The Importance of Digital Literacy in the 21st Century

Increasing developments in technology and digital communication continuously affects learners in both contemporary educational contexts, and informal learning environments. It is fundamental for educators to acknowledge the benefits and complications of digital literacies to secondary students, as they implicate learners’ potential for achievement in the twenty-first century. Additionally, a socio-technological society affects the relevance of digital literacy to dramatic arts education.

Various digital literacies exist within both informal learning environments and contemporary schooling contexts and involve an array of complex cognitive, motor, sociological and emotional skills. A lack of these skills increasingly implicates one’s full potential of being a competent student or empowered employee and limits their ability to navigate digital reproduction, hyper-textual navigation and assess the quality and validity of the information. The current world socio-technological context, which promotes media technologies and digital and multimodal communication, requires learners’ understanding and awareness of the utilization of technological tools, along with practices of appropriate use.

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Glister (1997) recognizes the fundamental application of the Internet in contemporary education to assimilate students into a socio-technological society.

Critically analyzing the credibility of online sources is an imperative skill for twenty-first-century learners to acquire within a safe educational context. An array of standardized testing is preeminent within modern education, such as the higher school certificate, and requires in-depth research for learners to achieve in the top percentile within these norm-referenced assessments. Therefore, it is imperative students develop skills and an understanding of how to validate information to obtain accurate knowledge relating to their subject area. Furthermore, the ability to critically determine the reliability and validity of information is advantageous for students entering the workforce as it assists them in researching product and decoding information.

In addition to this, digital literacies, such as multimodal texts, are an important pedagogical practice within contemporary classrooms as they account for a myriad of learners. “Students have diverse preferred learning styles and effective instructors must design and deliver courses which utilize the four physiological learning styles of visual, aural, read-write and kinesthetic”. Multi-modal texts and sources incorporate an array of digital literacies including, video, voice-over and information and communications technology (ICT) which employ a range of learning modes. Hence, it is conceded that digital literacies are fundamental in a modern educational context, as it caters for a diversity of learners. Furthermore, learners’ exposure to a variety of multi-modal texts assists them in navigating ICT resources, such as video media, important for workplace life. Subsequently, the expansion of technology consequently means digital literacies are now essential proficiencies for communication and navigating social practices in a contemporary world.

Digital literacies continue to develop with technological advancements, consequently, these rapid changes in digital communication mean various reading and writing facilities are combined with complex music and graphics. The increased accessibility of digital technologies has altered the way society communicates, intensifying the importance of students gaining awareness of various digital literacies and technologies. Therefore, it is fundamental educators alter pedagogical practices to account for the informal learning environment and become specific in the way they describe various processes of reading and writing that are occurring with digital communications technology. Subsequently, both primary and secondary schooling teachers need to develop relevant procedures for assessment that account for new technological advancements and hence, reformed means of communication.

Conclusively, new technological advancements alter both how contemporary society communicates and societal practices. Therefore, teachers need to accommodate for the advancement of digital literacies within the classroom to amalgamate students into society, teaching them to be active members of their community.

Understanding and becoming aware of digital literacies are important for contemporary learners as the current world socio-technological context promotes media technologies changing societal means of communication. Additionally, it is fundamental for learners to understand how to critically evaluate an array of digital texts and the navigation of multi-modal lit