Working toward Digital Literacy Worldwide
As we are working towards equity in education, both locally and globally, what can be done about the digital divide?
On the local level, teachers in Missouri can support students in understanding their responsibilities as digital readers and writers by teaching digital citizenship. Common Sense in partnership with Project Zero has created lessons for grades k-12 on understanding your digital footprint, communication, and media literacy among other important topics. The lessons are available at https://www.commonsense.org/education/. In addition, teachers can provide authentic experiences for students to engage in locating, navigating, and evaluating online texts, collaborating using digital platforms, and creating multimodal compositions through small group project-based learning. Learning for Justice provides resources and lessons to support students as they engage in online inquiry and research at https://www.learningforjustice.org/frameworks/digital-literacy.
On the global level, thanks to support from the University of Missouri - St. Louis and the International Literacy Association’s Elva Knight Research Grant, I was able to return to Kiminini in June 2019 to facilitate the Inquiry Initiative professional development with Dr. Peter Wanyonyi of Hope Education Centre. The year before, thanks to support from the New Literacies Collaborative and the ILA Constance McCullough Award, we had presented professional development on inquiry and digital literacy. During the professional development this year, teachers learned more about inquiry-based digital literacy instruction and created digital stories based on folktales.
The funding from ILA for the Inquiry Initiative is timely because the Kenyan government has launched a one-to-one program to integrate technology and learning. According to the ICT Authority in Kenya, over 1 million tablets have been distributed to schools throughout the country to date, and the project is continuing to grow. I am invited to return summer 2022 and look forward to what’s to come.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BSIzLrfMvH2Wzt3xnDkWH37fuPbesFji/view?usp=sharing
The Inquiry Initiative presenters Peter Wanyonyi, Susan Catapano, Amber Candela, Lynn Navin, Nelly Sanya, Batoully Diallo, Shea Kerkhoff, Michelle Falter and Timothy Makubuya and the participants on day three of the professional development series in Kenya.
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Dr. Shea Kerkhoff is an assistant professor of literacy and secondary education at the University of Missouri – St. Louis. She serves on the board of directors of the St. Louis Regional Literacy Association and the Missouri Literacy Association. She is also Co-Principal Investigator on the Missouri Comprehensive State Literacy Development grant that is working to promote evidence-based literacy instruction across the state.
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The Inquiry Initiative presenters Peter Wanyonyi, Susan Catapano, Amber Candela, Lynn Navin, Nelly Sanya, Batoully Diallo, Shea Kerkhoff, Michelle Falter and Timothy Makubuya and the participants on day three of the professional development series in Kenya.