A guide to
Cambridge Primary Digital Literacy
Introduction
Digital literacy is an essential skill for learners of all ages. The digital world allows us to connect, collaborate, innovate and discover new information on an ever-broadening scale. Learners should be able to use technology effectively from the very beginning of their educational journey.
Cambridge Primary Digital Literacy learners:
- are empowered to use digital technology safely and are able to protect their own physical and emotional wellbeing
- analyse and reflect on the opportunities and issues presented by technology from different perspectives
- develop the transferrable skills needed to access digital technology, to communicate digitally and to access careers in the workplaces of the future
- understand their place, and the place of others, in an interconnected world
- make informed decisions about the information that they encounter digitally
- understand the role of digital technology in society and are able to contribute to that society.
Teaching Cambridge Primary Digital Literacy
The curriculum is flexible. You can teach it:
- through dedicated, regular timetabled lessons
- through dedicated project work
- within other subjects.
You will need to decide the approach that best suits your context through collaboration across your school. If you decide to teach Cambridge Primary Digital Literacy within other subjects, you will need to carefully plan and identify opportunities to cover important content. For example:
- regular exposure to the software that will allow learners to produce a range of digital outputs to express their learning
- opportunities to conduct online research and to communicate with others digitally
- opportunities to discuss the impacts of digital technology on a range of scenarios and contexts.
We provide a wide range of practical resources, detailed guidance, innovative training and professional development so that you can give your learners the best possible experience of Cambridge Primary Digital Literacy.
We believe that for teaching and learning to be effective, there should be alignment between curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. We have designed Cambridge Primary Digital Literacy around this principle:
Curriculum – taken from Primary Digital Literacy Curriculum Framework
4TC.03 Use devices to create increasingly sophisticated digital artefacts, including the use of sound, video, text and other multimedia.
Pedagogy – activity taken from the Stage 4 Scheme of Work
In this project, learners will create a video that instructs younger learners how to stay safe online. Their videos should include:
- what a URL is and its components
- the importance of creating strong passwords
- how to create strong passwords
- how to identify less reliable websites and content.
Learners will need to combine a variety of different media in this video, such as images and screenshots, videos and diagrams (created digitally or scanned) and voiceovers.
Assessment
Learners produce digital outputs to a specific brief. They share their outputs with other learners and get feedback. They consider the changes they should make to improve the output.
Curriculum Framework
The Cambridge Primary Digital Literacy Curriculum Framework is available to download on the Digital Literacy (0072) page of the Cambridge Primary support site. It provides a comprehensive set of learning objectives that give a structure for teaching and learning and can be used to assess learners’ attainment and skills development.
We have divided the learning objectives into three main areas called ‘strands’, which run through every stage:
Although the three strands are separate, they work together to provide a holistic approach to understanding, evaluating and operating in the digital world.
We have designed the learning objectives to ensure progression in learning from Stage 1 to Stage 6 and onwards into Cambridge Lower Secondary. You can download a Progression Grid, that outlines the progression for all learning objectives across all stages, from the Digital Literacy (0072) page of the Cambridge Primary support site.
Find information from the Progression Grid
Find information from the Progression Grid
In the Progression Grid, identify the stage that you will be teaching, and the prior knowledge that learners are expected to have. It is important to ensure that this prior knowledge is secure before moving on to new skills and knowledge.
Below are some examples of how knowledge, understanding and skills progress across stages:
Curriculum Framework
The Cambridge Primary Digital Literacy Curriculum Framework is available to download on the Digital Literacy (0072) page of the Cambridge Primary support site. It provides a comprehensive set of learning objectives that give a structure for teaching and learning and can be used to assess learners’ attainment and skills development.
We have divided the learning objectives into three main areas called ‘strands’, which run through every stage:
Although the three strands are separate, they work together to provide a holistic approach to understanding, evaluating and operating in the digital world.
We have designed the learning objectives to ensure progression in learning from Stage 1 to Stage 6 and onwards into Cambridge Lower Secondary. You can download a Progression Grid, that outlines the progression for all learning objectives across all stages, from the Digital Literacy (0072) page of the Cambridge Primary support site.
Find information from the Progression Grid
Find information from the Progression Grid
In the Progression Grid, identify the stage that you will be teaching, and the prior knowledge that learners are expected to have. It is important to ensure that this prior knowledge is secure before moving on to new skills and knowledge.
