TechSheCan – Resources and Industry Partners
Category: Learner Digital Literacy
the skills and knowledge taught to learners
Finding and checking information online – digital skills for children and young people
Learners should understand how to find information online and the need to access reliable sources. They should know how to use a search engine, where to access reliable information and how to read online information.
The guidance on this page was developed by CILIPS (Scotland’s library and information professionals).
Introduction and definitions
This guidance supports teachers to guide school students with finding, assessing and using information both online and physically.
This is sometimes described as information literacy, media literacy or digital literacy. Ultimately, it is about embedding critical thinking skills at all ages, when sources of information vary significantly; the potential harms of mis- and dis-information and inaccurate conspiracy theories are significant.
CILIP define it as: ‘Information literacy is the ability to think critically and make balanced judgements about any information we find and use. It empowers us as citizens to develop informed views and to engage fully with society’.
Read a fuller definition with this button
The rest of this guide will help with trusted sources, spotting mis- and dis-information, and how to assess your own practice.
Doing online tasks and activities – digital skills for children and young people
Learners should understand that apps allow computers and digital technology to perform specific functions. They should be able to use apps that are appropriate to their context, whether at home or in school. These might be apps on the device or on the web.
Where to start
BBC Bitesize has useful information on how technology can be used to create media and how the computer stores this, making it easy to edit and share.
This section focuses on the basic knowledge and skills required to use the most common office productivity and collaboration software.
Learn My Way is a free online digital skills learning platform.
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.
Communication
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
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:
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
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
Setting up and using devices – digital skills for children and young people
Learners should have a basic understanding of how computers and digital technology works. They should be able to operate common devices, making use of inputs, such as keyboards, mice and touchscreens. Learners should know about accessibility devices that can make devices easier to use.
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.
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.
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.
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:
CALL Scotland has resources and information to support accessibility and how to use a device’s settings to make it easier to use.
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!
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
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
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
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
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