Hello again after two long weeks langualoggers. At the end of very exhausting midterm weeks, we started to continue our education where we left off. The topic of the 3rd week was digital literacy, which is one of the 21st century skills and also includes information literacy. It was an online training week where we, as prospective English teachers, discussed the meaning of digital literacy, the concept of digital native, having a critical attitude when we reach digital information, and the importance of measuring the reliability and accuracy of the data we are looking for through various filters. Actually, our meeting has started with an online match-up activity which we are all introduced with a new educational tool called wordwall through which we matched related concepts with their definitions. Furthermore, we also learned how we can be critical users of the internet by evaluating information, its accuracy, safety, or checking if it is biased or relevant, etc. That is, in a century where information is so abundant and acces to information is very easy, we have to be conscious users, especially as prospective English teachers. We have to be aware of our rights and also try not to violate others' by paying attention copyright issues (Creative Commons, see if you are interested in getting licences for your creative works) 

We also talked about concepts to be careful about that are under the frame of digital literacy such as cyberbullying, sexting, grooming, online radicalization and access to extremist material, professional conduct in digital environments and digital data security. These can be issues that we may encounter frequently as teachers and we need to pay close attention as active internet users or digital natives and most importantly to be aware of our legal rights and limitations. 

I personally learned plethora of useful terminology and concepts that I will benefit from in my way to become a responsible internet user and content consumer. When creating a language learning material, activity, or a task, I should be meticulous in my choice of content from digital sources because a content is free to access, this does not mean it is free to reuse. Therefore, when using an already produced content, I need to be careful to use a copyright licensed one or I have to state who originally owns the content and where it is taken from. In addition, when creating my own content, I should as well be careful about getting licence for my work, that is, I have to know my legal rights very well and use the content and the internet purposefully.

Lastly, keeping up with the digital world brings many elements with it. The easy access to information does not mean that we can consume or use them that much. Therefore, being digitally native or digital citizen do not only require/offer easy access to information through digital means, but also require evaluation and critical attitude, which is a competence that enable us to distinguish the accuracy, reliability and quality of that information after accessing it. Not only that, but also being aware of the fact that there are some legal costs and responsibilities when using information, so it is also the responsibility of the people we call digital citizens. Therefore, we can only say that a user is digitally literate when these are combined. As teacher candidates and content consumers and producers, we must first be digital citizens that will set an example for our students and guide and project them to achieve these gains.