Digital literacy skills are becoming more and more important no matter the platform adult educators use to teach. Whether it be accessing their DL curriculum from home, finding their face to face assignments on an LMS, or logging on to web conferencing tool to join an online class, adult education students' need for digital literacy skills has greatly increased. We know that incorporating digital literacy skills into our classes helps to increase our students' employability and ability to engage with the world in the 21st century, but what steps are we taking to assess their current level of digital literacy and start developing their technology abilities?
Many programs are utilizing resources like Northstar Digital Literacy, GCF Learn Free, or Google Applied Digital Skills. In my program, I used to incorporate digital literacy assessment and training during students first 12 hours with us as they worked on digital literacy programs in our computer lab. We also introduced them to some of the tools they could expect to be using in class like Gmail, Google Classroom, Zoom, etc.
- What does your program do to assess new student digital literacy skills?
- What are your preferred free digital literacy assessment tools?
- How do you introduce your students to new technology?
Comments
This is a great question and I'm excited to hear from others. When I was teaching ESOL classes, I used a really simple Google Forms survey (you can check it out in this Wakelet) to get a feel for (a) what learners currently do with technology in their "real lives" and (b) what goals learners have with technology. I also asked about which devices they own so I could plan accordingly. From there, since we couldn't focus all of our time on digital literacy, it was a matter of observing learners as they completed various tasks and developing grouping and peer support systems accordingly.
This wasn't a perfect system for identifying exactly which discrete skills needed work but it did help me set the course for how I would integrate digital skills and where I could make room for personalized learning to accommodate different goals. The latter is where the Digital Literacy Action Plan came in, and it was really beneficial and exciting for me and the learners in my class!
Excited to hear from others ??