An Experiment in Digital Literacy Education

Because of the near near-ubiquity of the internet, an increasing number of people are subscribing to social networking sites, and the age of introduction to these sites is becoming younger and younger. With the advantages of these sites such as cooperative learning and conferencing come dangers like cyber bullying or digital predators.  Students that have not already will inevitably be exposed to Facebook, Twitter, and Skype on some level.

Researchers and teachers at Columbia University understand this and have prepared a course and created a corresponding online private social network to teach middle school students “digital literacy.” The class provides opportunities for students to learn and experience the possibilities of online drama, cut-and-paste gossip, and cumulative data collection in a safe environment. They are taught how their posts could potentially be misinterpreted or skewed to harm their own or someone else’s reputation permanently. At the end of the year, all of the information from the site is archived and eliminated from the internet. Digital literacy is becoming a necessary skill in our society and, while there may be many ways to approach it, teaching this skill needs to become a part of general public education as soon as possible.

Forbes recently reported on this innovative teaching technique in their article, “How To Teach Kids 'Digital Literacy'? Build APrivate Social Network Playground For Them.”

The blog “Technology Bits, Bytes, and Nibblets” also remarked about the article on October 17, 2011.