Category: Learner Digital Literacy

the skills and knowledge taught to learners

TEaching information and media literacy - part of finding and checking information

Evaluating your own practice (educators) – finding and checking information

Assessing your own practice 

It is important to not only develop effective information literacy skills but also to assess how these can impact our own everyday work. Understanding how information literacy development can bring positive benefits to our pedagogies and to our classrooms is a critical step towards embedding this into our wider everyday professional practice.  

back to finding and
checking information

One approach to this assessment is to utilise an information literacy framework to measure the range and depth of skills at use in a particular setting. Formal frameworks (such as the Media and Information Literacy Alliance’s model) essentially provide the conceptual tools to break down information literacy practice into its component parts, making it easier to measure and to explain what these mean in everyday practical terms.

Frameworks can help establish skill levels, competencies and awareness of information literacy practices in a wide variety of different learning environments and can be useful to both teachers (in understanding information literacy needs) and children and young people (in understanding where they may need assistance). They are often easy to use and can produce straightforward digestible outputs, uncover existing areas of strength and provide insight into ongoing development opportunities. 

Assessing information literacy skills in our own settings is therefore a crucial step towards developing targeted and sustainable critical thinking skills. Using an established information literacy framework to measure our work is therefore the best way to understand these needs and to embed good practice into our individual approaches to teaching. 

Evaluating information - part of finding and checking information

Evaluating information – finding and checking information

Evaluating information sources 

Here are a couple of ways children and young people can evaluate sources: 

  • Look for clues: Author (are they trustworthy?), Date (is the information still current?), Purpose (does the source inform, sell, persuade or entertain?) 
  • Strategy: SIFT – Stop, Investigate source, Find better coverage, Trace claims to original context. 

Children and young people should always remember to provide sources they use. As well as helping them find reliable information, it adds credibility to their work! 

 

 

back to finding and
checking information

 

Spotting mis- and disinformation  

Children and young people should check whether any information, from any source, is reliable. While online sources, especially social media sources, are often suspected, even printed books can at least have biases.  

However, recent research has found that misinformation and disinformation are mostly about today’s socio-political matters.  

There are a host of techniques to check whether information is true but firstly children and young people need an attitude of constant vigilance. Only if they routinely suspect information they receive will they apply these techniques. 

 

Reliability-checking 

In addition to SIFT and Author – Date – Purpose, the following have also recently been recommended by school librarians: 

There are several other models listed on the CILIPS website here: https://www.cilips.org.uk/media-and-information-literacy-resources.  

In general, children and young people should check several sources, and where possible make sure they don’t all link back to the same original source. The gold standard reliable sources are those that have been peer-reviewed, that is checked by experts for accuracy, reliability, verifiability etc. Most academic journals are peer-reviewed, but they can be very costly to access. 

Fact-checking services 

In case it’s not possible for your students to check information, there are fact-checking services. These include:

trusted sources - part of finding and checking information

Trusted sources – finding and checking information

Trusted sources 

Children and young people should look for information that is reliable, accurate and credible. They should use sources that are transparent about their information, cite their evidence, and avoid bias or misinformation. This: 

  • is essential for learning accurate and reliable information 
  • develops critical thinking skills 
  • avoids spreading mis- or disinformation 
  • supports stronger research, better arguments and more meaningful conversations.  

 

back to finding and
checking information

 

Examples of trusted sources include: 

 

 

* Note about Wikipedia (https://www.wikipedia.org)

Wikipedia is a fantastic information tool for school pupils because it offers a vast, easily accessible starting point for research on almost any topic. It involves community verification and collaboration to ensure its sources are accurate (although pupils should double check sources where possible).  

Don’t rely on AI! 

It’s very tempting to rely on AI, especially the AI summaries that appear at the top of Google search results. However, these summaries do not state how they assessed the sources that they draw from. Worse, when researching during the preparation of this document, some Google AI summaries were based on sources that either weren’t related to what we were searching for or were suspect in other ways.

In short, AI currently isn’t fully reliable, and doesn’t help children and young people be sure of what they find. There is no substitute for searching several sources, and critically thinking about what is found.  

building digital citizens a primary teachers perspective community post

Building Digital Citizens: my experience with Scotland’s Curriculum Improvement Cycle by a primary digital lead

My decision to engage with Scotland’s Curriculum Improvement Cycle regarding digital literacy began primarily when I began to lead my school through the Digital Schools Award journey. This experience revealed the Dunning-Kruger effect in action early in my school’s digital journey – while I started the process full of confidence, I gradually realised how much I didn’t know about what I didn’t know in the digital realm, and more importantly, how I needed to prepare my pupils for challenges and opportunities I couldn’t yet foresee. This recognition of the profound impact digital technology has on every aspect of modern life drove my deeper engagement with the field.

