The Nation's First 'Digital Literacy' Curriculum Introduced in a Middle School in Busan

Busan Office of Education to Operate Curriculum from First Semester Next Year

Digital Literacy Textbook.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] The 'Digital Literacy' subject, which deals with understanding and expressing digital information, will be introduced for the first time nationwide in middle schools in Busan.

Busan Metropolitan Office of Education announced on the 16th that starting from the first semester of the 2022 academic year, it will open and operate the Digital Literacy subject in middle schools for the first time in the history of domestic education to foster competencies and character education for the digital era.

To operate the middle school Digital Literacy curriculum, the Office of Education developed the curriculum and textbooks over 18 months from May 2020 to last October, involving elementary and secondary school teachers and education professionals as writers and undergoing review by university professors.

Digital Literacy refers to the essential competencies in a digital society, including the ability to use digital technology as well as knowing when and how to use it.

The curriculum of this subject covers 20 achievement standards and 5 areas: digital citizenship, information and data utilization, communication and collaboration, digital content creation, and 19 core concepts.

The core concepts include digital safety, rights, responsibilities, etiquette, search engines, search methods, evaluating information reliability, data collection, data analysis, communication, media and technology, collaboration, digital creations, copyright, citation, sharing, design thinking, computational thinking, prototyping, and more.

The textbook is organized into four major units: I. Creating a Beautiful Digital World, II. The Vast Library of Information: The Internet, III. Communicating and Collaborating Together, and IV. Living with Digital Technology.

Each major unit consists of 8 lessons, including 12 activities and 2 projects, totaling 32 lessons.

In middle schools, this subject can be offered as an elective course.

Superintendent Kim Seok-jun stated, “Digital literacy will be an essential competency for the future society in which students will live. We will strengthen digital literacy education to systematically cultivate digital competencies.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.