We live in a digital world and using technology is no longer a choice or luxury but a necessity. It is imperative to be digitally literate to thrive in this digital world. Digital literacy is the ability to access technology independently in an efficient, effective, creative and secure manner. But many of us just know how to navigate Google. We are not tech savvy, we don’t know how to exploit various apps and software. Many students struggle while sharing presentations on apps like Zoom and Google Meet. They don’t know how to record lectures in a Zoom cloud. Many of us don’t know how to make multimedia presentations using apps like Prezzi. Many teachers struggle to make online classes interactive and engaging as they don’t know how to use various features.
Neither students nor teachers can be blamed; digital literacy is a skill and it needs to be imparted via proper training through workshops. Hands-on training should be given to both teachers and students by professionals; Google is like a dense forest and digital literacy is a guide without which we may go astray; we may waste our time and fall prey to malwares and pirated sites that can steal our data. For every query we Google, we receive thousands and lakhs of search results and to make the right choice is a challenge. We don’t know how to differentiate between important and unimportant information, how to distinguish authentic and quality resources from inauthentic sources. Many of us till our higher education level don’t know about quality knowledge bases like Wiley, Sage, Science Direct, Elsevier, Pub Med, Jstor, Taylor & Francis, etc. Many of us spend hours online surfing for the right kind of information but miss important information as we don’t know how to do smart work.
Teachers have the responsibility to teach students about quality web resources.
We as students many times intentionally or unintentionally copy information from the internet and use it in our assignments without knowing that it is an unethical act called plagiarism. Teachers should teach students about it from the beginning so that they can know its consequences and save themselves from this offence. They should be taught how to use information from the net and the importance of acknowledging and quoting the sources.
One of the main aspects of digital literacy is netiquette. It is knowing how to behave as responsible and decent netizens in the e-world. It is very unfortunate to say that many people have poor netiquettes. There are many students who don’t respect the decorum of online classrooms. They attend online classes in noisy environs and that disturbs the whole class. Recently a video got viral where some students turned the music on while the teacher was delivering the lecture and shared it on social media. Such students need to realise the worth and dignity of the teacher. Likewise, some students don’t know how and when to text a teacher. They use informal language. They contact teachers in late hours without realising that teachers also have a personal life and other responsibilities. Humour is part of healthy teaching and the classroom is a family, but if a teacher cracks a joke in class it doesn’t mean students will record it and share it on social networks out of context and make fun of their teachers. They should refrain from such acts and parents should never support such acts. A few miscreants take contact numbers of female classmates from class WhatsApp groups and share them with their friends. All these are unethical acts.
There are some people who in the name of humour humiliate others. They roast others without taking into consideration its consequences on the emotional and psychological health of the person. Our mother tongue Kashmiri is a decent language, but some rob it of its dignity and use offensive language and slang in videos and it is very unfortunate to see people liking and subscribing to such indecent channels. Humour should be healthy and it should not be disrespectful as it breeds hatred and causes emotional pain. It is my request to young Youtubers to respect the decorum of Kashmiri language and show some sensible attitude and stop using malicious content. There are also some who use offensive and derogatory language in comments; if they don’t like someone’s work it is ok, but they have no right to abuse or harass them in public. If some females make videos or share their pics on social media, who are we to judge them or use offensive language for them. Some even write in comments that you will never enter paradise .Are we gatekeepers of paradise? So let’s mind our business. Let us take responsibility for our actions.
P.S. We are so inundated by information that our attention span has become very small. Don’t let Google make us stupid. Let it not control our thought processes. Don’t believe everything you watch or read on Google. It is not a divine revelation. Let’s use our minds .Let’s use our critical faculties and creativity. For simple questions let’s try to exercise our brain first. Maintain a healthy balance between virtual and real life .Behave as decent and responsible members of society. .

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Bisma Farooq Sheikh