

Alongside Information Literacy, Eshet-Alkalai. (2004) highlights a kind of Socio-Emotional literacy needed to navigate the Internet, raising questions such as, “How do I know if another user in a chatroom is who he says he is?” or “How do I know if a call for blood donations on the Internet is real or a hoax?”

Such questions should make us realize that there are no hard and fast rules for determining the answers. Instead, there is a necessary familiarity with the unwritten rules of Cyberspace; an understanding that while the Internet is a global village of sorts, it is also a global jungle of human communication, embracing everything from truth to falsehoods, honesty and deceit, and ultimately, good and evil. According Eshet-Alkalai (2004), This Socio-Emotional literacy requires users to be “very critical, analytical, and mature”— implying a kind of richness of experience that the literate transfers from real life to their dealings online. Curiously, while research shows that the older a user is, the less likely they are to behave naively online, this does not exempt them from the occasional lapse; They might not believe that a Nigerian prince is bequeathing 100 million dollars in gold bullion to them in exchange for their bank details, but they might be willing to believe that someone really is giving away 1000 units of the latest smartphone in exchange for their contact information.

Digitally literate users know how to avoid the “traps” of cyberspace mainly because they are familiar with the social and emotional patterns of working in cyberspace— that it is really just an outworking of human nature.

Digital Natives

The term digital native has become something of a buzzword in the education sector over the past decade. This was popularized by Prensky (2001) in reference to the generation that was born during the information age (as opposed to digital immigrants— the generation prior that acquired familiarity with digital systems only as adults) and who has not known a world without computers, the Internet, and connectivity.

Despite the fact that Prensky's original paper was not an academic one and had no empirical evidence to support its claims, educators and parents alike latched onto the term, spawning a school of thought wherein the decline of modern education is explained by educators’ lack of understanding of how digital natives learn and make decisions.

However, a popular misconception borne out of the term digital natives and the educational ideas it spawned is that the generation in question is born digitally literate. If this is the case, then the question, "H o w can digital immigrants teach digital natives a literacy they already have?" is a valid one, to which the answer would be, correctly, "they cannot.”

But the problem here is that "digitally literate” is popularly defined as the ability to use computers or use the Internet, which as we have seen earlier,

forms only one part of the crucial skills and competencies required to be digitally literate. Our expanded view of the term ‘‘literate” allows us to see that while the digital natives in our classrooms are most certainly familiar with digital systems— perhaps even more so than their instructors— this does not mean they automatically know how to read, write, process, and communicate information on these systems in ways that are both meaningful and ethical, especially when the information involved does not involve technology’s most common use: personal entertainment. That is to say, when the task at hand does not involve what the digital natives consider to be entertainment, the gaps in their literacy begin to show.

A good example of this is the difficulty many Senior High School instructors have in teaching research: Students who are otherwise quite familiar with using the Internet for entertainment are suddenly at a loss in locating, accessing, and understanding information from research journals and websites, mainly because they are looking for information on topics they are either unfamiliar with, uninterested in, or both.

Another problem concerning digital natives is the misconception that everyone belonging to the generation is on more or less equal.footing in regard to digital literacy. Although the drawing of such a conclusion is understandable (given the near-ubiquity of digital technology and the Internet), it is nonetheless mistaken, as no one is truly “born digital.” Instead, the determining factor is access to education and experience: children born to poorer families will naturally seem less digitally literate for lack of access to technology and an education in said technologies, while those born to privileged families will display more of the literacies discussed earlier.

Challenges to Digital Literacy Education

Digital Literacy Education shares many of the same challenges to Media Literacy For example: How should it be taught? How can it be measured and evaluated? Should it be taught for the protection of students in their consumption of information or should it be to develop their appreciation for digital media?

