Category: Learner Digital Literacy

the skills and knowledge taught to learners

reading and writing with digital

Reading and writing with digital

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.

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

boy girl jump device

#SDLW24 Video Recap series

Below is a playlist that shows the Curriculum Live Lessons, Professional Learning, and sharing practice sessions that were delivered as part of Scottish Digital Literacy week 2024.

Continue to share the amazing work that is taking place in your settings and be sure to mention us @digilearnscot using #SDLW24

What Digital learning might look like

Digital Literacy projects and resources

This section contains some recommended project-based learning resources and activities that teachers might use with learners who are secure in their digital competencies from the previous page.

Digital literacy moves beyond the technical competencies in the Learner Digital Skills Toolkit and develops into critical and social skills that are relevant and representative of the realities that people live (Marín & Castañeda). In short, digital literacy should enable people to fulfil the four capacities and participate fully in society.

These resources are designed to cover a combination of the three digital literacy Experiences and Outcomes. 

back to digital literacy home

4 capacities

Resources

cyber resilience

Cyber resilience – learner digital skills toolkit

Learners should understand the risks of being online and the cyber security steps they should take to reduce these risks. They should know how to set up accounts and devices securely and how to report and recover from any risks they encounter.

This learning covers Experience and Outcome x-03a. 

back to digital literacy

safe and secure mindmap

Where to start

BBC Bitesize has useful information on how computers and the internet work.

Go to BBC Bitesize

 

Visit the Barclays Digital Wings site to view tutorials and learning resources for fundamental digital skills. This requires a login with email, name and password – teachers should check their data protection policy before registering learners.

Go to Barclays Digital Wings

Get started online

Cyber secure

learn my way

Learn My Way is a website of free online learning for beginners, helping you develop digital skills to make the most of the online world. Some aspects of this page may require a login – teachers should check their data protection policy before registering learners.

go to Learn My Way site

CyberFirst is the national cyber security education programme from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Their CyberSprinters game and teaching resources is an easy place to get started with cyber.
Go to CyberSprinters

cyber toolkit

Our Cyber Toolkit provides more practical advice on teaching learners about staying safe and secure when online.

Go to Cyber Toolkit

Every secondary school has copies of Your Money Matters textbooks and resources:
Go to Your Money Matters Scotland

Text on left, sound icon on right.

Explore Winter Sounds inside and out (early level)

The sound of Christmas

 

What does Christmas sound like?

What does it sound like outside?

What does it sound like indoors? 

 

 

 

Use your senses to see, touch, smell and HEAR everything that means CHRISTMAS to you!

Once you have identified the sound of Christmas, capture this in an audio recording and then invite your friends to listen to the recording and try to identify the sound you have captured.

Will they identify the sound correctly, or will they need a clue?

Different ways to capture audio:

  • Talking button/postcard, recordable microphone, karaoke machine, Dictaphone, talking/recordable toys.
  • Recording audio on an iPad with built in apps Voice Memo or GarageBand
  • Recording audio on a Chromebook with Vocaroo | Online voice recorder (website will work on any browser/device with Microphone access permission)
  • Recording audio on a Windows device with built in Voice recorder
  • Recording an audio clip in Microsoft Sway with record audio
  • Recording an audio clip in Scratch Jr app with sound blocks (play video at 38 seconds)
You may be required to adjust privacy settings to enable your microphone to work.

Try it for yourself and share your audio creations with us on social media @digilearnscot

 

 

What digital literacy might look like clpl programme

This is… What Digital Literacy Might Look Like (Developing Your Curriculum)

This programme aims to support teachers develop their own digital literacy curriculum. It will explore the skills that learners need for life, learning and work. Teachers will then be able to evaluate staff training, classroom and lesson resourcing and school improvement needs based on this.

Educators need to attend the first session but can then select to attend any, or all, of the following sessions.

This CLPL will run before and, then be repeated, after the Christmas holiday.

Digital Learner diagram (landscape)

Webinars