Searching for information on the Internet seems easy. But do we know how to distinguish a reliable source from a questionable one? How to recognize biased content? How to identify a fraudulent email or understand the consequences of sharing personal data?
These are skills that students need and that teachers must know how to teach. A study by Ana Pereles, Beatriz Ortega-Ruipérez, and Miguel Lázaro suggests that, to teach students how to critically evaluate digital information, teachers must first learn to monitor and evaluate their own learning processes.
The study involved 252 teachers enrolled in an online master's program in educational technology. Some of them regularly used Metadig, a tool that helped them plan their goals, monitor their progress, and assess their difficulties throughout the course.
The results were consistent: those who used the application achieved significantly higher scores across all seven dimensions of digital literacy teaching examined. The largest differences were found in the use of keywords to search for information, the interpretation of search results, and the identification of relevant, biased, or fraudulent content.
The key lies in metacognition: thinking about how we think and learn. Teachers who develop the habit of asking themselves what they need to know, how to verify it, and whether they are making progress can incorporate these strategies into their teaching.
The study does not directly demonstrate that their students learn more, and the voluntary use of Metadig means that the results should be interpreted with caution. Nevertheless, it points to a valuable idea: digital literacy is not just about mastering tools, but about developing the critical judgment needed to use them independently.
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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
