by Suann Yi, Digital Media and Society at KU Leuven, Belgium.
A foundational approach to digital and media literacy education
Before going into the water, children learn to warm up, how to handle a leg cramp, and how to call for help. Before riding a bike, kids learn to wear a helmet and signal others on the road. Yet, as they dive into the digital world, what have they learned to keep themselves self-aware and safe?
Even before the pandemic pushed schooling onto screens, digital devices and apps had become a fixed part of children’s everyday lives. With the emergence of generative AI, many parents and educators now worry even more; if an answer is always one click away with tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot (and whatever comes next), how will children develop critical thinking and self-regulation instead of simply accepting whatever is suggested to them?
Some governments have responded with rapid, sometimes controversial measures. On the technology side, South Korea’s Ministry of Education recently downgraded its AI-powered digital textbooks to ‘complementary material’ due to concerns and lack of well-rounded understanding on their long-term effectiveness (Korea JoongAng Daily, 2025; Korea Herald, 2025). It is evident that rushing to adopt new tools does not always go as planned. On the opposite end, several countries have moved to pull back; Scandinavian countries are going back to pen and paper. In parts of Europe, several U.S. states, and Australia, political and public pressure has led to discussions on smartphone bans in schools (The Guardian, 2025a; The Brussels Times, 2025; The Guardian, 2025b).
Be that as it may, banning devices only presses the brake. It does not steer the car. Taking smartphones out of classrooms may create breathing space, yet it does not replace the kind of education that helps children build identity, judgment, creativity, and agency in a digital society. And adding more devices, definitions, and frameworks does not automatically solve the problem either.
Authorities at regional, national, and international levels have been disseminating a plethora of frameworks with new definitions, guidelines, and resources covering all kinds of literacies. The OECD, for instance, recently introduced a definition of AI literacy in its preliminary draft of PISA Media and Artificial Intelligence Literacy Assessment Framework, outlining five broad competence areas (OECD, 2026). And now there is also prompt literacy to complement generative AI. Each wave of technology seems to bring a new term, a new standard, a new urgency.
From my experience as a primary school teacher in Korea, I have seen how these high-level frameworks translate into everyday classroom realities, often imperfectly. Teachers frequently find themselves in a “reactive mode”: The way shipwreck tragedies prompted new requirements on water-safety, emerging forms of online crime prompted new ones on cyber safety, and a pandemic required an overnight shift to online teaching. Training often comes late; resources are fragmented; the constant influx of new digital concepts can feel overwhelming.
What is needed is not more complexity, but a return to foundations. Taking a step back to focus on fundamentals can offer clarity. The truth is, children do not need the latest device or the newest definition to become digital and media literate. What they need is to understand a few core, transferable concepts, which could be taught in largely analogue ways. When students understand what data is; how it is produced, collected, and flows through systems; they begin to grasp why so many digital services appear ‘free’, how companies like Google, Meta, or Youtube build business models around data, and why personal data protection matters. Similarly, to name an example of another digital topic, a basic understanding of how algorithms work helps make sense of everything from the rise and fall of influencers to the growing presence of generative AI. Rather than reacting to each new development, such foundational knowledge enables a more stable and critical perspective.
A good example of this approach in practice comes from the Austrian company cody21. They provide primary schools with ready-made educational resources of 16 videos alongside worksheets and lesson plans that connect classroom practice to international frameworks like the European Commission’s DigComp and the U.S.’s CSTA Standards. Crucially, the materials are designed to be interactive and largely device-free, because understanding digital and media literacy does not require a screen. Through public-private partnerships, they are made available free of charge to public primary schools in Austria, reducing both technical and financial barriers.
This is the kind of bridge that is missing in many classrooms; practical, fundamental, and ready-to-use materials akin to a ‘lesson meal kit’ that translates policy into practice without demanding that teachers master yet another platform or tool.
Ultimately, education should not only be about stopping the device. It should be about giving students the skills to decide where and how they want to go. Students learn vocabulary and grammar, but it is their competence that allows them to build an argument. They learn the physics of buoyancy before entering the water, but it is their judgement that helps them respond to unexpected currents. In the same way, digital education should equip children not just to use tools, but to understand, question, and shape the digital environments they inhabit.
Author
Suann Yi, a former primary school teacher in South Korea, holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Sciences from VUB and is currently studying Digital Media and Society at KU Leuven.
