Digital fluency is the extent to which an individual can interact, understand and meaningfully engage with any given technology (Howell, 2012; Gee and Hayes, 2011). In my case, this is a point I have to consistently improve on. This is due not only to the fact that I do not engage with as many different types of technology as I could but also that I, as is the case with the majority of people, cannot keep updated with every new innovation as it arrives in the market. So fast and broad is the change of old to new technology that it is near impossible for any individual to follow.
This creates for me the frightening pressure of taking the extra time and effort to ensure that I am not only aware of the newest technologies relevant to my field (i.e. teaching) but that I am familiar with how each functions at least on a basic level. Students and parents are what has been termed by Howell (2012) to be digitally expectant – they expect educational professionals to be the expert in what they are teaching. In the case of technological education, it becomes the educator’s responsibility to continually expand their knowledge of what is new in the field and to sort out what is most relevant to student’s needs as future members of various different vocations.
REFERENCES
Howell, J. (2012). Teaching with ICT: Digital pedagogies for collaboration & creativity. South Melbourne, VIC:
Oxford University Press.
Gee, J. P. & Hayes, E. R. (2011). Language and learning in the digital age. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
