The Tech Edvocate

Top Menu

  • Apps
  • Home Page
  • Home Page Five (No Sidebar)
  • Home Page Four
  • Home Page Three
  • Home Page Two
  • Home Tech2
  • Icons [No Sidebar]
  • Left Sidbear Page
  • My Account
  • My Speaking Page
  • Newsletter Sign Up Confirmation
  • Newsletter Unsubscription
  • Page Example
  • Protected Content
  • Register
  • Request a Product Review
  • Shop
  • Shortcodes Examples
  • Signup
  • Start Here
    • Governance
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • The Edvocate
  • Topics
  • Write For Us
  • Advertise

Main Menu

  • Start Here
    • Governance
      • Lynch Education Consulting
      • Dr. Lynch’s Personal Website
      • Careers
    • Write For Us
    • Contact Us
    • Books
  • Topics
    • Assistive Technology
    • Child Development Tech
    • Digital & Mobile Technology
    • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech
    • EdTech Futures
    • EdTech News
    • EdTech Policy & Reform
    • EdTech Startups & Businesses
    • Higher Education EdTech
    • Online Learning & eLearning
    • Parent & Family Tech
    • Personalized Learning
    • Product Reviews
  • Advertise
    • Request a Product Review
  • Apps
  • Tech Edvocate Awards
  • The Edvocate
  • The Edvocate Podcast

logo

The Tech Edvocate

  • Start Here
    • Governance
      • Lynch Education Consulting
      • Dr. Lynch’s Personal Website
        • My Speaking Page
      • Careers
    • Write For Us
    • Contact Us
    • Books
  • Topics
    • Assistive Technology
    • Child Development Tech
    • Digital & Mobile Technology
    • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech
    • EdTech Futures
    • EdTech News
    • EdTech Policy & Reform
    • EdTech Startups & Businesses
    • Higher Education EdTech
    • Online Learning & eLearning
    • Parent & Family Tech
    • Personalized Learning
    • Product Reviews
  • Advertise
    • Request a Product Review
  • Apps
  • Tech Edvocate Awards
  • The Edvocate
  • The Edvocate Podcast
  • Classroom in a Pocket? Creating a Mobile eLearning Environment

  • 7 Frequently Asked Questions About Gamification

  • The Difference Between Mobile Learning and eLearning

  • Looks Do Matter: How Visuals Shape eLearning

  • 4 Benefits of Adaptive Learning in Corporate Training

  • When Algorithms Determine Student Placement

  • Algorithmic Processes that Help You Interpret Data Like a Pro

  • The Bias You Don’t See Can Hurt Children

  • Why Teachers Hate Algorithms

  • Living, Learning and Leading in a 5G World

Digital Age Teachers
Home›Digital Age Teachers›5 Tips for Conducting a Digital Literacy Assessment

5 Tips for Conducting a Digital Literacy Assessment

By Matthew Lynch
July 22, 2019
0
Spread the love

For many teachers, the challenge of integrating technology into their own teaching is one they are just starting to feel comfortable with, and now comes the next challenge of teaching digital literacy skills to their students. Here are some tips on how to assess digital literacy in your classroom.

1. Don’t Do It Alone

Digital literacy encompasses four main areas:  tech skills, authorship rules, evaluation of information, and online social responsibility. Depending on what age and subject matter you teach, it may not be possible for you to incorporate all of these areas into your teaching and assessments. Collaborating with fellow teachers through inter and transdisciplinary projects can be a great way of assessing digital literacy skills. Another approach is getting guidance from instructional technology coaches and computer teachers on what digital literacy skills your students are lacking and how to evaluate them through your subject matter.

2. Go to the Standards

ISTE publishes a set of standards for students that you can use to develop digital literacy assessments in your classroom. For example, the standard ‘Digital Citizen’ has several substandards that can be tied to specific behavior online, such as, “Students demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property”. This standard can be incorporated into any assignment where students have to navigate copyright, such as creating a website with images and videos found on the web.

ISTE also evaluates curricula using their standards, so you can use the standards to find Edtech products that fill digital literacy assessment needs.

3. Rubrics

It can be difficult to decide how to grade digital literacy assessments as the ultimate goal is to beyond discrete knowledge to develop students’ digital literacy skills and their behavior as digital citizens. For this reason, a rubric is a useful tool as it allows you to give feedback to students in a qualitative way and to show the continuum of development.

Examples of how rubrics can be used to assess digital literacy can be found at the Stanford History Education Group, which focuses on teaching students to evaluate the information on the Internet and has materials and projects available with rubrics and sample responses.