Brown (2017) also noted that despite the global acknowledgement that Digital Literacy Education is a need, there is as of yet no overarching model or framework for addressing all of the skills deemed necessary. Put simply, there is no single and comprehensive plan anywhere for teaching digital literacy the way it should be taught. Accordingly, he asked, "W hat assumptions, theories, and research evidence underpin specific frameworks? Whose interests are being served when particular frameworks are being promoted? Beyond efforts to produce flashy and visually attractive models how might we reimagine digital literacies to promote critical mindsets and active citizenry in order to reshape our societies for new ways of living, learning, and working for a better future— for all?”

Despite the challenges posed by the broad and fluid nature of media (and therefore digital) literacy, educators in the Philippines can spearhead literacy efforts by doubling-down on those concepts and principles of Media Literacy that are of utmost importance, namely, critical thinking and the grounding of critical thought in a moral framework. • Teach media and digital literacy integrally. Any attempt to teach these principles must first realize that they cannot be separated from context— meaning, they cannot be taught separately from other topics. Critical Thinking requires something other than itself to think critically about, and thus cannot develop in a vacuum. Similarly, developing a moral framework within students cannot be taught via merely talking about it. This moral framework develops by practicing it, that is, basing our decisions on it, in the context of everything else we do in our day-to-day lives. We therefore agree with Koltay (2011) that the teaching of the fundamental principles of these and other literacies should be done integratively with other subjects in school, however difficult the process might be. In other words, teach them in mathematics, sciences, language arts, social studies, and so on. Make them part of the school curriculum and in the everyday life of the students. Anything else will be as misguided as merely telling a plant to grow and expecting it to do so by the power of your words. • Master your subject matter. Whatever it is you teach, you must not only possess a thorough understanding of your subject matter, you must also understand why you are teaching it, and why it is important to learn. As educators, we must not shy away from a student genuinely asking us to explain why something we are teaching is important. After all, teaching is in itself a kind of media the students are obliged to consume; it is only fair they know why. • Think “multi-disciplinary.” How can educators integrate media and digital literacy in a subject as abstract as Mathematics, for example? The answer lies in stepping-out of the “pure mathematics” mindset and embracing communication as being just as important to math as computation. Once communication is accepted as important, this opens-up new venues where the new literacies can be exercised. For example, have students create a webpage detailing what systems of linear equations are, why they are important, and the techniques for solving them. Alternatively, they can create poster infographics that explain the same things. The exact same strategies can be applied to nearly any subject and any topic. It is just a matter of believing, as educators, that how we communicate is as important as what we communicate.

• Explore motivations, not ju st messages. While it is very important that students learn what is the message being communicated by any media text, it is also important to develop in them a habit for asking why is the message being communicated in the first place. In the case of an information pamphlet warning against some infectious disease for example, is there an outbreak we are being warned of?

If not, could this then be an attempt to sow panic and discord in the target populace? Why? Who stands tp gain from doing such things?

The objective here is not so much to find the correct answers, but rather to develop the habit of asking these questions. • Leverage skills that students already have. It is always surprising how much a person can do when they are personally and affectively motivated to do so— in other words, a person can do amazing things when they really want to. Students can produce remarkably well- researched output for things they are deeply interested in, even without instruction. Harnessing this natural desire to explore whatever interests them will go a long way in improving media and digital literacy education in your classroom.

Wrap Up

• Media Literacy is the ability to identify different types of media and understand the messages they are communicating, including who is the intended audience and what is the motivation behind the message. • Digital/Cyber Literacy is a subset of media literacy; the ability to locate, evaluate, create, and communicate information on various digital platforms.

This includes the ability to verify information as factual as well as identify and avoid communication with deceitful, malicious, and exploitative content. • Information Literacy is a subset of media literacy; the ability to locate, access, and evaluate information from a variety of media sources. • Of utmost importance to both literacies (media and digital) is the ability to analyze and think critically about what is being communicated. This means making value judgments about the message (i.e., identifying truth from falsehood, right from wrong, etc.), and goes beyond simply comprehending the what is being said.

Questions to Ponder ,

To better comprehend what each skill and competency requires and how educators are to learn and teach them in class, it is useful to summarize each