Digital Literacies holds a great deal of importance across the curriculum in providing pupils with the skills, knowledge and understanding that will allow them to participate in an increasingly digital world. Digital technologies are embedded in our culture from the use of mobile phones in our daily lives, using YouTube and google as our main information sources, instant communication through emails and instant messengers; the list is ever growing. Developing the skills, knowledge and understanding of digital literacy is therefore essential in our modern world. Children are now able to engage with digital media at a much younger age and may even be creating their own digital content. This provides an opportunity for younger children to participate in social and cultural life outside of school. Children therefore need to be able to engage in many different types of media such as textual, visual and audio and understand how meaning can be conveyed across these different mediums. Promoting digital literacies across the curriculum and within the classroom provides a way to make learning within subjects relevant to our modern society where the way in which we communicate, engage in cultural life and how we develop meaning are becoming more and more digital and technology based. 
There can often be an assumption that because children and young people have grown up in a world where digital technologies have been a consistent part of their lives, that they have all of the knowledge, skills and understanding to be able to navigate its use. However just because a young person can post on Instagram, navigate Tik Tok or communicate through snapchat, this doesn’t mean that they are digitally literate. Often young people can rely on search engines for example to bring up the most relevant and trustworthy information from a simple search. They may lack the skills to be able to understand what information is trustworthy and how to identify this. For this very reason it is important that we support children and young people in developing their digital literacy across the curriculum in order to teach them these essential skills and develop their understanding. 
 In terms of the science classroom digital literacies are important as it helps to promote successful learning in the form of increased motivation, providing interactive experiences and allowing learners to engage in rich feedback. The use of digital technologies in the science classroom can allow topics within science to be related to pupils every day lives allowing the connection between learning in school to the outside world to be made. Within science its important to be able to collect data, analysis it and present it which the involvement of digital technologies in the class allows pupils to do. Being able to identify and consume trustworthy information in relation to science is an important skills for pupils to learn and develop their ability to become critical consumers of scientific information within the classroom and out with it. The use of digital technologies can bring aspects of science to life such as the use of simulators and interactive 3D models; allowing pupils to see how something actually works making such content even more relatable and fascinating. 
 
https://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/futl06/futl06.pdf
http://www.curriculum.edu.au/leader/%20why_digital_literacy_is_important_for_science_teac,34913.html?issueID=12610

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