Review Teaching digital literacy (a review)
As the information age expands, so language learners are doing more and more learning online. However, they are not just learning how to use a foreign language. They are learning how to use a new methodology, online learning, to build their knowledge of the language and develop language learning skills to work with this relatively recent tool. Nik Peachey specialises in developing online activities for language learning that students and teachers can use in class or in distance learning. One of his recent online courses, delivered in an infographic, is about how to develop study skills for the 21st century. It explores the factors that influence existing study skills and encourages students to take part in online research into effective study skills techniques. Key skills developed include the ability to study and research online, the ability to read and understand digital information, the ability to check the credibility of online information, the students’ ability to carry out online research and to represent their findings visually and the ability to extract information from research and create informative text based on their findings. There is a teacher’s presentation, a student’s version of the presentation, and an infographic, all of which can be accessed online. The course offers a model that can be used by teachers, by students researching information and creating texts, and also for teacher training programmes.