T E C H N O L O G Y

In this series, Nicky Hockly

Five things you always wanted to know about

digital literacies
(but were afraid to ask)

Digital literacies ... why not

literacy?

Basic literacy means being able to read

and write. But in our increasingly digital
world, simply knowing how to read and
write in the traditional sense is not enough.
Technology has brought a wealth of
information and opportunities to us in
digital format. Of course, we still need to
know how to read and write, but we also
need a wider range of digital competences
or literacies if we are to fully participate
as digital citizens in the 21st century.

What exactly does digital

literacies mean, then?

Essentially, digital literacies is an umbrella

term for a range of skills: not just technical
skills, but also a keen awareness of the
social practices surrounding the
appropriate use of technology. Heres a
simple example. Lets imagine that we
need to create a worksheet with images
in a word-processing program for our
students. This involves:
1 Knowing how to create a document
and how to insert images into it.
2 Knowing what images we can or cannot
use. This involves an awareness of copyright
and of alternatives such as Creative
Commons (http://creativecommons.org/).
We also need to know how to attribute a
copyright-free image.
People frequently think that digital
literacies involve only the first point what
we might call the tech stuff. But equally
important is the second point what we
might call appropriate social practices.

Can you give me more examples

of these digital literacies?

The example above already includes a

number of literacies: you need to know
how to work effectively with images and
text in a word-processing program to
create something (multimedia literacy), and
you also need to know how to search for
and find appropriate copyright-free images
(search literacy). These are just two digital

explains aspects of technology

which some people may be
embarrassed to confess that
they dont really understand.
In this article, she explains what
digital literacies are.

literacies from the whole range that we

need. A detailed consideration of each
literacy is beyond the scope of this article,
but lets take a brief look at a few of them:
Focus on language: multimedia
literacy
Knowing how to understand, critique and
produce multimedia is a skill needed to
participate fully in Web 2.0, where we are
no longer just consumers of media
produced by others, but potentially
producers too.
Focus on connections: personal literacy
This literacy comes to the forefront in social
networking spaces. For example, how do
you portray yourself in social networks
such as Facebook? How do you manage
your online footprint, and shape and project
a desired identity in these spaces?
Focus on information: search and
information literacies
In many ways, these are two of the most
important literacies for any learner to
acquire the ability not only to find
information amongst the mass of sites
and sources afforded by technologies,
but also to evaluate the reliability and
veracity of that information.
Focus on (re)design: remix literacy
This refers to the trend of remixing
pictures, videos and other media to create
something new. Understanding remix is
crucial to an understanding of digital media.

What have digital literacies got

to do with English language
teaching?

Well, everything. Quite apart from the

emphasis put on the acquisition of ICT skills
in all areas of education in many countries,
we are teachers of the language of global
communication. And that communication
is increasingly digitally mediated. If our
learners are to be fully functional citizens in
the 21st century, they need digital skills. We
can promote these skills in parallel with
teaching English. Digital skills and English
can help many of our adult learners get

ahead in the workplace or prepare our

younger learners for better future job
opportunities. And equally important, they
can make our classes a lot more relevant
and interesting in the here and now.

How can I bring digital

literacies into my classroom?

Incorporating a focus on digital literacies

in our English language classes does not
mean throwing out everything weve
done to date and starting anew. Quite the
opposite, in fact. English language
teaching lends itself extremely well to
integrating digital literacies. For example,
how about replacing that rather uninspiring
coursebook reading with a web page from
a spoof site? At the same time as helping
our students develop their reading skills,
we can help them evaluate the reliability
and veracity of online information a key
element of information literacy.
How to do this? Choose a website
from a list of spoof or bogus sites (eg
http://goo.gl/ive5b) and set a reading
task. See if your students spot that the
site is a spoof, and then analyse the
elements that show that it contains false
information. These will include not just the
content, but possibly the layout, colours
and font used on the site (the look), the
lack of links to credible sources, the URL
of the site itself, and so on. One of my
favourite bogus sites is about the fictional
Pacific Northwest tree octopus. You can
download a detailed lesson plan on how
to use this spoof site with your students
from http://goo.gl/bN66W. ETp
Nicky Hockly has been involved in EFL
teaching and teacher training since
1987. She is Director of Pedagogy of
The Consultants-E, an online teacher
training and development consultancy.
She is co-author of How to Teach
English with Technology, Learning
English as a Foreign Language for
Dummies, Teaching Online and
Digital Literacies. She has published
an e-book, Webinars: A Cookbook
for Educators (the-round.com),
and she maintains a blog at
www.emoderationskills.com.
nicky.hockly@theconsultants-e.com

www.etprofessional.com ENGLISH TEACHING professional Issue 85 March 2013

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