Skills in the Digital Age

Abstract

The process needs to be more accessible; the question is, why? The International Reading Association, the world's largest and most influential organization in the field of literacy, comprised of primary and secondary school teachers, university professors and researchers, psychologists, librarians, and other professionals in education-related fields from approximately 100 countries, maintains that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have changed the nature of literacy, and that conceiving of reading and writing processes exclusively around the traditional text (printed book) puts students at a disadvantage in the face of current and future demands of the workplace and society. Both the processes and the content and performance standards we are demanding of students in traditional education require a shift towards the new parameters of global literacy: linguistic, digital, entrepreneurial, socio-professional, civic, and emotional literacy. In this sense, digital literacy in childhood and youth has become the point of discussion regarding the relevance of its use and appropriation in school and university settings. ICTs have transformed the theories, materials, and methods of reading and writing. Conceptually, we no longer speak of a single literacy, but of several. For many centuries, the prevailing notion was that a literate person was one capable of grasping and expressing meaning through written language. Currently, the ease of representing knowledge and ideas through sounds, graphics, animations, or videos is imposing new, equally valid ways of reading and writing. Traditionally, reading comprehension has been defined as the construction of meaning within a linear and fixed text. On the internet, this concept acquires a different and broader meaning. To adequately understand information in this environment, new skills and strategies are required, such as: knowing how to search for appropriate information; understanding the results returned by a search engine; Making accurate inferences about the information found in a hyperlink; understanding how authors configure and organize information on a web page; coordinating and synthesizing large amounts of information from multiple sources and presented in diverse media and formats; determining which content deserves attention and which should be ignored. Meanwhile, texts incorporate other symbolic elements (sounds, images, videos, animations) and are linked to vast information networks. The acts of reading, writing, and communicating will take on new forms and dynamics. There is a discussion that very few teachers want to engage in: there are competencies that are demonstrated, or attempted to be demonstrated, in the student during the training process, but the teacher is already a qualified professional. Are they as well-trained as the student in digital competencies? Is the teacher aware of the advantages of speaking the same digital language as the students? In the communicative sphere (which is inherent to all competencies, disciplinary or transversal), can the same level of dialogue be maintained as with the students?

To what extent can students' communication skills be enhanced through the use of new digital tools? It is becoming increasingly clear that forbidding cell phones in the classroom is a waste of time. Regarding the materials used in reading and writing, the focus is on communication and information recording in printed format, as well as on semiotic texts. This requires the reader to understand not only the...