1) Teachers need to develop digital literacy skills, including information, tool, social, and instructional design literacy, to effectively incorporate technology into their classrooms and provide students with an optimal education. 2) The International Society for Technology in Education created standards to guide teachers in developing the necessary skills to teach in the 21st century, including facilitating student learning and creativity, designing digital learning experiences, modeling digital work and learning, promoting digital citizenship, and engaging in professional growth. 3) While some subjects like high-level math are still best taught traditionally, incorporating 21st century skills and technology into classrooms generally creates a more engaged, innovative learning environment for students.

1. Alison Webb
EDCI 270
January 29, 2015
Digital Literacy for Teachers
With technology being in a constant state of change, people all over the world in
all sorts of professions have to fight to keep up with it. Technology advancements are
important in many professions, but one of the most prominent, yet overlooked, of these
important careers is teaching. It is of utmost importance for teachers to keep up with
technological improvements in society and then apply them to their classroom so their
students receive the best, most up to date education that they can. There are certain sets
of skills teachers need in order to adapt to these changes and use them effectively in a
classroom. Before teachers are able to teach how to use this new technology, they need
to be digitally literate themselves. The skills teachers need to in order to be digitally
literate can be broken up into the four literacies of the 21st Century. These include
information literacy, tool literacy, social literacy, and instructional design literacy.
Information literacy includes the ability to be efficient in collecting and evaluating
information and sorting this material into what may or may not be applicable to a
classroom and students. Tool literacy is all about knowledge of all the tools technology
offers. From hardware to software and a plethora of computer applications, it is
important for teachers to be able to select appropriate mediums for their classroom. And,
even more importantly, they must know how to use this technology. Social literacy stems
from sharing the knowledge obtained from tool and information literacy. With all of
these new ideas and programs, teachers need to be able to communicate this knowledge
to other teachers, and of course their students. Social literacy also stresses the importance
of knowing how to share this information appropriately and safely. Lastly, instructional
design literacy is the ability to bring the information and tools together to create an
effective instructional experience for students. It includes analysis of students’ learning
styles and learning objectives in order to create a beneficial classroom environment for
all students. Understanding 21st Century literacies will increase any teacher’s validity
because technology-based instruction creates many improvements in the classroom such
as differentiation in environment, more motivated and engaged students, an increased
depth of experience for each and every student, and students will get a vision of what is
possible when they use what they are learning to its full potential.
Without these 21st Century skills, teachers may struggle in today’s learning
environment. Although some methods of teaching that have been around forever are
certainly still exceptional methods, there are some that are rather outdated. Day-after-day
lectures will do very little to hold students’ attention, thus creating an environment that is
severely lacking in engagement, collaboration, and creativity. Students of this
generation thrive with technology, so why deprive them of it? Without the application of
21st Century skills in a classroom, teachers may see less success than they would with
these skills. A classroom without these skills will struggle to build relationships and
communication among students, improve their digital literacy, and keep students willing
to participate. With 21st Century skills, however, classrooms flourish in these areas and
not only are students educated in their basic subjects of math, writing, science, etc., but
they also have a firm grip on what it means to be influential and active in a society that is

2. constantly changing. Students can apply every sub-category of digital literacy to not just
their classroom, but in their everyday lives. These 21st Century skills help students to
reach their full potential and use this new sense of motivation to do whatever they may
set their minds to.
The International Society for Technology in Education created a set of standards
for teachers that acted as a model to show how to implement learning experiences that
improve learning for students, teachers, and the community. This will serve as a
roadmap for me to develop the necessary skills to teach in the 21st Century in multiple
ways. It lays out five key ideas that I need to meet in order to meet the expectation of a
respectable teacher in the 21st Century. The first standard of facilitating and inspiring
student learning and creativity stresses the importance of how teachers should combine
their knowledge of a subject combined with technology to provide a classroom
experience that advances aspects of student learning including creativity and innovation.
ISTE suggests I could use this in a classroom by having students explore real-world
issues and solve problems using digital resources and promote student reflection and
collaboration to reveal different students’ way of thinking. The second idea is to design
and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments. This suggests teachers
develop a very technology-rich environment to allow students to fully explore their
curiosities and see their own progress. The third standard is modeling digital age work
and learning. This describes the importance of not only sharing this new technology with
students, but parents and the community as well, and the skills that are needed to share it.
The fourth idea shares how teachers can promote and model digital citizenship and
responsibility. This standard is extremely important because it stresses that when I am a
teacher handling all of this technology, I need to keep in mind the proper legal and ethical
behavior when my students or I are using it. The fifth and final standard shares how to
engage in professional growth and leadership. I find this to be a crucial part of being a
teacher in the 21st Century, because I do not want my students to only learn the basic
school subjects, but I also want them also to grow as leaders and help them develop the
skills to use this technology as a leader in their future profession. All of these standards
help me understand the steps I need to take in order to have students that not only
succeed in the classroom, but positively impact their communities as well.
Teachers new to all these 21st Century methods may see too much emphasis on
the access and use of technology. It is a big change for many, while new teachers are
more familiar with this style than anything else. The emphasis on technology is so
overwhelming because it is essential in classrooms today if they want engaged,
innovative students. This technology, however, does have its downfalls. Some subjects
are simply much too difficult to incorporate some aspects of the 21st Century and are
better off being taught in a more traditional way. High levels of math seem to be hard to
steer away from paper and pencil. There are online programs for math, but it is a very
concrete subject with less wiggle room for innovation and creative thinking. Aside from
this handful of subjects, the use of technology is extremely beneficial as previously stated
numerous times. Some see “traditional” teaching as lectures and tests, but in the near
future, 21st Century teaching will be the new norm.