Digital Literacy vs. Hands-On Skills: How Enrichment Programs Can Bridge the Gap
Digital Literacy vs. Hands-On Skills: How Enrichment Programs Can Bridge the Gap
It doesn’t take much to notice that digital devices are everywhere these days and kids are spending more time than ever (and at younger ages than ever) interacting with technology. On the one hand, digital literacy is undoubtedly an essential 21st century skill. On the other hand, we should be mindful as a society to not lose sight of the values and fundamental life skills that got us here.
Hands-on, practical skills like learning how everyday objects are made, operate, and can be fixed are critical in developing well-rounded members of society that will positively contribute to our communities. It is therefore important to ensure that a balance is struck between both digital literacy and real-world, tactile skills that build confidence and prepare kids for a successful life beyond the classroom.
Why the Balance Between Tactical and Digital Skills Matters
The COVID-19 pandemic made it evident that a fundamental knowledge and understanding of digital skills is paramount to modern education and is in fact a part of the 21st century toolkit. These skills prepare students for many career pathways that rely on digital tools and platforms to operate effectively. That said, an overemphasis on digital literacy has the potential to result in a lack of exposure to other skills and hands-on experiences that are equally valuable for a student’s personal growth.
Some of the Risks of Too Much Screen Time
Decreased Creativity: Passive consumption on screens can limit opportunities for students to engage in active and creative problem-solving.
Reduced Fine Motor Skills: Hands-on activities develop physical coordination and fine motor skills, while digital activities can limit these types of exercises.
Lowered Emotional Engagement: Physical projects allow students to connect with their work on a deeper level, fostering pride, perseverance, and a lasting sense of accomplishment. Many digital projects are of course documented and can be saved for posterity, but their presence is not as visible as physical projects that can be put on display.
By integrating hands-on learning activities in tandem with digital skill building experiences, we can offer students a more well-rounded approach to education that recognizes the value of both technology and project-based learning opportunities.
The Value of Hands-On Learning in 21st-Century Skills
While there is no single methodology in which 21st century skills can be all-inclusively learned or taught, there is an argument to be made that by incorporating hands-on, project-based learning opportunities into curriculum, many of these skills will be experienced by students through the very journey of working on a project. Project-based learning fosters critical skills such as the following:
Collaboration and Communication: Hands-on projects often involve group work and discussion, which gives students an opportunity to communicate with one another and work toward a common goal. It also gives students an opportunity to learn how to offer and receive help from their peers.
Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving: The very act of working on a “project” – defined as any objective that requires some background context and understanding of an outcome, troubleshooting and experimenting, and ultimately refining the finished details of the project – teaches students through experiential learning how to analyze a problem and come up with the best way to achieve their objective.
Creativity and Innovation: Similarly, when students are presented with an objective and have an opportunity to chart parts of their path to achieving that goal, they also have an opportunity to use their imagination and think outside of the box in how they approach a problem.
Adaptability and Resilience: Hands-on learning typically requires some amount of trial and error – or at the very least requires stepping outside of one’s comfort zone. This experience in and of itself is valuable in that it challenges a student to bounce back from micro-failures, which is where the real learning takes place. The repeated experience of trying → failing → learning can develop those muscles of resilience and adaptability that we all need to lead successful and happy lives.
Digital literacy is just one example of a 21st century skill that students need to develop to be equipped for successful career and post-secondary education pathways. In order to be exposed to the full gamut of 21st century skills though, educators are going to need to provide additional hands-on learning opportunities for students to explore and build additional life skills that will support them as lifelong learners.
The Opportunity for Schools to Bridge the Gap between Hands-On Learning and Digital Literacy
Digital literacy can be best understood as “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information”. Digital literacy does not necessarily have to be isolated from hands-on, tactile learning opportunities though. Schools have an opportunity to integrate the two through enrichment programming that offers unique activities for students to experience that complement their regular day curriculum.
Examples of the types of enrichment offerings that can integrate both hands-on learning and digital literacy:
Cooking classes – allow students to explore different recipes online that use specific ingredients to come up with a plan for cooking. Have students learn about food photography and staging, and as part of the student’s hands-on activity, they can edit their photos, and present a marketing advertisement for the meal or item that they learned how to cook.
Sewing classes – have students search for sewing patterns online. Once their pattern or item is approved by an instructor, allow them to try their hand at producing the item they found while following instructions. Consider asking them to write a reflection on their experience after they complete their project detailing anything that seemed missing from the instructions or that they would want to change if they attempted this project again in the future.
Woodworking classes – allow students to practice woodworking skills using hand tools and fundamental woodworking techniques to assemble a wooden project. Then have them search for inspiration on how to decorate their project online using prompts to help them navigate the types of artistic inspiration they’re able to find. Once their personalization concept is approved, allow them to execute on that idea by painting and decorating their projects to see how their own work comes to life.
Opportunities to engage in hands-on activities like these not only get students excited and engaged to learn a new skill, but they also teach students the critical life skills that will help build their confidence and resiliency to tackle any challenge they may face later in life.
The Challenge Administrators Face in Delivering Enrichment Opportunities
Many educators are aligned on the value of offering students more enrichment opportunities to complement their regular day curriculum, and there is a growing body of evidence that these opportunities are indeed having a positive impact on student mental health, engagement, attendance, and learning outcomes. The challenge instead is how to fund these opportunities. Thankfully, more and more states are beginning to offer funding for after-school and summer programs in response to the evolving educational needs of our nation’s youth. California in particular is leading the nation in funding for these types of programs.
While the state-level infusion of funds offers a ton of opportunities for school districts, the saying “more money, more problems” simultaneously rings true – the administrative burden of managing these funds puts a strain on already understaffed school districts to track and report on the usage and goals of multiple sources of funding while delivering on programming that should be experienced by students and the community as holistic and integrated. This is why it is critical for community-based providers to partner with the school districts that they serve and support with the data tracking responsibilities to help make it as easy as possible for them to offer hands-on enrichment programs and activities to support student development and achievement.
Empowering the Next Generation, Together
Our DIY Builders program is designed to seamlessly integrate into existing after-school and enrichment programs, offering not only valuable enrichment opportunities to students but also alleviating some of the administrative burden on school districts by aligning our program with academic standards and supporting our partners with data tracking, attendance, and outcome reporting. Examples of this include:
Project-Based Learning (PBL): Our DIY woodworking and electrical project kits provide hands-on experiences that reinforce STEAM concepts taught in the classroom, making abstract theories more tangible and engaging. For instance, students will learn about geometry, numerical knowledge through measuring and woodworking or circuits through simple electrical projects.
Bridging Academics and Practical Skills: While a student’s regular-day curriculum focuses on academic benchmarks, our programs offer students real-world applications of the very benchmarks they are learning so that they can experience the outcomes of applying that learning.
Catering to Diverse Learning Styles & Fostering Accessibility: Not all students excel in traditional academic settings. Our hands-on approach to programming is designed to be inclusive and provide an alternative pathway for different-style learners to also experience feelings of accomplishment, which is so important to building student confidence and resilience to power them through the areas of their academic journey that may be more challenging.
Serving as Partners in Continuous Improvement: Just as our program hopes to promote with the students we serve, we believe in continuous improvement opportunities. We strive to strike a level of customizeability and flexibility to ensure our program is serving the unique needs of the students, communities, and administrators that we work with.
As we navigate our increasingly digital world, the need to balance screen time with tactile, real-world experiences continues. But by being thoughtful about integrating digital literacy with hands-on skills, enrichment programs create a holistic approach to education that equips students for success in the classroom, the workforce, and beyond.