This activity aims to raise students’ awareness of digital literacies and reliance on technology (see Digital literacies for language teaching: an overview).

This activity is an adaptation of Activity 2: Being digitally literate in Dudeney, Hockly & Pegrum (2013: 72-74).

Learning outcomes

On completion of this activity, students will be able to

1. Describe technology habits and daily routines
2. Reflect on their own practice
3. Discuss issues linked to reliance on technology

Technology required

Although this activity can be completed within a low-tech environment (i.e. one internet-enabled computer and a data projector), each student should have access to an internet-enabled computer or smartphone (or any internet-enable device with a screen large enough to read comfortably).

Procedure

Before class

Create an online survey asking students questions on their digital daily life (see the language specific sections for a suggestion in each target language). If the activity is to be carried out in a low-tech environment, print a copy of the survey for each student.

Note: online surveys were created on Google Forms because it offers an unlimited number of questions, but you can of course choose any online survey tool you prefer.

During class

1. Introduce the topic by showing students some of the devices you use on a typical day in your ‘digital life’, and encourage them to ask questions. Alternatively, you can show a short video on this topic (see the language specific sections for video suggestions).
2. Direct students to the online or printed survey. Divide the class into pairs, and have them work through the questions together. Give them plenty of time to do this as some of the questions should elicit longer answers as students get into the details of their digital lives.
3. Conduct feedback as a whole group. Draw out anecdotes from the group as you go through the questions.
4. Open the discussion up to a wider set of issues – for eg.:

• Do you rely on technology too much each day?
• Do you spend too much time with gadgets and not enough with people?
• What would you do without your mobile phone for a day?
• What would you do without the internet for a day?
• What technologies would you like to use in class?
• Do you think mobile phones should be turned off in class?

After class

Set students a homework writing task in the target language in which they describe a day in the life of a ‘digital native’, explaining what gadgets they have, and how they use them each day.

 

Main focus	Literacy	Definition	Languages
Language	Print literacy	Ability to understand and create a variety of written texts	FR IT
	Texting literacy	Ability to communicate in "textspeak"	FR IT
	Hypertext literacy	Ability to process and to use hyperlinks in a digital artefact	EN ES FR IT
	Visual and Multimedia Literacy	Ability to interpret and create multimodal texts (i.e., using text, images, sounds, and/or video)	FR IT
	Gaming Literacy	Ability to navigate, interact with and achieve goals in a gaming environment	FR IT
	Mobile Literacy	Ability to navigate, interpret information from, contribute information to, and communicate through the mobile internet, and to orient oneself in the space of the internet of things and augmented reality.	FR IT
	Code and technological Literacy	Ability to read, write, critique and modify computer code in order to create or tailor software and media channels	FR IT
Information	Search literacy	Ability to critically use a variety of search engines and services	ES FR GA IT
	Information Literacy	Ability to evaluate documents and artefacts and to assessing their credibility	FR IT
	Tagging Literacy	Ability to interpret and create folksonomies	FR IT
	Filtering Literacy	Ability to reduce information overload by using online networks as screening mechanisms	FR IT
Connections	Personal Literacy	Ability to use digital tools to shape and project a desired online identity	FR IT
	Network Literacy	Ability to connect with relevant networks to filter and obtain information, to communicate with and inform others; to identify collaborators, and to spread influence	FR IT
	Participatory Literacy	Ability to interpret documents and artefacts from a range of cultural contexts, as well as interact with Ability to be 'produser' (producer-user) of digital content in the service of personal and/or collective goals	FR IT
	Cultural and Intercultural Literacy	Ability to interpret documents and artefacts from a range of cultural contexts, as well as interact with interlocutors across different cultural contexts	FR
(re-)Design	Remix Literacy	Ability to create and share new meanings by sampling, modifying and/or combining pre-existing texts and artefacts, and by responding to and building on others’ remixes within digital networks	FR

 

 

Source/attribution:  Digilanguages.         Author: Johanna Keogh