Digital Literacy is Falling Behind Reality: It Cannot Be Optional Anymore

Whenever I deliver workshops to schools on digital wellbeing and literacy, there is feedback that I consistently hear. 

‘This is such an important topic.’ 

‘You guys are filling a desperate need.’ 

‘They just don’t learn this stuff in school.’ 

Whilst it reassures me to know that what we are doing is important, I always find it fascinating and frankly, troubling. 

Education reform is difficult. Naturally, it is stuck in a cycle of reactive change as new challenges and issues come up and are dealt with by an adjustment in curriculum. 

The Australian Curriculum officially updates every 7-10 years with iterative processes occurring throughout this time however, Governments have the power to make institutional reform. We’ve seen this recently with sweeping changes and significant investment in numeracy following poor NAPLAN and standardised testing results. Similarly, a $200 million investment in student wellbeing as research piled up about its impact on engagement, performance and long-term outcomes for students. 

So in 2022, when ‘Digital Literacy’ was added to General Capabilities within the Australian Curriculum (V9.0), it marked an important acknowledgement by the education system: 

This was a contemporary challenge facing young people that required educational investment.

Yet 4 years on, I walk into schools every week and see that the integration of these learnings has not happened, and it’s not the schools fault. 

Consider the language currently used in the Australian Curriculum description of digital literacy: 

• (Students) ‘learn how to make the most of the technologies available to them.’

• ‘Students adapt to new ways of doing things as technologies evolve and protect the safety of themselves and others in digital environments.’ 

• ‘Practising digital safety and wellbeing, which focuses on managing online safety, digital identity, and digital wellbeing.’ 

For teachers trying to add this into their classroom lessons, what guidance does this provide?

An education system that has not invested in appropriate upskilling of its teachers or embedding of appropriate and impactful contemporary digital media literacy into its curriculum makes it very difficult for students (and teachers) to operate in complex online environments. 

A clear absence of insight into this curriculum change is the design and behavioural impacts of modern digital platforms. How algorithms shape attention, how platforms exploit psychological vulnerabilities or how digital environments even influence belief formation and behaviour. Following this, how device use can influence our wellbeing and how our everyday digital habits and behaviours can determine how we think, feel, connect, focus and sleep. 

I acknowledge that for teachers this is difficult, the gap between teacher and student lived experience is widening and it is unrealistic to expect schools to bridge that alone. 

Recent policy responses such as the social media delay for Under 16’s is at least recognition that action is needed. However, these measures do little to address the underlying issue. Students who remain on these platforms and those who age into them when they turn 16 will still face the same challenges. 

There is hope though. 

Listening to Hamish Macdonald talk on ‘The Imperfects’' podcast recently highlighted what happens when contemporary media literacy is treated as foundational to learning.

In Finland, students are explicitly taught ways to navigate an “information ecosystem…heavily polluted” by misinformation and algorithmic amplification, Macdonald said. They are taught that these systems are not neutral and are designed to capture attention by exploiting our psychological processes. They are taught how to interrogate media they consume, how contemporary online environments align with decision making and the political landscape and how to engage critically and intentionally. 

The results are highlighting the next generation will be better equipped to navigate complexity, resist misinformation, and participate meaningfully in society.

As it currently sits, Digital literacy and wellbeing in the curriculum’s "General Capabilities" does not anywhere closely meet the lived experiences, needs or realities of students. It is no longer a ‘capability’ or a peripheral skill but a lifelong competence that requires investment from a young age.

Finland is demonstrating what is possible, the question for Australia's education system and Government now remains whether or not we can respond to the actual needs of younger generations with sufficient urgency and depth?