Ready-to-Use Digital Literacy Resources for Lesson Planning

 

This blog post reviews digital literacy resources for planning lessons. The great news is that you don’t have to be a technology expert or start from scratch to develop lessons because digital literacy experts and educators have already developed and shared lessons that you can implement in your teaching.

The following table contains resources sharing developed lessons, curriculum, and online courses with detailed instructions. Hyperlinks for each resource can be accessed in the left hand column.

Free Resources
Resource	Description
Google Applied Digital Skills	Applied Digital Skills with Google provides free, accessible lessons on varied topics that can be filtered by google tool, topic, and type of learner (elementary/middle/high school students and adult learners). Lessons range from 45 minutes to 9 hours. Each lesson is taught through self-paced, step-by-step videos that reduce the pressure on teachers to be technology experts. By the end of each video, learners will have completed an engaging project that teaches important digital skills through relatable content. This site intersects with Google.com and Google. Classroom. The site provides certificates of completion that learners can add to their résumé.
DART	The Digital Access and Resilience in Texas (DART) curriculum integrates beginning English language learning with foundational digital skills. The curriculum is intended to supplement existing English language instruction in lower-level adult English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. The DART curriculum contains 20 lessons that provide the foundation that lower-level English language learners need to recognize and type the wide variety of characters required for most online passwords.
DigitalLearn.org	Digital Learn offers digital literacy resources and training modules designed to help individuals acquire essential digital skills including computer use, internet navigation, email etiquette, online safety, and using productivity software like Microsoft Office programs. Aims to bridge the digital divide by providing accessible and user-friendly learning materials that cater to individuals with varying levels of digital proficiency.
GFCGlobal	GCF Global offers self-paced online courses organized by the following categories: Computers, The Job Search, Creativity and Design, Microsoft Office, the Internet, Core Skills, Google, and Skills for Today. Its lessons address more than 200 topics, including more than 2,300 lessons, more than 2,000 videos, and more than 50 interactives and games.
Learning.com	Learning.com provides educators with solutions to prepare their students with critical digital skills. A web-based curriculum for grades K-12 engages students as they learn keyboarding, online safety, applied productivity tools, computational thinking, coding and more.
TechBoomers	Techboomers is a website that teaches older adults and other inexperienced Internet users about websites that can help improve their quality of life. Offers a large library of up-to-date information regarding the most popular and useful internet-based products. Beyond basic training, Techboomers works to empower older adults to become Internet experts within their personal networks in such a way that builds both their connections and their confidence with using technology.
Typing.com	Typing.com supports students in learning keyboarding skills necessary to achieve digital literacy. Also provides limited lessons on digital literacy.
Paid Resource
Resource	Description
Northstar	Northstar Digital Literacy gives subscribing organizations the ability to increase access to digital equity by providing constituents with tools to master the digital skills needed to work, learn, and participate fully in daily life.

 

References

• Applied Digital Skills with Google. Available https://applieddigitalskills.withgoogle.com/en/learn
• The Digital Access and Resilience in Texas (DART). Available https://tcall.tamu.edu/dart-DL-ESL-Curriculum.html
  
• DigitalLearn. Available https://training.digitallearn.org/
• GCFGlobal. Available https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/
  
• Learning.com. Available https://www.learning.com/
• Northstar Digital Literacy. Available https://www.digitalliteracyassessment.org/
• TechBoomers. Available https://techboomers.com/
• Typing. Available https://www.typing.com/