In today’s class­room, dig­i­tal lit­er­a­cy is an essen­tial part of the learn­ing expe­ri­ence. The BC Dig­i­tal Lit­er­a­cy Frame­work out­lines six key com­pe­ten­cies that aim to equip stu­dents with the knowl­edge and skills they need to thrive in a dig­i­tal world. Reflect­ing on my expe­ri­ence teach­ing wood­work to Grades 7–9, I see sev­er­al ways in which these com­pe­ten­cies play a vital role in help­ing my stu­dents become not just pro­fi­cient with wood­work­ing tools and tech­niques but also dig­i­tal­ly lit­er­ate cre­ators.

Research and Infor­ma­tion Lit­er­a­cy is an inte­gral part of the wood­work cur­ricu­lum, espe­cial­ly when we begin with projects like the ani­mal-sym­bol box. Stu­dents research First Peo­ples’ beliefs, gath­er mean­ing­ful sym­bols, and apply that knowl­edge to design their laser engrav­ings. The abil­i­ty to crit­i­cal­ly eval­u­ate sources and inter­pret infor­ma­tion from dif­fer­ent cul­tures direct­ly aligns with this framework’s focus on using dig­i­tal tools to gath­er and apply infor­ma­tion thought­ful­ly.

Cre­ativ­i­ty and Inno­va­tion are at the heart of wood­work­ing. Whether stu­dents are design­ing their puz­zles or build­ing a shelf, they con­stant­ly demon­strate cre­ative think­ing. I see tech­nol­o­gy enhanc­ing this cre­ativ­i­ty, espe­cial­ly through tools like CAD soft­ware and laser machines. Stu­dents take their ini­tial ideas and, through the use of dig­i­tal tools, turn them into some­thing tan­gi­ble. The frame­work encour­ages this process of con­struct­ing knowl­edge and devel­op­ing inno­v­a­tive prod­ucts, which direct­ly con­nects with how we approach wood­work­ing projects.

Tech­nol­o­gy Oper­a­tions and Con­cepts have become more promi­nent in my class over time. From teach­ing stu­dents how to use our Boss­Laser machine (or our newest Glow­forge laser cut­ter once I famil­iar­ize myself with it first!) to inte­grat­ing CAD designs into our projects, stu­dents are learn­ing the mechan­ics and oper­a­tions of dif­fer­ent tech­nolo­gies. My own expe­ri­ences, like nav­i­gat­ing the tran­si­tion from Auto­CAD’s DOS-based ver­sion to today’s user-friend­ly inter­face, mir­ror the grad­ual mas­tery that my stu­dents expe­ri­ence with these new tools. By pro­vid­ing them with oppor­tu­ni­ties to inter­act with advanced tech­nolo­gies, I’m help­ing them devel­op a strong foun­da­tion in tech­nol­o­gy oper­a­tions that will serve them in future con­texts.

Final­ly, Dig­i­tal Cit­i­zen­ship is one area I focus on while using dig­i­tal tools in wood­work. It’s not just about cre­at­ing; it’s about under­stand­ing the broad­er impli­ca­tions of tech­nol­o­gy. I empha­size eth­i­cal behav­ior when using dig­i­tal designs, dis­cussing copy­right and the impor­tance of orig­i­nal work. My expe­ri­ences sell­ing wood­work­ing files on Etsy have giv­en me insight into the impor­tance of integri­ty in the dig­i­tal mar­ket­place, which I share with my stu­dents.

Over­all, inte­grat­ing the BC Dig­i­tal Lit­er­a­cy Frame­work into my mid­dle school wood­work class is about blend­ing tra­di­tion­al crafts­man­ship with mod­ern dig­i­tal skills. From research­ing and design­ing projects to oper­at­ing advanced tools, my stu­dents are build­ing their capac­i­ty to think crit­i­cal­ly and act eth­i­cal­ly in both the phys­i­cal and dig­i­tal worlds. As I con­tin­ue to reflect on my teach­ing prac­tices, I strive to fos­ter these com­pe­ten­cies and help my stu­dents nav­i­gate the increas­ing­ly com­plex tech­no­log­i­cal land­scape with con­fi­dence and cre­ativ­i­ty.

Ref­er­ences

British Colum­bia Min­istry of Edu­ca­tion. (2016). BC Dig­i­tal Lit­er­a­cy Frame­work. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/kindergarten-to-grade-12/teach/teaching-tools/digital-literacy-framework.pdf