Course Description

The MIL Competency Framework for Myanmar[1] defines digital literacy as the ability to communicate or find information from the Internet or online. Digital literacy does not only cover technical competencies. Equally important, it encompasses appropriate attitudes and values which ensure that digital literacy is practiced for the common good. In effect, learners are able to reach a ‘critical consciousness[2]’, i.e. to identify and then to take action against the oppressive elements of their digital realities. Figure 1 below, from Media and Information Literate Citizens: Think Critically, Click Wisely! (UNESCO, 2021, p. 9), shows the key outcomes for learners on Media and Information Literacy courses.

Recognizing the need for digital literacy among teachers in Myanmar, UNESCO has provided a standalone MOOC on MIL and Digital Literacy package including five modules of work. The primary intended users for the proposed MOOC on Digital Literacy are educators in different classroom settings across the country. As the focus is on developing competencies in each of the priority elements of the MIL Ecosystem for Myanmar – knowledge, skills, attitudes and their effective application - the MOOC has been designed according to experiential learning principles. Where new concepts are learnt, they are then applied in the context of a teaching and learning situation, and then reflected on.

[1] UNESCO Yangon Project Office. (2020). Towards a Media and Information Literacy Competency Framework. Retrieved from: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374230

[2] Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.