21st+Century+Literacy


 * Digital Literacy** **- its impact on education and our world**

What is 21st century literacy? What does it mean to be a 21st century citizen? How do you define digital literacy? Here is my definition of digital literacy and the direction I believe education should be moving to prepare students for their future. I believe in the past a person's success has been determined by their ability to read, write and locate information. In today's technology driven world, society now requires individuals to be digitally literate as well. This means one can use the internet to find and edit digital information and understand how to manage the information found. To have the ability to utilize digital resources, text, audio, still images and video to construct new knowledge, create expressions with all types of media to share and communicate with others in the context of specific life situations. We should all be creators of content, not just consumers. With access to world wide information available, there is also access to people worldwide. We have the ability to join with others in collaborative communities, build networks and communities of people to learn from and with. These are all aspects of living in a media rich environment with instant access to information. We need to teach our students how to thrive in this environment as we prepare them for a future we can only imagine.