Digital Literacy?

It’s no surprise that today’s college students have completely integrated technology into their studies.  According to a recent publication by onlineeducation.net 98% of college students own a digital device, 91% use email to seek additional help from teachers, and 82% use digital devices to write papers.  But this isn’t a practice they picked up in college; technology is making its way into the curriculum for younger and younger students, with day care centers offering computer education as a part of their curriculum for children as young as eighteen months.

With so much emphasis on technology in higher education, do we have an obligation to promote digital literacy in our public schools in addition to fluency in math, history, and English?  Many instructors believe we do, and are doing away with old policies that shun the use of mobile devices, social networking, and content sharing and embracing technology in the way today’s students are using it.  Along with multiplication, American history, and grammar today’s students are learning about quality research, internet copyright laws, and authenticity.  After all, we are creating the leaders of tomorrow; don’t we have a responsibility to at a minimum expose them to the technology of today?