By Anita Brooks Kirkland
Myths, Realities and Opportunities: What the Research Says about Digital Literacy
Abstract
This paper synthesizes the relevant findings of new research from Canada and the United States pertaining to the digital divide and youth digital literacy. It explores research on teachers’ attitudes and competencies, related to their own digital literacy and their attitudes towards technology integration in school, and finally explores new opportunities in the learning commons to optimize approaches to digital literacy. The aim is to move past the harmful platitudes and mythologies that have characterized much of the discourse about youth in a networked world, and provide a framework for understanding authentic and powerful opportunities for collaborative, networked learning.
Anita Brooks Kirkland served for twelve years as Consultant for K-12 Libraries at the Waterloo Region DSB. She remains active in teacher professional learning, specializing in the areas of information and digital literacy and the school library learning commons. She is a teacher additional qualifications instructor in teacher-librarianship at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Anita is active in professional associations, and is the 2014 president of the Ontario Library Association. Please visit Anita’s website and blog, where she shares an extensive collection of presentations and other professional resources.