Navigating the Digital Literacy

 Embracing the Power of Digital Literacy in the 21st Century

As we would go as far as to say that when people talk about digital literacy, we think a lot of them just assume it only means being able to use a devices such as phone or laptop. But honestly, digital literacy goes beyond that, it’s more than just clicking around. For both of us, it’s about actually knowing how to use technology in a responsible, safe, and smart way like, not just typing any stuff into Google, but knowing which websites are authentic, reliable or valid and which ones are full of nonsense or fake sources. 

As a science students, we’ve learned the hard way that just finding information online isn’t just enough. You have to check if it’s current, accurate, and not biased. It sounds may simple, but it’s easy to get tricked. And yeah, it’s also about knowing how to stay safe online, not post any dumb stuff, not clicking into suspicious emails or links to avoid any online harm or risks like hacking, scamming, phishing and other cyber threats or attacks, and respect stuff like copyright and the distribution or posting of a certain content publicly without the permission of the rightful owner which is known as copyright infringement which, let’s be real, most people often ignore, and if violated, you’ll be facing imprisonment from 1-9 years and may pay from 50,000 pesos up to 1,500,00 pesos depending on the seriousness of the case under the Republic Act 8293 – The Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines in which it is a law that protects the intellectual property rights in the Philippines, including the copyright to prevent the illegal use of using or copying of someone else’s work without the permission of the owner. 

Moreover so, day to day, we use a bunch of digital tools for school like Google Docs, Google Classroom for activities and assignments, online research for projects, educational apps like Kahoot and Quizziz for interactive learning and Canva to create presentation.

 If we didn’t know how to use them, we’d be totally lost. We even remember writing a research paper and spending hours just sorting through articles. Some of them were outdated, others had weird claims, and we had to figure out what was worth using. Then came citations, which were a whole other headache. But that process taught both of us a lot. Like, without solid digital skills, we probably would’ve just used whatever we found first and called it a day. And we know this stuff isn’t just useful for school, it’s gonna matter way more once we’re out in the real world. Pretty much every job out there uses technology in some way, especially in science. Labs use crazy software to track data, companies run on emails and Zoom meetings, and you’re expected to just “know” how everything works. 

Also, we think what matters most isn’t just knowing how to use these digital tools like it’s being okay with not knowing, and figuring things out as you go. Like, there’ve been so many times where something just didn’t work, or we had no idea how to use a program, and we had to mess around with it or look stuff up until it made sense. That kind of thing isn’t fun, but you sort of get used to it. And we know in the future, when we’re in a real job, no one’s going to walk us through every tool or app we’ll expected to just figure it out. So that’s why we try to get more comfortable with that now. We also help people when we can. No judgment, most of us are still figuring it all out anyway. And yeah, not everyone grew up with the same access to technology. Some people didn’t have computers at home or good internet, and we think it’s important to remember that. We’ll try not to act like we know everything, because honestly, we don’t. We still mess things up or get stuck, and we’ve had to ask for help plenty of times. Actually, we all start somewhere. So if we just try to help each other and not make anyone feel dumb for asking questions, we think that’s how we all get better at this stuff, slowly, and together.

"Be smart. Be safe. Be responsible online."