The concept of digital literacy has evolved significantly since its origins in the 1990s when I was a primary school pupil in the Kingdom of Fife, when it simply meant navigating around a Britannica Encyclopaedia CD-ROM or moving an angular turtle around the screen. Today, through my classroom experiences and engaging with the CIC, I can see more and more how it encompasses our interaction with democracy through digital platforms, environmental sustainability considerations, and fundamental human rights issues. Perhaps most critically, research indicates that digital disadvantage creates a compounding cycle of inequality, where those already facing socio-economic challenges are further disadvantaged by lack of digital access and skills. These disparities are particularly pronounced in the rural areas where my pupils are growing up, where geographic isolation can amplify digital exclusion. This understanding highlighted the urgent need to ensure every person in Scotland can participate fully in society through digital literacy. This recognition of the profound impact digital technology has on every aspect of modern life drove my deeper engagement with the field and my commitment to working with Education Scotland through the CIC process.

Through the Curriculum Improvement Cycle, I hope that developments within the CfE will succeed in creating a generation of young people who possess both essential daily digital skills and deeper understanding of digital systems’ impact. Through the processes I have been involved with I can see an aspiration to develop learners with practical capabilities that I had previously just taken for granted like using apps for parking or cup final tickets for my beloved Aberdeen, connecting payment systems, and scanning QR codes, alongside critical awareness of algorithms, data justice, and digital citizenship. This enhanced curriculum will empower teachers with structured frameworks and resources that make digital literacy concepts more accessible to teach, reducing preparation time while increasing classroom confidence in delivering these essential skills.

For me, my vision extends beyond functional skills to developing young people who understand the levers and controls within digital systems. Rather than passively accepting search engine results as definitive answers, I hope they will comprehend the influences and biases that shape digital information. This includes awareness of how algorithms influence what we watch, listen to, and discuss. For educators, this curriculum development will provide clear pedagogical pathways and assessment strategies, enabling teachers to facilitate meaningful discussions about digital citizenship without requiring extensive technical expertise themselves.

I believe that through successful implementation of digital literacy education within the Curriculum Improvement Cycle, we can address social and economic barriers, ensuring no one is left behind in an increasingly digital society. Teachers will benefit from professional development opportunities and collaborative networks that emerge from this initiative, enhancing their own digital competencies while building stronger connections with colleagues across Scotland.

The shared goal is not merely technical competence but fostering digital citizens who understand technology’s impact on themselves and the planet, equipped to participate meaningfully in democratic processes and sustainable practices through digital means. This approach will ultimately make teaching more relevant and engaging, as educators connect curriculum content to real-world applications that resonate with both their professional practice and pupils lived experiences.

David Thomson (Digital Lead) Kirkcowan Primary School

Digital Winter Week 2025

Welcome to Digital Winter Week! These sessions are designed to be “device agnostic” wherever possible. Whether your pupils are on iPads, Chromebooks, or Windows Laptops, they will be able to take part using the tools available to them. Sessions include live chat interaction and reactions via MS Teams.

Further Details can be found on specific sessions by clicking the link below:

Digital Winter Week 2025

Live lesson catchup: Close reading not required - how search engines work

Live lesson catchup: Close reading not required – how search engines work

YouTube player

Ted Palenski from the University of Glasgow delivered this live lesson aimed at children and young people of all ages.

Artificial intelligence has long been a component of search engines: how results are surfaced, ranked, and presented. This session breaks down how search engines work, and how they increasingly leverage generative AI, possibly to the detriment of close reading.

The aim of the session is to foster critical information literacy, offering several examples of how search engines might not give you the most relevant information, with some suggested strategies for navigating digital spaces overloaded with information.

create and edit media

Create and edit media – digital skills for children and young people

Learners should understand how digital technology can be used to create and edit media, such as photos, videos and audio. They know how to create media and are able t edit, including cropping, trimming, filtering and prompting. 

 

back to digital skills

child holding an ipad to video other children

Where to start

BBC LAB logo

BBC L.A.B. is a collection of simple films about how to make digital content.

Go to BBC L.A.B.

How to Take Brilliant Photos on Your Phone

How to Film on Phone or Tablet

How to Record Sound

How to Edit in 5 Steps

learn my way logo

Learn My Way is a free online digital skills learning platform.

Go to Learn My Way

 

Using your device: create and edit media

reading and writing with digital

Reading and writing with digital

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Mon 14/04/2025 12:50
 
 

engage with and create a wide range of texts in different media, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by ICT

 

Texts

The literacy and English framework reflects the increased use of multimodal texts, digital communication, social networking and the other forms of electronic communication encountered by children and young people in their daily lives.

