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Teaching Resource: DART - A Foundational Digital Literacy Curriculum for Beginning ESL Learners

Posted on 07/31/2025

Computer connected to a mouse and a keyboard
Image by Mudassar Iqbal from Pixabay

If you're an adult education instructor working with beginning-level English learners, finding digital literacy materials that are truly accessible can be a challenge. Many popular tools, like Northstar Digital Literacy, are geared toward learners at intermediate or higher proficiency levels. That’s why DART (Digital Access and Resilience in Texas) is such a valuable resource.

DART is a free, foundational digital literacy curriculum designed to support learners with limited English and technology skills. It was created specifically for lower-level ESL classes and has proven to be both usable and effective in the classroom. The curriculum includes 20 comprehensive and flexible lesson plans that can be used as-is or adapted to suit the needs of diverse learners. DART is not a standalone course; it’s intended to be woven into existing language or adult education programs.

What Does DART Cover?

The lessons build essential digital skills through topics such as:

  • Parts of a computer
  • Basic keyboarding
  • Online safety and security
  • Searching the internet
  • Creating usernames and passwords
  • Troubleshooting

Each lesson is downloadable as a PDF or editable Word document and includes:

  • Step-by-step lesson plans
  • All handouts and visuals
  • Differentiation resources to meet diverse learner needs
  • Vocabulary and keyboarding support
  • Extension activities and multimedia (PPTs, YouTube videos, SkillBlox collections, and more)

Why It Works

DART lessons are highly scaffolded, interactive, and hands-on, making them ideal for learners with limited language and digital experience. Suggestions for differentiation allow instructors to meet the needs of both literacy-level and more advanced students.

The curriculum is aligned with several key standards:

DART Course page overview
Image from Canvas Commons

  • English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS)
  • CASAS Basic Skills Content Standards (Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking)
  • Northstar Digital Literacy Standards (Essential Computer Skills)
  • Seattle Digital Equity Initiative Digital Skills Framework

How to Get Started You can access the full DART curriculum for free through the DART website. OTAN has also compiled all 20 lessons into a Canvas course for California adult educators. Just search for “DART” in the California Adult Education Canvas Commons to explore and import it into your own Canvas instance.

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OTAN activities are funded by contract CN240137 from the Adult Education Office, in the Career & College Transition Division, California Department of Education, with funds provided through Federal P.L., 105-220, Section 223. However, OTAN content does not necessarily reflect the position of that department or the U.S. Department of Education.