Proof of Concept Teaching for 21^st Century Digital Literacy in Portugal: A Pedagogical Approach Towards a New Educational Model

Abstract

This paper addresses an analysis of contemporary, structured, and connected pedagogical approaches to the teaching of digital proficiency/fluency in 21st-century digital literacy. We present a proof of concept and epistemological valorisation of digital literacy previously underestimated. This epistemological valorisation focuses on teaching digital literacy through understanding how teachers work - pedagogical planning, teacher training, syllabus design, practical work - enabling us to train technology producers instead of passive technology consumers, to enable agents instead of clients. The term “digital” will refer to 21st-century digital literacy. To “think digital” will refer to the mental process carried out by digital natives when conducting operations involving ICT - as their native language and framework. The pedagogical background is paramount to the structures underlying teaching of 21st-century digital literacy, characterised by its disruptive building process achieved through the acknowledgement of epistemological foundations. High school teaching of 21^st century digital literacy is by no means at ground zero. The fundamental concepts to be conveyed remain the same: electric coding, input and output devices, memories, processors and transistors – the process/system is just faster and smaller. The development of a proof of concept was built according to a DSR framework, in an iterative way, giving evidence of architecture configuration, an asset of information, of tools, procedures, and attitudes.