 

OECD report on literacy
… continuously evaluating the quality and validity of differences sources, navigating through ambiguity, distinguishing between facts and opinions, and constructing knowledge. reading is a daily activity for most people and that education systems need to prepare students to be able to adapt to the variety of scenarios in which they will need to read as adults

 

The more knowledge technology allows us to search and access, the more important it becomes to develop deep understanding and the capacity to navigate ambiguity, to triangulate viewpoints, and to make sense of content.

 

Digital readers not only need to follow linear information structures but construct their own texts by selecting and assessing information from various sources

 

– WHY

 

 

It recognises that the skills which children and young people need to learn to read these texts differ from the skills they need for reading continuous prose – WHAT

 

novels, short stories, plays, poems reference texts the spoken word charts, maps, graphs and timetables advertisements, promotional leaflets comics, newspapers and magazines CVs, letters and emails films, games and TV programmes labels, signs and posters recipes, manuals and instructions reports and reviews text messages, blogs and social networking sites web pages, catalogues and directories

 

 

So, HOW?

 

Reading helps students gain knowledge which leads to better writing, whilst writing can deepen students’ understanding of ideas.

 

Extensive practice, supported by effective feedback, is required to develop fluent transcription skills (typing and word processing features for checking accuracy)

 

Writing has five components:

  • Planning
  • Drafting
  • Revising
  • Editing
  • Publishing

 

(planning)

before reading:

  • Make a text outline and note what they already know
  • bullets
  • Tables
  • Headings
  • Slides – one idea with room to add more info as they read
  • Save doc with a meaningful name to find and use again

 

(drafting)

As they read:

  • Scan (instead of skim) to retrieve target information
  • Find on page (Ctrl + F)
  • Open multiple pages/docs – search and selection tasks involve the use of text descriptors such as headers, source information (e.g. author, medium, date), and embedded links
  • Highlight
  • Bookmark useful pages
  • Follow links for primary sources or further information

 

Make notes:

  • Copy and paste text (and weblinks to find again)
  • Use audio notes
  • Use comments (in a doc)

 

(revising)

After they read:

  • Re-read notes
  • Rewrite notes as prose to develop the idea

 

 

Editing

The writing you’re teaching

 

 

Publishing

Save

Medium: word, pdf, blog post,

 

developing learners digital literacy

Developing Learners’ Digital Literacy

   go to Digital Literacy for Learners

This section aims to build on the digital skills for learners toolkit. It offers ideas, guidance and resources for applying digital skills in a range of contexts to be more purposeful and creative.

building digital citizens a primary teachers perspective community post
Building Digital Citizens: my experience with Scotland’s Curriculum Improvement Cycle by a primary digital lead

My decision to engage with Scotland’s Curriculum Improvement Cycle regarding digital literacy began primarily when I began to lead my school through the Digital Schools Award journey. This experience revealed the Dunning-Kruger effect in action early in my school’s digital journey – while I started the process full of confidence,… Read more

reading and writing with digital
Reading and writing with digital

​  George Milliken​ Mon 14/04/2025 12:50     engage with and create a wide range of texts in different media, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by ICT   Texts The literacy and English framework reflects the increased use of multimodal texts, digital communication, social networking and the other forms… Read more

Create-A_Long comic book with custom images

Create-A-Long Activities – Create a custom comic book

Communicate visually wit colourful graphics to tell a story, explain a concept, summarise a plot, or show how a pattern can be represented visually.

Comics can be a great way for learners to showcase their storytelling skills, explain concepts, and visually represent a concept. For learners with limited or no communication skills, this can be an excellent way to have them contribute to the wider conversation in class.

For this activity we have used a modified version of the Create a Comic Activity from the  Everyone Can Create Apple Teacher Learning Centre section.  

image of an iPad with a comic book literacy example

For this activity we used

an iPad, Apple Pencil, pages app, adobe express icons

We used an iPad, an Apple Pencil, Pages, and Adobe Express using our Glow Scotland credentials. Whilst these are very specific examples we appreciate that not every school has access to these resources. An alternative might be to use a web based tool such as Book Creator which has excellent comic book templates and Pixabay which has free to download graphics. 

Step 1: Create-a-long: Download the Activity

YouTube player

 

Step 2: Create-a-long: Create Your Characters

YouTube player

 

Step 3: Create-a-long: Put your comic book together

YouTube player

 

Now that you have tried all of the steps and put the comic together, you have developed the skills in your learners to apply this knowledge in different situations. Using comic book style activities can be a great way to Visualise concepts, retell failure Argos from history with custom characters, or even explaining concepts like the water cycle in new and engaging ways. 

Try it yourself and feel free to share your stories of success with us via social media:

Bluesky: @digilearnscot.bsky.social