Digital Literacy and the Common Core: What Does Instruction Look Like in Early Elementary Classrooms?

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: Intersections Among Technology, Instruction, Cognition, Learning, and More

Abstract

This paper investigates early elementary school teachers’ perspectives on digital literacy instruction. A total of 37 K-2nd grade teachers from a large and diverse school district in California completed an online survey. Analyses reveal that teachers’ grade-level assignment and the school’s Title I status impact views about when and whether to teach digital literacy skills. Results also indicate that K-2nd grade students are provided with more opportunities to practice computer literacy skills as compared to information literacy skills. High student-to-teacher ratios emerge as the most significant obstacle to digital literacy instruction, followed by students’ limited self-management and independence skills. Access to technology coaches emerges as an important support necessary to enhance instruction, though further implications for practice are discussed.

Authors

• Delnaz Hosseini, Castro Valley Unified School District

• Emily Slusser, San Jose State University