Category: Learner Digital Literacy

the skills and knowledge taught to learners

finding and checking

Finding and checking – learner digital skills toolkit

Learners should understand how web browsers and search engines work and how this might affect their search results. They should also be aware that anyone can publish anythign on the internet and that they should check the reliability and integrity of any information they find.

They should be able to use ‘common apps’, such as Edge, Chrome or Safari browsers and be able to use the search bar, or a search site, to find information using search phrases and controls to make the resutls more accurate.

This learning covers Experience and Outcome x-02a. 

back to digital literacy

skills for finding and checking

Where to start

This section focuses on the knowledge and skills that learners need to find and evaluate the reliability of online information. 

BBC Bitesize has useful information on how technology stores and shares information and how it can be used to communicate. Go to BBC Bitesize

GCF Global has a range of tutorials on using the Microsoft O365 and Google Workspace productivity suites. Go to GCF Global

Adobe Express can be used to create and edit images, videos and PDFs. Go to Adobe Express

 

When planning digital literacy learning it might be useful to consider the next steps and family engagement. 
Creating and sharing documents and media lends itself to other areas of the curriculum, such as:

  • word processing a text in literacy & English
  • editing a video showing a skill or performance
  • information handling using a spreadsheet to store data in a table

What next?

Microsoft Teams Search Coach is useful to help learners evaluate the reliability of search results – Microsoft Search Coach

Why not try the information literacy lessons from Project Real? Project Real

project real resources

“The ability to think critically and make balanced judgements about any information we find and use. It empowers us as citizens to reach and express informed views and to engage fully with society.” – CILIP Information Literacy Group

go to the Cyber Toolkit for advice and guidance on Information Literacy

making and sharing

Making and sharing – learner digital skills toolkit

Learners should understand how computers store and are able to share content.  

They should be able to use ‘common apps’, such as O365 or Adobe Express to create documents, edit media and share this content in class. 

This learning covers Experience and Outcome x-01a. 

back to digital literacy

digital skills for making and sharing

Where to start

This section focuses on the knowledge and skills that learners need to make and share content, documents or files. 

BBC Bitesize has useful information on how technology stores and shares information and how it can be used to communicate. Go to BBC Bitesize

GCF Global has a range of tutorials on using the Microsoft O365 and Google Workspace productivity suites. Go to GCF Global

Adobe Express can be used to create and edit images, videos and PDFs. Go to Adobe Express

When planning digital literacy learning it might be useful to consider the next steps and family engagement. 
Creating and sharing documents and media lends itself to other areas of the curriculum, such as:

  • word processing a text in literacy & English
  • editing a video showing a skill or performance
  • information handling using a spreadsheet to store data in a table

daydream believers logo

Why not try a Daydream Believers project?

Learning with Digital

Learning with Digital – learner digital literacy theme

 

This page outlines some of the key digital literacy skills and knowledge that learners could make effective use of in the classroom. This ranges from being able to upload, share and collaborate on platforms like Teams and Classroom to using platforms like SeeSaw and Showbie to journal and share their learning.

Back to learner digital literacy 

Digital Learner diagram (landscape)

 

Where to start

Learners should be able to:

  • use digital devices and platforms to communicate, collaborate and share information online
  • find, manage and store digital information and content securely

See more information on this in the accordion menus below (click to expand the blue bars):

Using Glow to communicate, collobarate and store information

Glow provides access to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace productivity suites allowing learners to practice and develop the skills and knowledge required to use these for learning, life and work.

Support for teachers with the fundamentals of these platforms can be found on the Teacher Digital Skills page:
go to Teacher Digital Skills page

What skills and knowledge should I start with?

Teachers should consider creating a ‘pencil case’ of essential tools they expect learners to use in the daily or weekly course of learning. This will reduce the choice overload (Baymer and Thomson, 2015) of apps and the cognitive load (TES/EEF, 2023) of content knowledge on learners. An example of this might be:

  • Teams for distributing learning
  • Whiteboard to collaborate and share ideas with peers
  • Stream to screen record a demonstration of a skill for teacher feedback or self-assessment
  • OneDrive to create and store documents, such as Word or PowerPoint
  • Immersive Reader screen read-aloud feature to support learners with reading on screen

What next?

