How Technological Literacy Effects eLearning Students

You can’t hide the fact that technology has gone crazy over the last several years. We’ve gone back to flip phones, computers update endlessly, and there is always a new program function to learn. For those of us who grew up with this, staying up-to-date with the changes can be a bit challenging, but we’re good to go. That’s not always the case for everyone.

Some people may not work well with computers, others might not have used them much, and even more may be diving into a completely new world. In each of these cases, you are going to have students that are going to need more assistance than others.

More often than not, those that are struggling with computers aren’t going to mention it in class, so it will be up to you to help relieve any technological literacy issues from the start. To help you out, here are some examples of how technological literacy can affect your student:

• Lack of Interaction
  If you have a student that isn’t interacting, avoids speaking and won’t add to chat conversations, then they might be having issues. They may try in the beginning but then give up later. This one may be hard to recognize in larger groups.
• Frantic Searching
  Frantic searching students are obviously panicking. They are searching everywhere, eyes darting to every corner of the screen … the indicators are endless. Panic, just look for panic. More often than not, these students are going to find it difficult to pay attention if they can’t figure out how to operate programs.
• Frustration
  More often than not, these students are going to look rather done with everything. They’ve tried everything but reaching out for help and at this point, they want to give up. They don’t want to disturb the class or perhaps they are embarrassed … whatever the reason, this student is mad at the system.
• Non-Compliance
  If you can think of someone saying they don’t want to just because you told them exactly how to get the needed result, then these are those students. Even if you explain everything, nothing is going to make them happy about the situation. They’ve gone from trying and have now given up. More than likely, they won’t participate for an entire session.

How to Help
This is one of the easiest ways to help your students see technology as a friend and not as an enemy. Make walkthroughs. That’s it! Go slowly through the steps so that all of your students can see what you are doing. Plus have handouts available that walk students through how to use any programs that they need, so they can download and refer back to the handouts as needed. This is great for supporting multiple learning styles.

Plus, you just gave your students so much freedom in traveling through the internet. Why? You have helped them just increase their technological literacy. Look at you making an impact!