Below are some examples of how knowledge, understanding and skills progress across stages:
| Learning objective examples | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Strand | Stage 2 | Stage 4 | Stage 6 |
| Tools and Content Creation | Change the appearance of text by exploring the available tools, for example, by changing the colour, size and font type. | Edit and organise the layout of a document. | Use devices to create increasingly sophisticated digital projects, including the use of sound, video, text and other multimedia. |
| Safety and Wellbeing | Understand that users can have many accounts and can choose what information to put into each one. | Know the benefits and risks of online anonymity | Understand that a digital footprint is a record of online activity, including the sharing of images, videos, informations or opinions. |
| The Digital World | Understand that technology can be used to communicate locally and globally. | Understand that online communication has changed the way people interact. | Describe how online streaming has changed how people access media. |
Pedagogy
The Curriculum Framework gives you a list of learning objectives for each stage. Our support materials then give you guidance on:
- the order in which to teach the objectives
- ways of grouping them
- how to split the objectives into smaller steps, and how to differentiate to make the work easier or harder
- suitable activities through which to teach
- ideas for active learning.
Our support materials include:
- Progression Grids
- Schemes of Work
- Teacher Guide
- Training
Find and access these support materials, on the Digital Literacy (0072) page of the Cambridge Primary support site. You can find more general information about these support materials on the About Cambridge Primary page of the Cambridge Primary support site.
The curriculum is designed to be taught using a broad range of activities and/or projects that promote experience, reflection, understanding and improvement. Learners will benefit from discussing their Digital Literacy in contexts that are familiar to them. Activities that encourage them to produce digital outputs for their peers or members of their family will support their understanding of:
- their online safety and responsibilities
- how digital technologies impact many areas of our lives
- the ways that they can use digital tools to effectively communicate with a range of audiences and for a range of purposes.
The learning objectives in the three strands of the Curriculum Framework support an integrated approach to teaching and learning. In many cases, the content of the Safety and Wellbeing and The Digital World strands can provide a context or stimulus for using digital tools with a purpose in the Tools and Content Creation strand.
Create an activity
Create an activity
To help you consider this approach further, use the table below to plan an activity that would address the two learning objectives. You can use the Schemes of Work to give you ideas at each stage.
| Learning objectives | Example activity | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Stage 1 | 1TC.01 Know how to switch on and log onto a computer using their own password. | 1SW.01 Know what a password is and describe why passwords are useful. | |
| Stage 2 | 2TC.01 Use devices to take or record digitised media, including photography, audio and video. | 2DW.04 Describe the difference between hardware and software | |
| Stage 3 | 3TC.06 Compose, read, respond to and share online messages with specific individuals and with groups | 3SW.02 Safely engage in online spaces, including in group chats, being aware that personal information and identifying photographs and/or videos should not be shared. | |
| Stage 4 | 4TC.07 Know that web pages have addresses known as URLs, and know how to bookmark these. | 4DW.01 Recognise that online content may provide false information with the intent to deceive. | |
| Stage 5 | 5TC.02 Use devices to create increasingly sophisticated digital artefacts, including the use of sound, video, text and other multimedia. | 5SW.05 Recognise that cyberbullying takes place online and can take many forms | |
| Stage 6 | 6TC.04 Insert hyperlinks into a document. | 6DW.01 Understand that restrictions apply to the copying of online content. | |
As they progress through the Primary stages, you should give your learners more opportunities to explore and experiment with digital tools, and choose how they wish to present their work.
This will support them to think creatively, and will help them adapt to new software and digital platforms in the future. A digitally literate learner should be able to evaluate tools and apply their findings, not just follow a specific set of instructions for using a particular piece of software.
For more information on the approaches to teaching and learning in Cambridge Primary Digital Literacy, refer to Section 3.4 of the Teacher Guide.
Assessment Guidance
Assessment guidance provides support and advice on how to assess learners in the classroom, including:
- examples of how teaching and learning activities can be assessed
- approaches to recording achievement
- different approaches to reporting results.
There is no Cambridge Primary Progression Test or Checkpoint for this subject.
Find the Assessment guidance on the Digital Literacy (0072) page of the Cambridge Primary support site.
You can find more general information about Assessment guidance on the About Cambridge Primary page of the Cambridge Primary support site.
Assessment
We offer the following to help you prove and improve learning:
- Assessment guidance provides support and advice on how to assess learners to give information about current learning and to inform next steps, and to summarise achievement over a period of learning.
Assessment guidance
Assessment guidance provides support and advice on how to assess learners in the classroom through examples of how teaching and learning activities can be assessed, outlines an approach to recording achievement, and gives different approaches to reporting results.
You can find out more about Assessment guidance on the About Cambridge Primary page of the Cambridge Primary support site.
Find the Assessment guidance on the Digital Literacy (0072) page of the Cambridge Primary support site.
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