4. Build Assessment In

Whenever you use a digital resource in your classroom, such as a video or a website, give students the opportunity to evaluate it. Key areas to include are who wrote or sponsored the information, what evidence do they provide, and how the information compares to other sources. You can have students discuss this in groups or have them respond to the key areas in an exit slip. By building in regular formative assessments of digital literacy, you help students to build a habit of thinking critically about the digital world.

5. Don’t Recreate the Wheel

Several good resources for lesson plans, projects, and assessment tools have been mentioned above, and there are many more available to you as you think about how to teach and evaluate digital literacy skills. It is is important to remember that digital literacy is relatively new to curriculums and be open to the idea of lifelong learning and learning along with your students.

How have you assessed digital literacy in your classroom?  What assessment tools do you go back to over and over again? We would love to hear about your experiences.


Spread the love
Previous Article

How to Teach Your Students to Think ...

Next Article

Improving IT Project Management with the Right ...

Matthew Lynch

Related articles More from author

  • Digital Age Teachers

    Gauging the Relevance of the Edtech in Your Classroom

    June 7, 2019
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Digital Age Teachers

    8 Ways For Old School Teachers to Embrace Technology

    December 17, 2018
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Digital Age TeachersEarly Childhood & K-12 EdTechTeachers

    7 Ways That Digital Age Teachers Win Over Parents

    August 1, 2018
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Digital & Mobile TechnologyDigital Age TeachersLearning Environments

    Breaking Down Barriers: How Design & Technology Can Assist with Learning Accommodations

    November 13, 2018
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Digital Age Teachers

    How to Tell if You’re Using too Much Edtech

    June 5, 2019
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Best of Best ListsDigital Age Teachers

    The Tech Apps that Teachers Need

    May 21, 2019
    By Matthew Lynch

Leave a reply Cancel reply

  • EdTech & Innovation

    5 EdTech Tools That Everyone in Education Should be Using

  • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTechHigher Education EdTech

    How Schools Can Protect Themselves Against Cyber Attacks

  • Google Classroom Tips

    Google Classroom Tip #19: Multiple Intelligences

Login & Registration

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Newsletter

Signup for The Tech Edvocate Newsletter and have the latest in EdTech news and opinion delivered to your email address!

  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Classroom in a Pocket? Creating a Mobile eLearning Environment

    By Matthew Lynch
    December 10, 2019
  • 7 Frequently Asked Questions About Gamification

    By Matthew Lynch
    December 9, 2019
  • The Difference Between Mobile Learning and eLearning

    By Matthew Lynch
    December 6, 2019
  • Looks Do Matter: How Visuals Shape eLearning

    By Matthew Lynch
    December 5, 2019
  • 4 Benefits of Adaptive Learning in Corporate Training

    By Matthew Lynch
    December 4, 2019
  • 20 Top Virtual Reality Apps that are Changing Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    March 11, 2017
  • Why Mobile Technology Enhances Instruction

    By Matthew Lynch
    December 14, 2016
  • 7 Ways Technology Is Impacting Modern Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    March 4, 2017
  • 7 Roles for Artificial Intelligence in Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    May 5, 2018
  • What is the Future of Online Learning in Higher Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    April 2, 2018
  • Social Media Archiving in Texas Schools • TechNotes Blog
    on
    December 9, 2019

    How to Use Instagram in the Classroom

    […] that open records ...
  • Literacy App sites – Tech & Literacy
    on
    December 7, 2019

    10 Apps to Teach Children Early Literacy Skills

    […] 10 Apps to ...
  • Eileen Benson
    on
    December 6, 2019

    What the heck is STEM? (And eight other questions you might be too embarrassed to ask.)

    I like how you ...
  • The Importance of Digital Literacy – Communication Overload
    on
    December 3, 2019

    Digital Literacy is the Most Important Lifelong Learning Tool

    […] and having a ...
  • Assistive Technology to Help Students with Learning Disabilities Succeed Academically - The Tech Edvocate - Ability ...
    on
    December 3, 2019

    Assistive Technology to Help Students with Learning Disabilities Succeed Academically

    […] Read more at: ...

EdTech Policy & Reform

  • EdTech Policy & Reform

    How Much Bias Is Okay in Your School?

    Spread the loveThe algorithm has proven itself to be a handy tool when it comes to solving education problems. It’s also not without bias.  You may be wondering how some ...
  • EdTech Policy & ReformFeaturedFresh

    Edtech Should Complement Good Pedagogy, Not Attempt to Replace It

    Spread the loveThe newest generation of edtech is downright amazing; it’s no wonder that various education stakeholders might be a little excited about its potential to transform education. However, edtech ...
  • Digital & Mobile TechnologyEdTech Policy & ReformFeaturedFresh

    How to Teach Kids to Communicate in This Digital Age

    Spread the loveWhen even the youngest children are spending the equivalent of a full work day looking at screens, it is perhaps no surprise that parents are wondering how to ...
  • EdTech FuturesEdTech Policy & Reform

    3 Reasons Why India Will Be A Leader in the EdTech Industry in the 21st ...

    Spread the loveAccording to a joint report by KPMG and Google, the online education industry is expected to grow at a healthy rate of 8 times to become a $1.96B ...
  • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTechEdTech Policy & ReformFeaturedFresh

    How Does Technology Immersion Shape the Brain?

