LESSON 6: Developing Basic Digital Skills

       As teachers adjust their teaching to effectively match the new digital world of information and communication technology (ICT), they must be clear on what basic knowledge, skills and values (or literacies) need to be developed by digital learners. These basic literacies will not replace the 3Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic) but they will be complemented by six essential skills to equip students for success in the millennial world. Rather than call them literacy skills, these are better referred to as fluency skills conveying the ease and facility in acquiring and using them. These are :

1.       SOLUTION FLUENCY

This refers to the capacity and creativity in problem solving. It requires whole brain thinking executed when students define a problem, design the appropriate solution, apply the solution, and assess the process and result.

2.       INFORMATION FLUENCY

This involves 3 subsets of skills, namely

a.)    An ability to access information.

b.)    An ability to retrieve information

c.)     An ability to reflect on

3.       COLLABORATION FLUENCY

This refers to teamwork with or real partners in the online environment. There is virtual interaction in social networking and online gaming domains. Distance has been abridged, such that learning comes to an exciting potential for partnership in discovery learning. Individual and school to school partnerships are now possible for multi-cultural learning.

4.       MEDIA FLUENCY

Media refers to channels of mass communication whether it is on radio, television, magazine, advertising or graphic arts or digital sources. There is a need for an analytical mind to evaluate the message in a chosen media, as well as creative ability to publish digital messages. An example of this is blogs where students share the things they have learned or reflect on.

5.       CREATIVITY FLUENCY

Artistic proficiency adds meaning by the way of design, art and story-telling to package a message. There are elements of creative fluency, they are the font, color, patterns, layouts and etc. An example is the making of blogs or reports through power point presentations.

6.       DIGITAL ETHICS

We, the digital citizens should be guided with principles of leadership, global responsibility, environmental awareness, global citizenship and personal accountability.

HIGHER THINKING SKILLS

                With a new world of information and communication technology opens the way for complex and higher cognitive skills.

BLOOM’S TAXONOMY OF THINKING SKILLS

                It can serve as a general framework of skills.

The Bloom’s taxonomy is patterned after a new scientific knowledge on how the human brain works.

THE STRUCTURED PROBLEM SOLVING PROCESS (4DS) EXEMPLIFIES THE INSTRUCTIONAL SHIFT IN DIGITAL LEARNING:

1.       Define the problem

2.       Design the solution

3.       Do the work

4.       Debrief on the outcome

As teachers, we should not always be in the center stage of the classroom, we should allow the students to shine and have a say in the teaching-learning process.