Activities
The 8 framework sections below, inspired by the Teaching Tolerance Digital Literacy Framework, offers seven key areas in which students need support developing digital and civic literacy skills; we have added an eighth area to emphasise the global justice dimension. The numbered items represent the overarching knowledge and skills that make up the framework. The bullets represent more granular examples of participant behaviours to help educators evaluate progress.
- Evaluate sources for reliability – ability to recognise that commonly used sources of information can have many limitations (e.g. Wikipedia); can often be prejudiced or even biased and frequently offer just one world view
- Use a variety of tools to evaluate sources for bias – ability to use a variety of sources to verify material; appreciate which sources are most likely reliable and know how to find and use them
- Understand and identify common reasoning errors – recognise and understand the common mistakes people make in reasoning from such sources
- Evaluate search engines – ability to understand how search engines work and the implications of this
- Use different search engines to evaluate results – ability to analyse search results using different search engines and therefore choose high-quality search engines
- Display the ability to be inclusive and to display empathy in group communications – how are we part of a community and what does this mean for empathy and why is it important? How do we transfer this into the digital environment
- Evaluate group communications for bias and hate – how to recognise and develop strategies for responding to hate and bias in a community
- Capacity to map and monitor digital footprints – ability to understand the nature and scope of a digital footprint and what online activity can tell others about ourselves
- Ability to identify platforms and techniques for safe digital communication – recognise the need for appropriate guidelines to maintain and enhance online privacy and security
- Identifying ourselves as producers of information – develop an understanding of at least one online platform that can be used to share information and knowing what it means to share it responsibly and sensitively, including copyright, fair use and Creative Commons work
- Engaging with online activism – ability to be active as creators and consumers of digital content related to themes such as of identity, diversity, justice and social action.
- Evaluating online advertising – ability to recognise the role of advertising online and the ability to critically analyse it
- Recognizing that internet users are consumers – ability to interact with the internet as a marketplace where companies primary objective is to sell products and often ideas
- Understand the importance of identity online – identity is used for selling not just products but ideas and worldviews
- Digital activism – ability to understand the use of digital media and tools in active citizenship
- Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of digital activism – ability to appreciate the possibilities and limitations of the internet in relation to social activism
- Western and ‘developed’ world dominance – ability to recognise how western interests and viewpoints currently dominate digital markets
- Missing or weak voices – awareness that many voices remain ‘missing’ in digital communications locally and internationally
- Finding ‘other’ voices – ability to find, access and analyse alternative digital sources and platforms
- Telling a Different Story – the human rights way. Consider ‘enriching the public debate’ by taking a stand on an issue.