Views of Student Teachers at a University in Lesotho about their Digital Literacy and Online Safety: Building Sustainable Digital Practices
Digital literacy has become crucial for functionality and productivity in academics, work, and everyday community lives. However, easy access to digital technologies, accompanied by limited digital literacy, can expose users to the dangers that lurk in the digital world. Young people, who are freque...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Sciendo
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.2478/dcse-2025-0011 |
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| author | Mahao Mahao Chere-Masopha Julia |
| author_facet | Mahao Mahao Chere-Masopha Julia |
| author_sort | Mahao Mahao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Digital literacy has become crucial for functionality and productivity in academics, work, and everyday community lives. However, easy access to digital technologies, accompanied by limited digital literacy, can expose users to the dangers that lurk in the digital world. Young people, who are frequent users of these technologies yet have less experience and wisdom, could quickly become victims of such dangers. This is why there has been a call for learning institutions to ensure that young people graduate with digital knowledge and skills. This study explored the level of digital literacy among 61 student teachers majoring in Literature in English at a university in Lesotho. The study was framed through the theoretical lens of connectivism. Data was collected using classroom discussions, focusing on the student teachers’ views about the status of their digital literacy and its influence on their lives. A thematic approach was used to analyse this data. The findings of this study indicate that many student teachers viewed digital literacy in a very simplistic way that excluded issues of online safety and security. They described digital literacy as a limited ability to use digital devices to complete tasks, suggesting that they did not think much about digital safety and security in their descriptions. This could suggest that even in their everyday interactions with these technologies, they do not consider safety and security issues. It is recommended that learning institutions make efforts to address the digital literacy needs of their students, particularly student teachers who are future classroom teachers who will be responsible for guiding young people in the classroom on digital use, safety, and security. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-54f0dee539a44cb9b38e5de2a91df695 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2255-7547 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education |
| spelling | doaj-art-54f0dee539a44cb9b38e5de2a91df6952025-08-20T02:12:31ZengSciendoDiscourse and Communication for Sustainable Education2255-75472025-06-0116115016510.2478/dcse-2025-0011Views of Student Teachers at a University in Lesotho about their Digital Literacy and Online Safety: Building Sustainable Digital PracticesMahao Mahao0Chere-Masopha Julia11National University of Lesotho, Roma, Lesotho1National University of Lesotho, Roma, LesothoDigital literacy has become crucial for functionality and productivity in academics, work, and everyday community lives. However, easy access to digital technologies, accompanied by limited digital literacy, can expose users to the dangers that lurk in the digital world. Young people, who are frequent users of these technologies yet have less experience and wisdom, could quickly become victims of such dangers. This is why there has been a call for learning institutions to ensure that young people graduate with digital knowledge and skills. This study explored the level of digital literacy among 61 student teachers majoring in Literature in English at a university in Lesotho. The study was framed through the theoretical lens of connectivism. Data was collected using classroom discussions, focusing on the student teachers’ views about the status of their digital literacy and its influence on their lives. A thematic approach was used to analyse this data. The findings of this study indicate that many student teachers viewed digital literacy in a very simplistic way that excluded issues of online safety and security. They described digital literacy as a limited ability to use digital devices to complete tasks, suggesting that they did not think much about digital safety and security in their descriptions. This could suggest that even in their everyday interactions with these technologies, they do not consider safety and security issues. It is recommended that learning institutions make efforts to address the digital literacy needs of their students, particularly student teachers who are future classroom teachers who will be responsible for guiding young people in the classroom on digital use, safety, and security.https://doi.org/10.2478/dcse-2025-0011computer literacyconnectivismdigital literacydigital safety and securitysustainable literacy |
| spellingShingle | Mahao Mahao Chere-Masopha Julia Views of Student Teachers at a University in Lesotho about their Digital Literacy and Online Safety: Building Sustainable Digital Practices Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education computer literacy connectivism digital literacy digital safety and security sustainable literacy |
| title | Views of Student Teachers at a University in Lesotho about their Digital Literacy and Online Safety: Building Sustainable Digital Practices |
| title_full | Views of Student Teachers at a University in Lesotho about their Digital Literacy and Online Safety: Building Sustainable Digital Practices |
| title_fullStr | Views of Student Teachers at a University in Lesotho about their Digital Literacy and Online Safety: Building Sustainable Digital Practices |
| title_full_unstemmed | Views of Student Teachers at a University in Lesotho about their Digital Literacy and Online Safety: Building Sustainable Digital Practices |
| title_short | Views of Student Teachers at a University in Lesotho about their Digital Literacy and Online Safety: Building Sustainable Digital Practices |
| title_sort | views of student teachers at a university in lesotho about their digital literacy and online safety building sustainable digital practices |
| topic | computer literacy connectivism digital literacy digital safety and security sustainable literacy |
| url | https://doi.org/10.2478/dcse-2025-0011 |
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