The focus in this chapter is on how digital literacies relate to practice in school contexts. It looks at the nature of digital literacy and the influences that have shaped, and continue to shape, its development in school settings. A number of themes, linked to change and how this is managed, have emerged for practising teachers and student teachers. Opportunities are identified in terms of cross-curricular and creative approaches to planning and teaching, alongside the potential for an increase in collaboration with communities and parents. This raises a number of challenges for classrooms as the sites of learning in which the scope for alternative ways of working in and out of the classroom with mobile technology, for example, is explored. It also brings into view new issues and barriers such as the difficulties faced in assessing digital literacy. The discussion of these themes offers a context for case studies in school settings (see Chapter 5: Examples of Practice).

The sections in this Chapter include:

3.1 Digital Literacy in School Settings: the UK curriculum context and the challenges of mapping digital literacy into this context are outlined.
3.2 Creativity: a discussion of the complex relationship between digital practices and creativity.
3.3 Assessment: the effects of emerging digital literacy practices and how assessment is evolving in response to this.
3.4 Barriers and Enablers: issues that inhibit and facilitate digital practice.
3.5 Relationships and Digital Literacy: the diffusion of online and offline domains and how networks form around collaborative social enterprises, and the attendance of issues such as e-safety.
3.6 Communication and Interactivity: the notions of multimodality and participation and choice in relation to digital technology and the implications of this for learning and teaching.
3.7 Knowledge and Learning: the changing nature of knowledge and learning for children and young people, and the implications for the curriculum.

In each section you will find references to further reading and links to additional information.

This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales except where stated otherwise