When I look at the future of education, I wonder what subject matter will look like ten, twenty, or fifty years from now. While the institution of education is typically slow to change, I am hopeful that it will evolve to better meet the needs of students as well as the ever-changing needs of society.

One of the most fundamental ways society has changed in the last twenty years has been through the proliferation of Internet-enabled technology. I remember my friends getting smartphones, opening a Facebook account, and playing online games. I went from spending the majority of my time reading books to a large amount of time on the computer or a handheld device. Now, the devices of my childhood are obsolete and replaced with even more advanced digital experiences.

Navigating the world of the Internet and other digital spaces is something that I learned simply by engaging in it. No one in particular taught me formal lessons on Internet etiquette, writing an email, or navigating an online bank account. I was what some people call a “digital native.” As a teacher, I realize that the term “digital native” is a misnomer. There is no such thing. There are simply people who have spent the time learning how to navigate specific digital spaces and those who have not learned those same specific spaces. I see this all the time as a teacher. While the students I teach would be considered “digital natives” by the nature of their youth, they do not know how to send emails, open file downloads, or keep a cloud drive organized.

This becomes a major issue when looking at social spaces, apps and websites used for communication. Isn’t that what literacy is, though? Literacy is the ability to deliver an idea to audiences and to receive communication as well. In the traditional sense, this meant being able to read a holy text, the newspaper, and the latest political pamphlet. Now, this means being able to craft a text message, distinguish advertisements from objective information, and discern the malicious intent of a phishing email. The world has changed, but literacy education has not moved much.

I believe that the common core standards are flexible enough to be applied to digital literacy. I have used them to teach students using things like video game scripts and memes. However, I think the standards themselves need to be more cognizant of the typical ways in which people in today’s society “read.” This could look like a set of digital literacy standards that go alongside the literary and informational text standards. This could be one step in the direction of combining some coding skills into the literacy subject areas, which is becoming more pertinent in today’s world.