Traditionally, digital media refers to digitised content that can be transmitted via computers and/or electronically. In the past (and still now), digital content was essentially selected for educational purposes as a content transmission model (consumers). Digital literacy, as I understand it, refers to the ability to use, create, manipulate, interpret, evaluate, analyse and synthesise digital media and devices to create new meaning and apply the knowledge gained to digital environments or transfer it to different situational contexts. Being digitally literate therefore provides the conditions to shift from a consumer mode to a participatory mode of content and meaning creation, where both teachers and learners become knowledge producers.

As the first video in lesson 2 of week 2 (Multimodal Meaning, Part 3A: What’s New About Digital Technologies?) explains, digital technology can further add to how we communicate and learn by using a multimodal approach to create artefacts.

A few months ago, I completed a MOOC about using films to teach literacy to school age children because I wanted to know if I could use this medium with my adult learners as well as wanting to ‘refresh’ my family learning programme . Many strategies were presented and discussed on how using films as a medium can contribute to raising literacy skills.  The course also illustrated how, using and manipulating digital media, we can make the teaching and learning experience richer, more individual, more engaging and more meaningful, as the videos below shows:

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teaching-literacy-through-film/0/steps/11389

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teaching-literacy-through-film/0/steps/7734

In practice and as a content producer, I am now able to transfer the knowledge I gained from this course to create teaching resources and activities for my own classes, and in doing so, I am also enabling my learners to try a multimodal approach which will help them to develop digital literacy skills by making the learning process more visible and engaging. By being able to choose their own ‘tools’ to create content, learners need to think more carefully about their choices and how they are going to approach the task. This works in both, individual and collaborative settings. 

As an educator, I am responsible to ensure that my digital literacy skills enable me to develop and maintain my own community knowledge space where colleagues and learners alike can all contribute to the teaching and learning process.