Digital Literacy
- Online and asynchronous
- This course will require between 7-10 hours of work per week
- Workload Rating: Standard
Optional Textbook
Gonzalez, J. (2024). The teacher’s guide to tech 2024. The cult of pedagogy classroom.
The Teacher’s Guide to Tech is available as a subscription only (6 months or 1 year).
- You can preview the resource using the The Teacher's Guide to Tech website.
Course Description
This course will introduce participants to what it means to implement critical digital literacy skills in their professional and everyday lives. The course will explore emerging digital technologies, how to use the tools effectively, and consider the implications of what it means to be digitally literate in our current context.
Learning Outcomes
The primary learning outcomes for GDE/PME 815 are to:
- Develop the foundational skills, knowledge, concepts, and definitions of digital literacies to inform digital literacies practices and technology integration
- Understand the affordances and limitations of different digital tools and digital systems
- Understand the barriers, biases, and inequalities that exist within digital systems
- Apply and centralize the digital design priorities of equity, accessibility, and inclusion
- Apply new technology skills, including (but not limited to) digital video production, screencasting, podcasting, and use of various design applications
- Understand the digital inequalities that currently exist in Canada and the implications of gaps in skills and access
- Develop new understandings of themselves as critical, strategic technology integrators for social change and empowerment
Assessments
Introduce Yourself Activity
Introduction Module - 5%
Digital Literacy Autobiography
Module 1 - 10%
Bias in your Search Results: A Critical Analysis & Comparison of Search Engines
Module 2 - 10%
Designing for Digital Justice: A Blog Post
Module 3 - 15%
Debunking Misinformation Online: A Comic Book
Module 4 - 15%
Technology Facilitated Violence and Canadian Case Law: An Educational Graphic
Module 5 - 15%
Autoethnographic Presentation
Closing Module - 30%
How does this course support learners outside K-12 teaching contexts?
This course is beneficial for all learners and has clear applications across diverse professional contexts.
Each student’s professional practice and goals are unique. We highly encourage students to reach out to their course instructors at the start of the term to discuss the relevance and application of course learning and assignments to their own learning goals and context of practice.