In an educational ecosystem marked by information overload, this study foregrounds a decisive vector: teachers’ capacity to activate metacognitive strategies that sustain students’ digital literacy.
Drawing on a sample of 252 teachers enrolled in an online master’s programme, the research confirms the robustness of the PISA 2018 questionnaire for measuring key classroom practices (from keyword searches to the detection of bias and spam). It also demonstrates the pivotal role of metacognition (planning, monitoring, and self-evaluation) as the hinge between teaching content and teaching how to learn in digital environments.
The quasi-experimental intervention with Metadig shows significant improvements across all dimensions analysed: more effective searches, better judgement of source reliability and relevance, awareness of the implications of data sharing, critical reading of descriptors, and the detection of subjectivity and phishing.
This is not about “more technology” but about a technopedagogical script that orchestrates tools and timing to trigger self-regulation: when teachers plan objectives, monitor progress, and close with self-evaluation, students advance in transferable digital competences.
The implications are clear for both initial and continuing teacher education: integrating frameworks of self-regulated learning and metacognition, supported by validated instruments and intelligible analytics, raises the quality of digital instruction.
Challenges remain (long-term effects, self-selection bias, prior technological experience), yet the direction is unmistakable: to design experiences that align metacognitive strategies, media literacy, and data intelligence so that digital competence becomes a systematic outcome rather than a collateral effect.
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How to Cite: Pereles, A., Ortega-Ruipérez, B., & Lázaro, M. (2024). A digital world toolkit: enhancing teachers’ metacognitive strategies for student digital literacy development. RIED-Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia, 27(2), 267–294. https://doi.org/10.5944/ried.27.2.38798