    Spread the loveDo you wonder what all of the screen time we have is really doing to our brains? As edtech continues to rise in prominence throughout the world, this ...

EdTech Startups & Businesses

  • EdTech Startups & Businesses

    Your Month to Month Guide for Understanding the School Market

    Spread the loveBusinesses may use a fiscal year, but education revolves around a unique academic calendar. The school year differs significantly from any other industry’s calendar. Not surprisingly, the academic ...
  • EdTech Startups & Businesses

    Why Learning Analytics Are Critical to Edtech Adoption

    Spread the loveIf you’re not already using learning analytics to assess your edtech product efficacy, now’s the time to get started. Learning analytics are more than simple data. They are ...
  • EdTech Startups & Businesses

    Where the Money is in Edtech Investing

    Spread the loveThere’s money in edtech, especially if you have a startup. In 2018, edtech investments raised $1.45 billion for technology startups in the United States alone. That was $250 ...
  • EdTech Startups & Businesses

    How to Make Your Education Company Recession Proof

    Spread the lovePredicting when the next recession will begin is a lot like predicting the weather. Let’s say that the weather forecaster predicts rain. There’s little doubt that it will ...
  • EdTech Startups & Businesses

    Lessons about Entrepreneurial Risk in Edtech

    Spread the loveSome edtech entrepreneurs thrive in a fast-paced environment fueled by caffeine and outrageous ideas. Others are more methodical in approaching productions and marketing. The chosen approach comes down ...

Digital Equity

  • Digital Equity

    It Is Time for the Edtech Industry to Stop Denying Its Equity and Race Problem

    Spread the loveThe EdTech industry is dominated by white employees, white leaders, and white entrepreneurs. If you doubt this statement, just attend an Edtech conference. Admittedly, educators and others don’t ...
  • Digital Equity

    How OER Can Help Overcome the Higher Education Equity Barrier

    Spread the loveThe cornerstone of the American dream is the ability to succeed in life regardless of one’s family of origin. And, for most people, that requires a college education. ...

EdTech Futures

  • EdTech Futures

    9 Examples of the Internet of Things in Education

    Spread the loveThe Internet of Things (IoT) has changed everything in almost every sector of industry and community, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the educational sector. From ...
  • EdTech Futures

    7 Ways Holographic Technology Will Make Learning More Fun

    Spread the loveAdvancements in technology brought teachers the interactive whiteboard, 3D printers, and interactive desks and walls. One of the next developments will be holographic telepresence. Holographic telepresence systems are ...
  • EdTech Futures

    Don’t Forget About It: How Spaced Repetition and Microlearning Boost Memory

    Spread the loveResearch on the forgetting curve has revealed some shocking statistics. Within one hour, people will have forgotten an average of 50 % of new information. Within 24 hours, ...
  • EdTech FuturesEdTech Startups & Businesses

    Your Edtech Startup Teacher Is a Feedback Loop

    Spread the loveIf your edtech startup is going to be successful, you’ll have to use  feedback loops. This recursive tool tells you how you’re doing. You already use feedback loops ...
  • EdTech Futures

    Why the Edtech Potential Will Never Reach Its Potential

    Spread the loveThere are more computers available for students in U.S. schools than ever before. More than nine out of 10 schools now use computers and more than 39 million ...

About Us

Since technology is not going anywhere and does more good than harm, adapting is the best course of action. That is where The Tech Edvocate comes in. We plan to cover the PreK-12 and Higher Education EdTech sectors and provide our readers with the latest news and opinion on the subject. From time to time, I will invite other voices to weigh in on important issues in EdTech. We hope to provide a well-rounded, multi-faceted look at the past, present, the future of EdTech in the US and internationally.

We started this journey back in June 2016, and we plan to continue it for many more years to come. I hope that you will join us in this discussion of the past, present and future of EdTech and lend your own insight to the issues that are discussed.

Newsletter

Signup for The Tech Edvocate Newsletter and have the latest in EdTech news and opinion delivered to your email address!

Contact Us

The Tech Edvocate
5322 Markel Road, Suite 104
Richmond, VA 23230
(601) 630-5238
advocatefored@gmail.com

Follow us

Copyright © 2019 Matthew Lynch. All rights reserved.