There are further examples and contexts in the accordion menus below (click to expand the blue bars):

Communication

bbc bitesize

The first aspect to consider is how learners can use Glow and other online platforms to connect, contact and communicate with each other. Are they using email, direct messaging or video calls? How are these skills useful in learning, life and work?

What are digital communication systems? – BBC Bitesize

go to Cyber Toolkit for advice and guidance on communication

Collaboration

tech she can

 

 

 

 

 

Using cloud drives, such as OneDrive (Microsoft) and Drive (Google), learners can create and share content with peers, teachers and even learners in other schools or countries. Not only can they be shared, they can be co-created and edited at the same time on multiple computers at once! How is this useful for life, learning and work?

Collaborating using IT – BBC Bitesize

Tech She Can has a short video explaining how cloud computing works for younger learners:

Tech for Katie and Tex explore the cloud (techshecan.org)

Literacy & English

When planning learning around the functional tools in Glow, it is worth considering their purpose and application. Text-based documents, such as Word, Docs, PowerPoint and Slides might lend themselves to Literacy & English Es and Os:

  • When creating documents (writing a text) consider the impact of layout and presentation 
  • Make use of lettering, graphics and other features to engage readers

Typing is a useful, but not essential, skill in modern digital literacy. Teachers might plan some typing practice as part of this functional suite of learning in order to enable learners to use them more effectively:

Dance Mat Typing for 7 – 11 year olds – BBC Bitesize

go to the Literacy Trust website for more examples and information

Numeracy & mathematics

numeracy and maths experiences and outcomes

When planning learning around the functional tools in Glow, it is worth considering their purpose and application. Text-based documents, such as Excel and Sheets might lend themselves to numeracy & Mathematics: 

  • When displaying data, consider the use of spreadsheets, graphs or tables to create clear visual representations 

Creating and understanding charts and graphs – BBC Bitesize

 go to the Joint Mathematical Council report on digital tools for maths

Microsoft and Google app tutorials

These two collections of tutorials may support teachers develop skills with the Microsoft and Google suites of apps:

go to the free Microsoft Office Tutorials at GCFGlobal

 

go to the free Google Tutorials at GCFGlobal

navigating devices and apps

Navigating devices and apps – learner digital skills toolkit

Learners should understand how computers and apps work, how to control them and solutions to simple issues, like resetting them.  

They should be able to use common inputs, such as keyboards, mice and touchscreens, to find their way around the device, including opening and using apps and changing settings to make it easier to use.

This learning covers Experience and Outcome x-01a. 

back to digital literacy

navigating devices and apps mindmap

Where to start

This section focuses on the knowledge and skills that learners need to use devices and apps. 

BBC Bitesize has useful information on how computers work, including how to categorise inputs and outputs. Go to BBC Bitesize

GCF Global has a range of tutorials on using the Microsoft O365 and Google Workspace productivity suites. Go to GCF Global

CALL Scotland has resources and information to support accessibility and how to use a device’s settings to make it easier to use. Go to CALL Scotland

tech she can

 

After learning about what computers and digital technology is, and how they work, learners could investigate how technology is used in a range of industries. These resources from Tech She Can are free to use and easily adapted to suit different ages and stages:

Lesson packs – TechSheCan

 

digital pencil case webinar 11 may 4pm

11 May 16:00, Developing Your Learners’ Digital ‘Pencil Case’

This professional learning will help teachers identify the Learning with Digital skills and knowledge of functional apps that learners will use to access, undertake and evidence learning. Having the skills and confidence to use these apps regularly will empower learners to apply this learning across other curricular areas.

Sign up with this link to EventBrite: Sign up now!

Digital Learner diagram (landscape)

 

Attendees will get an overview of the revised digital literacy planning support and its themes and focusing on the Learning with Digital theme. They will identify the digital literacy skills, and the corresponding apps, that they will require learners to use across the school year.

As a result teachers will have a clear picture of the skills they will require learners to have, examples of planning and resources for teaching these skills and then be able to embed these across the curriculum.

Digital Xtra Fund

The goal of Digital Xtra Fund is for every young person in Scotland to have access to innovative and digitally creative activities regardless of their gender, background, or where they live. Through supported initiatives, the Fund aims to inspire young people to understand and create with technology, not simply use it. Schools and educational organisations positively engaging young people in tech can apply for up to £5,000 to support an extracurricular activity which focusses on digital tech, especially initiatives that also provide opportunities for young people to informally engage with industry and learn more about how digital skills and tech are relevant in the ‘real-world’.

