Hi, Nik,

I think you have raised a very important question. Thanks. This is the question I've been asking myself often since I started teaching using technology. Here is a dilemma I face. On the one hand, I teach Ss who are digital natives, but who, for some reason - this is what puzzles me - are not very willing to use its knowledge for study purposes. For example, they miss the class and fail to go to the class blog to see what we've been doing. Some of my experiences in teaching with ICT have been anecdotal, such as Ss being afraid of using computers because of the danger of getting infected with viruses.

What do you think is the minimally acceptable level of digital skills students must possess to function successfully in the today's environment?

Natalya Eydelman 

Natalya,

 An interesting point you're making here. I think it's our duty as educators to channel our digital native students' enthusiasm for technology and show them how to use these tools productively for study, etc. However, we can only do this if we have teachers who use them too, and who know how to use these tools effectively for study purposes. I think this is probably why your students aren't aware of this use of digital tools. They don't connect them to education because for most of their school life, few if any teachers have ever thought of using them in this way. For me, this is what has to change. It's our duty as tech-savvy educators to introduce students to ways of using these tools productively to help them develop educationally.

I agree with Graham,

In my experience, teachers tend to be "people" people and enjoy working and interacting with people and tend to be less interested in IT. For them, CALL is unfamilar territory where they feel unable to contribute very well. I'd say it feels similar to being in a monolingual classroom where you don't speak their language and the students frequently lapse into L1, leaving you on the outside.

I've also met quite a few CALL evangelists - teachers that have learnt to use IT for the benefit of their students. Personally, I enjoy pointing a class of young learners at a bunch of computers with elearning resources on and letting them get on with it. With good resources, the only questions I usually get are to do with English vocabulary and grammar or difficult listening activities.

IMHO, effective training for teachers is as important as the resources we deploy for learners. Just as in teacher-training where teachers are introduced to the ins and outs of using course books in the classroom and are encouraged to be analytical and critical of the resources in them, so we should be doing the same with CALL if we want it to be a success.

Hi All,

Too many things to reply to in a single post so I'll focus on Nik's original context, EAP; I do quite a lot of EAP teaching so this it's an area that particularly interests me. I find the whole area of digital literacy quite complex and three basic questions are troubling me:-

• To what extent are students who have been brought up using technology digitally literate?
• Does this differ bewteen students studying in L1 and L2?
• What impact does language level have on digital literacy?

Pete

Hi Pete,

 Some interesting Qs here and about the whole digital native thing.

 Actually I don't really think there are any digital natives and have always felt a bit uncomfortable with that term. It has a nice rhetorical fit and gets thrown about a lot and has been incredibly useful in bringing a lot of people's attention to an important issue, but ultimately I think the technology is moving so fast that there can be no real digital natives.

 I've found that most teens and younger or those that we would expect to come under this banner have some elements of technological use that are firmly integrated into their lives and can use them in a certain way, but their knowledge of and ability to explore beyond the way in which they use technology is limited. As Natalia above says, they are often (though certainly not always) reluctant to go beyond their comfort zone and what is socially acceptable use within their peer group.

So in answer to your Qs:

# To what extent are students who have been brought up using technology digitally literate?

I think they are literate within the areas which serve their purposes, but not so much beyond that .

# Does this differ between students studying in L1 and L2?

I'm not really sure, but digital literacy like any kind of literacy is probably something that you need to consciously focus on shifting from your L1 to your L2

# What impact does language level have on digital literacy?

 Well there's no reason why digital literacy should be connected only to language learning,  so students will need to acquire it in their L1 too. Would be interesting though to turn this around and see whether digitally literate students can acquire language more quickly etc.

One thing that may have got lost her though, is that, as I see it at least digital literacy doesn't necessarily imply that students have digital study skills. I think there is a whole subset of skills which students need within their digital literaciy to enable them to be good / efficient digital learners.

 Best

Nik

Information literacy would be an area that overlaps digital literacy in many ways. One well defined defintiion, and one I think could be used for a framework of digital study skills, is as follows:

• the information literate student determines the extent of the information needed
• the information literate individual accesses needed information
  effectively and efficiently
• the information literate individual evaluates information and its sources critically
  and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge base and value
  system
• the information literate individual uses information effectively to
  accomplish a specific purpose
• the information literate individual understands the legal and social issues
  surrounding privacy, access, and ownership of information and accesses and
  uses information ethically and legally

 (from Association of College and Research Libraries; online at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/standards.pdf)

There's plenty of critique of this framework but is a rather neat way of stating some of the skills people now need in the digital age. 

There are so many key dital study skills such as using slide shows,projectors and netschool softwares to enhance teaching especially in developing countries,it becomes difficult to acquire due the expensive,unavailabilty nature of these digital skills.

Michael Asamoah