 Literacy is a powerful tool so that our students can attain their goals, develop further their potentials and be involved in the society where they belong. In the Philippines, literacy rate is marked at 97.5% based on the latest survey conducted by the National Statistics Office in 2010. This figure looks very impressive but in the 21st century it is not all about reading, writing, listening and speaking. Individuals must have digital literacy skills. Today, we shall talk about 21st century skills or digital literacy skills. This is all about media, information and ICT literacies. So to further understand our topic, it is very important to answer first the question, what is 21st century learning? The concept of 21st century learning and innovation skills is primarily about the foresees, critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. These skills claim to ensure student success in a world where change is constant and learning never stops. This only shows that we live in a time where technology and media are driven by information and fast changing technological innovations. Therefore, in order to be adaptive to these changes, our learners must be equipped with functional and critical thinking skills such as information literacy, media literacy and ICT literacy. It is important to take note that digital literacies are interrelated skills that vary in usage and situations. So let's get started. Information literacy is fundamental for lifelong learning. It is extremely important in this era where information is easily accessible to different means. Whether inside or outside the school and home, children undeniably encounter rich information sources. This information are unfiltered and bear significant issues on whether they are authentic, valid and reliable. Thus, it is important to teach our students the ability to recognize when information is needed and to locate, evaluate and use effectively the needed information. In this way, our students become self-directed in terms of their own learning. According to the standards of American Library Association, an information literate person is able to determine the extent of information needed, access that needed information effectively and efficiently, evaluate information and its sources critically, incorporate selected information into one's knowledge base, use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose, understand the economic, legal and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally. Given these conditions, if we teach our students the proper skills on information literacy, it would be easy for them to develop the related skills on media literacy. Understanding the complicated information we get from different media such as the internet, television, radio, print materials, advertisements, songs, online games and others is all about media literacy. Specifically, it is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media. Here are some ways that media literacy can help our learners. It develops critical thinking skills, it makes them understand how media messages are delivered, recognize what the media maker wants us to believe or do, name the techniques of persuasion used, recognize bias, spin, misinformation and lies, discover the parts of the story that are not being told, evaluate media messages based on our own experiences, skills, beliefs and values, and create and distribute our own media messages. You will play a crucial role in developing the media literacy of your future students. So, here are some pieces of advice I have personally chosen for making media education a meaningful and integrated part of classroom practice as cited in the Media Smart's website. Number one, exploit teachable moments. When students are free time, take an opportunity to listen to what they're talking about. Most likely, it's related to the media that you watch, play and listen to. Breaking news stories, buster movies and celebrity meltdowns are all great opportunities for media analysis. Number two, give students a chance to create media and not just analyze it. Although there's more to media education than just creating media, this is a key part of it. There is no substitute for hands-on experience to help kids understand how things like editing and music can influence the way a movie or TV show affects us emotionally. Camera phones, storyboards and even magazine collages are all affordable and easy options for bringing media production into your classroom. Number three, recognize that kids and even adults enjoy media. It is important not to take a negative approach to media education. Teach kids that critiquing is not necessarily the same thing as criticizing and that we can identify and talk about problematic issues in the media we love without losing our enjoyment of them. Don't forget to look at positive examples when discussing things like gender, stereotyping and so on. Number four, teach about media, not just with media. It's not enough to use media in your classroom unless students are learning about media as well. Anytime you're using media in the classroom, look for a media education opportunity. For instance, if you're showing the movie version of a play or book, you can ask your students the following. What technical differences change how the story is told? How are the expectations of the movie audience different from those of a play or a book? Number five, fight the perception that it doesn't matter. Students often try to avoid talking about the implications of media products by saying it's only a TV show or a video game or a music video or so on. Remind our students that media can have meaning even if the creators didn't plan it. For instance, research has shown that media consumption can affect how we see others and how we see ourselves even if we don't realize. Number six, assess and evaluate media literacy work. Will this be on the test? By doing formal assessment and evaluation of the media literacy students do, you communicate to them that it is valuable and important. Make sure that your evaluations are well thought out and objective as they are all for your assignments and making sure that you are consistent in checking them. And lastly, number seven, keep up-to-date with media trends and developments. You don't have to be a media expert to teach media literacy, but it helps to be current about what kids are watching, playing, reading, wearing and listening to, not to mention what they are doing online. This is a great opportunity to let kids be the experts and teach you about the latest thing. Apparently, both information and media literacy heavily depend on ICT literacy skills. In schools, the use of internet, computers, laptops, global positioning systems, digital cameras and other equipment, interactive boards, electronic games, applications are apparent integration of ICT. These are digital technologies mainly used to research, organize, evaluate and communicate information that are vital in ICT literacy. ICT literacy is developed in teaching and learning process when our students are taught to plan and question, gather and make sense, produce to show understanding, communicate and reflect on their learning. So as citizens of the global community, we teach our students to think critically and creatively about the information they communicate through ICT. But ICT literacy is not enough by itself. We should teach our students literacy with ICT. This means that our learners should be able to critically and creatively use ICT responsibly and ethically as citizens of global community. In short, we should teach our students to process information using ICT in a responsible and ethical manner. We talked about digital literacy skills, which is about media, information and ICT literacies. These are interrelated skills that are essential in 21st century learning. I hope that as a student and future teacher, you'd be able to practice these skills so that you can be effective lifelong learner and mentor to the digital natives of this generation.