Find out more about Digital Xtra Fund with this link: https://www.digitalxtrafund.scot/

Since its inception in 2016, Digital Xtra Fund has awarded £875,000 in grants to 137 exciting and meaningful extracurricular computing and digital technologies initiatives across Scotland. This funding has helped grant recipients engage nearly 45,000 young people in tech. For the current academic year, Digital Xtra Fund has recently awarded 35 grants to schools and educational organisations which are projected to engage another 7,500 young people (including 3,800 girls and young women) and show them the breadth of opportunities these skills can provide.
View the 20/21 impact report with this link: https://www.digitalxtrafund.scot/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Digital-Xtra-Fund-2020.21-Impact-Report.pdf

Applications for next round of grant awards (Round VIII) will open in January 2023 for activities delivered during the 2023/24 academic year. However, now is the perfect time to think about what you would do with the funding and who you could work with to better engage more young people!

Find out more about the latest recipients and their projects using this link: Digital Xtra Fund awards 35 grants to drive digital skills.

Please follow Digital Xtra Fund on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for future updates.

Quick Links for Digital Xtra Fund

Digital Xtra Fund website

20/21 impact report

Round VII (2022/2023) initiatives supported by Digital Xtra Fund 

Digital Literacy Planning Support Document

This webinar will provide first access to the brand-new Digital Literacy Planning Support document (currently for first and second level) from Education Scotland. This document is designed to support educators plan, resource and assess digital literacy in a range of contexts with distinct themes, example activities and skills and knowledge identified for each distinct context

 

use this link to view the documents

ON DEMAND DigiLearnScot: Developing ideas using animations (Keynote & iPad)

In this lesson from DigiLearn learners will go through a step-by-step tutorial to create an animation using the Keynote app on iPad.

Animating ideas is an excellent way for pupils to visualise and share their knowledge. From animations describing the journey of Jacobite soldiers, to story boarding ideas for a creative writing project. Using out of the box tools and features, pupils can easily visualise the story they wish to tell and share their understanding in a modern and exciting way.

Whilst this lesson will use the magic move component on Keynote and iPad, the methods and techniques are transferable to a number of curricular areas and apps.

It is advised that if you attend this session, you have access to an iPad and Keynote. The step by step instructions and hands on will use the features inherent to this app – we appreciate that not all pupils will have access to this.

If you wish to attend and use another tool such as PowerPoint, you are welcome to do so but please note that you will not be able to replicate in exactly the same manner

 

 

Sign up on Eventbrite

Use this link to access supporting materials

DigiLearnScot: Keeping my devices and accounts more secure (Cyber Resilience and Internet Safety) lesson

Learners will explore how their devices store data, how they connect to the internet, and how to keep them more secure

 

Learners will:

  • identify the things (data) that they value on their device, and why it is valuable
  • explore how to keep their device and data more secure, including passwords and other security features
  • earn how their device connects to the internet and web services, how this changes how data is stored and secured, and why this should be considered when sharing content
    d

Resources required:
Just something to make notes, share ideas or draw on

 

Sign up on Evenbrite

Use this link to access supporting resources

ON DEMANDDigiLearnScot: App Prototyping

Join the DigiLearn team for a live lesson exploring the impact of apps on our lives and lead learners through the steps to create their very own app designs.

Designing apps is a great way to work together and solve challenges that exist in the community. This virtual app prototyping activity will give aspiring coders a chance to celebrate their ingenuity as they develop their ideas and share solutions with their peers.

The best apps start with an idea, and this activity will start the same. Before attending, it is advised to brainstorm an idea with pupils. Think of the purpose, who will benefit, what problem will it solve or is it simply an entertaining way to share information.

Using the PPT/Keynote template you will build your prototype to figure out exactly how your app will work and what the user experience will be.

You will then have the opportunity to build your working prototype that you can share for feedback and evaluation.

This lesson will be led on Keynote on iPad but other presentation apps, such as Google Slides or PowerPoint (desktop/app), can be used in the same way. We will share a template that can be easily edited on PowerPoint (online version users can edit content but not the navigation buttons).

There will be a short video tutorial on how to create the template, link slides, and use navigation buttons in PowerPoint/Keynote.

If you wish to prototype an app using pencil/paper you are more than welcome to watch along and gather ideas.

 

Sign up with Evenbrite

Use this link to access all supporting resources