Digital literacy : the cement that binds a world without walls

The literacy demands of texts that students need to be able to use and construct in today’s world has changed significantly in the last ten years. This change will continue with the burgeoning use of the electronic medium, particularly the Internet, in classrooms and the work place. Being multiliterate has become the new literacy benchmark. Syllabus documents cannot keep up with the changing textual environment nor the skills and understanding students require to become digitally literate. Being digitally literate involves having at your disposal the practices and processes of information literacy, print literacy, visual literacy and critical literacy. Being digitally literate enables students to piece together information from a range of different texts – written, visual, aural, across a variety of information sources found on the Internet. Students need to understand that each ‘move’ they make in creating their pathway impacts upon the knowledge they gain. This paper will consider how to support students and teachers to work with digital texts and the electronic medium in order to adapt their current practices to meet the changing nature of literate practices. It will draw upon case studies of classrooms in primary and secondary schools where teachers have considered change in their curriculum, pedagogy and assessment to create a learning environment that is engaging and supportive using the new modes of learning and new mediums. It will also consider the importance of understanding the tactics students use to logically link sites. Together we will explore the different nature of digital literacy and the accompanying discourses which reflect quality teaching principles