As an elementary school technology coach who works with teachers and students in grades preK–6, I advocate for ensuring that our youngest students learn the skills required for responsible and creative digital citizenship. Too often, elementary educators are tasked with promoting digital literacy, but they’re not given the tools they need to do so. As someone who has spent most of her teaching career in the elementary school setting, I believe that a unique approach—one that focuses on teaching the language of technology, leveraging instructional videos, and using icon-infused rubrics—can help elementary educators grow capable digital learners and creators.
By proactively addressing these skills early on, we give students a firm foundation in best practices for using technology. Yes, our students live their lives inundated with technology, but most of their interactions involve consumption, such as watching videos or using adaptive programs like ST Math or DreamBox to improve their academic skills. We need to up the game: students need to understand and apply learning through technology.
This is more important than ever now, given the accelerated pace of artificial intelligence (AI). Students will live in a world where using AI will be an essential skill, just as “Googling” is today. We need to prepare students for this rapidly evolving technological landscape. The COVID-19 crisis highlighted the urgency of this preparation. Many educators, especially in the elementary setting, were abruptly thrust into a virtual environment, with limited time to equip students with the skills they needed to successfully navigate their devices. This experience underscored the need for a proactive approach to digital literacy, starting from the earliest grades.
The lack of information about how to promote digital learning among our youngest students was something I struggled with when I became an elementary technology coach six years ago. Initially, I couldn’t find any resources to help me navigate my students’ struggles with technology. No matter what I did, no matter how carefully I explained the directions, my students’ hands would continue to pop up.
I felt overwhelmed and exhausted. I would often describe my efforts to address all my students’ needs in this area as playing a game of Whac-a-Mole.
Core Digital Learning Strategies
I don’t want other educators to struggle like I did. In fact, I’m so passionate about this that I’m currently working on my second book on the topic. Here, as a sneak peek into that book, I offer elementary educators three strategies that will empower their young learners with the key digital skills they need. I suggest starting small and implementing the strategies, which build on one another, sequentially.
1. Teach students the language of technology using icons.
One of the biggest lessons I learned in my first year as an elementary technology coach was that just because our students are digital natives, that doesn’t mean they know how to be digital learners. They know how to access information and consume technology, but they don’t necessarily know how to use technology to create representations of their learning. For example, when I would ask my students to complete a digital learning activity, they would immediately struggle and raise their hands for help as soon as they began working independently.
Just because our students are digital natives, that doesn’t mean they know how to be digital learners.
It wasn’t until I heard fellow educator Pana Asavantana on the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast that December during my first year that I had my lightbulb moment. Pana shared similar struggles, but she had discovered the power of icons as one solution. She advocated that just like we teach letters and sounds before students can learn to read, we also need to teach them icons. Icons are symbolic representations of digital tool functions—and they’re part of the language of technology.
Now, I incorporate icons regularly into my technology lessons. For example, with my kindergarten students, I usually start the year using a kid-friendly tool called Wixie. Wixie is an online publishing and creativity platform that lets students share what they know through their writing, their voice, and their art. To use this tool, students need to recognize the Clever single sign-on icon (which they click to access Wixie), as well as understand the paint tool, the select tool, and the undo arrow. We learn these icons together. To help make the connection stick, I looked to the theory of Total Physical Response, which teaches concepts by having students use physical movement to react to verbal input. When I taught the paint tool, for instance, I pretended to hold a paint brush and paint the sky in front of me; when I taught the Clever icon, I made a “C” with my hand. I also started to incorporate these icons into the instructional videos I produce. As I became more intentional about teaching icons to my students, I watched the transformation that occurred. My students were learning the language of technology.
We also play Icon BINGO to promote understanding and recall (see fig. 1). The BINGO cards feature between 9 and 16 icons, depending on the students’ age. As I call out the icons, students identify them on their BINGO card and check them off. We played this first using paper cards and then progressed to online versions using websites such as BingoBaker. This reinforcement has helped students internalize this new learning.
2. Leverage teacher-created videos to help promote student agency.
When I taught my first preschool technology lesson, I noticed that a student was trying to watch a YouTube video on his iPad instead of doing the assigned activity. I immediately redirected him, and had another “aha” moment: Even preschoolers know how to watch a video. It made me consider how I could use videos in my practice.
Typically, I would go over the directions once for whatever digital activity students were completing, expecting them to remember all the steps they needed to take. But, because even adults often need to revisit directions, I realized that my students could use some additional scaffolds to guide them through the work. I found that I could easily add videos on Wixie. What if I made videos that students could revisit when they had questions about the activities they were completing there? These videos would include all the steps they needed to know and would demonstrate what I was expecting from them. I started making videos on days I had a substitute, but I quickly realized this was a best practice I could implement regularly. I now use free tools like Screencastify to make these videos, and I embed them in the students’ projects.
Figure 2 shows a yellow instruction sheet I included in a project that had preschoolers creating their own Shape of All Things book, which was modeled after Dayle Ann Dobbs’s book of the same name (Candlewick, 1996). In this project, students had to write down how they would change a shape, such as an oval, into a specific object, such as a football. These instruction sheets are walked through step-by-step in the videos. My students now know to look for those yellow pages and rewatch the video if they have questions about how to complete an activity. This has greatly promoted student agency.
3. Use rubrics infused with icons or “edurubricons” to build students’ independence and digital literacy skills.
In winter 2024, I became an ISTE Certified Educator. ISTE (now merged with ASCD) has established digital learning standards for students, educators, coaches, and instructional leaders. Completing the certification demonstrating my proficiency with those standards has been one of the best professional learning initiatives I’ve ever engaged in.
During my certification process, the instructors and fellow participants discussed the importance of using rubrics to make sure our students clearly understand expectations. When I was a classroom teacher, I used rubrics all the time, but when I became a technology coach, I didn’t think I needed them because I no longer assigned grades.
Soon, I started exploring how I could use rubrics as a technology coach. I looked into Jennifer Gonzalez’s single-point rubric; the rubric, which is gradeless, offers a single column of criteria instead of a full menu of performance levels. Then it hit me: what if I added icons to my single-point rubrics?
That’s exactly what I did. I created an “edurubricon,” a rubric infused with icons. On the left-hand side, I share all the icons needed to complete each step. On the right-hand side, I share the criteria for success. Figure 3 illustrates a 1st grade math activity rubric for solving single-digit addition problems. The rubric outlines the main steps: inputting numbers using the paint tool, solving the problem with virtual manipulatives from the toolbox, and writing the number sentence. Each step is represented by an icon on the left side of the rubric, paired with its corresponding success criterion on the right.
Just like we teach letters and sounds before students can learn to read, we also need to teach them icons—the language of technology.
Using edurubricons such as these, my students now clearly see the connection between the content and digital learning tools. This has helped them develop confidence in navigating technological platforms.
Just Start!
These three strategies have been game changers for me in my work to cultivate digital learners and creators. By intentionally teaching digital skills from an early age, we equip our youngest learners with the tools they need to become confident and capable digital citizens. This foundation in elementary school sets the stage for students to not just consume technology but to harness its power creatively and responsibly throughout their education journey and beyond.
Reflect & Discuss
➛ What has been your biggest challenge in teaching younger students how to be savvy digital learners and creators?
➛ What teaching strategy has been effective in helping your students become more confident and competent digital creators, rather than just consumers of technology?
➛ How might you use an "edurubricon" to build your students' digital literacy skills?
