DIGITAL LITERACY

The world now becomes a global village. With just a click of our fingertips, we can get bits of information we want to know with so much ease. The internet becomes an indispensable tool in gathering and acquiring information of almost everything under the sun.

This world wide web brings forth the dawn of information and digital age. And, along with such digital age is the emergence of the essentials of digital literacy.

In the context of education, digital literacy is a new venture for educators to follow. In this generation made closer by social media and online communication, the need to get acquainted with this digital literacy is a must. This is where every educator must respond to the needs and demands of societal change in terms of technology advancements.

In our country, however, the concept of digital literacy is still raw. Being a third world country, digital divide in the Philippines is so apparent. Only few privileged learners could maximize the use of these digital devices. Though information and communication technology has been integrated in the basic education curriculum, majority of our young learners are still in the process of catching up things as far as digital literacy is concerned. 

Accordingly, thorough acceptance of this new norm in literacy is somewhat hard to grasp about considering the situation of such marginalized learners. The modern convenience brought about by these digital devices is not completely viable in the present status quo.

Furthermore, digital divide is not only confined between the privileged and the marginalized learners. It could be seen to some extent in the teacher-learner relationship. So, in the educative process, there's really a gap between these teachers who are still practicing and using traditional means and these tech savvy youngsters.

Nowadays, young learners tend to be more knowledgeable about such trending digital devices than adults do. More so, there are those digital natives who are growing up along with the convenience that these latest technologies bring to people. That is, for the educators, it would really mean that more effort should be made in order to gradually bridge this gap. 

Teachers must see to it that they have to use technology as means to a desired end, not an end itself. They must promote this new generation learning atmosphere anchored on personalized learning experiences, rather than focusing on using technology as the end tool for learning. 

In this world of twitter-shortened information labeling, digital literacy becomes an advantage, especially among teachers and other stakeholders in the educative process. For the teachers to keep pace with these trendings, they must embrace the idea of using technology as an opportunity to maximize personalized paths of learning.

Along with such promising future of digital literacy in the Philippines accounted for its tech savvy netizens, teachers must have at least exposed this new generation of learners to the culture of global innovation as to education and learning. 

These innovative paths of learning doesn't have to be a threat for information overload on the part of the learners. For the teachers, this is more on connecting and engaging to the learners as to ways they best learn.

For in the end, the ultimate goal of modern education is this connection or engagement among our teachers and learners. Whatever means and innovations being used to achieve this desired goal is a reflection of how digital literacy becomes an effective avenue for learning. 

In retrospect, despite such apparent digital divide, teachers themselves should bear in mind that digital literacy is achievable by purpose. After all, the free will to introduce digital literacy to this new generation of learners what matters the most.
                                                             
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