Defining digital literacy (original) (raw)

What is 'digital literacy'? A Pragmatic investigation

Digital literacy has been an increasingly-debated and discussed topic since the publication of Paul Gilster’s seminal Digital Literacy in 1997. It is, however, a complex term predicated on previous work in new literacies such as information literacy and computer literacy. To make sense of this complexity and uncertainty I come up with a ‘continuum of ambiguity’ and employ a Pragmatic methodology. This thesis makes three main contri butions to the research area. First, I argue that considering a plurality of digital literacies helps avoid some of the problems of endlessly-redefining ‘digital literacy’. Second, I abstract eight essential elements of digital literacies from the research literature which can lead to positive action. Finally, I argue that co-constructing a definition of digital literacies (using the eight essential elements as a guide) is at least as important as the outcome.

Digital Literacy Concepts and Definitions: Implications for Educational Assessment and Practice

This article presents a scan of the concept of "digital literacy" and discusses issues encountered in the literature, including: a) challenges in the research base for conceptualizing digital literacy, b) the multiplicity of frameworks which attempt to situate digital literacy but lack sound theoretical origins, and c) wide disagreement among stakeholder disciplines, including education, media studies, library information studies and computing/ICT studies as to what specific skills or knowledge should fall under the umbrella term of digital literacy. The review focuses on the field of education and briefly examines the inconsistent local, national, and international curriculum standards used to both instruct and assess students. It concludes with a presentation of a brief assessment tool, the Software Recognition Test, which preliminary research suggests has predictive validity for educational use and could, with further development, be used for low stakes assessment of digital literacy for K-12 or post-secondary settings.

Digital Literacy: Definition, Theoretical Framework, and Competencies

COERC 2012, 2012

This paper offers an overview of existing definitions and theoretical frameworks for digital literacy. The researcher makes recommendations for an agreed upon definition and theoretical framework and discusses implications for a relationship between digital and visual literacy skills. For some time now, new perspectives on literacy, and the learning processes through which literacy is acquired, has been emerging (Herbert, 1991). While there is agreement that a new set of 21st-century skills involving technologies are needed for literacy, there is little consensus about precisely what knowledge and abilities are necessary for people to be digitally literate (Ba, Tally, & Tsikalas, 2002). To obtain a consensus, there must be an agreed upon definition for digital literacy and an identification of its particular competencies. For this to happen, two initial steps must be taken: (a) Begin the development of an instrument designed to identify the major dimensions of digital literacy, and (b) conduct an initial validation study of this instrument. This paper offers an overview of existing digital literacy definitions, frameworks, and competencies; makes recommendations for the refinement of a digital literacy model that includes visual literacy as a core skill; and discusses implications for a relationship between digital and visual literacy skills. Purpose As technology pervades every aspect of our lives, the ability to navigate and successfully accomplish tasks through technology grows. Whether you are in primary, secondary, or postsecondary school, and whether you are employed or entering retirement, it is now necessary to have some technology skills both to communicate with the outside world and to perform administrative, creative, and educative tasks. The continued increase and use of online media content for information gathering also challenges the learner to organize and compose information in a nonlinear fashion while often integrating visual media to synthesize that information. This skill set is commonly called digital literacy. Digital literacy refers to the assortment of cognitive-thinking strategies that consumers of digital information utilize (Eshet, 2004). Other terms used alongside or sometimes synonymously with digital literacy include: 21 st-century literacies, Internet literacies, multiliteracies, information literacy, information communication technologies (ICT) literacies, computer literacy, and online reading comprehension (ORC). Each term has particular definitions, but common assumptions bring them together under the same theoretical umbrella of new literacies. Leu, Zawilinski, Castek, Banerjee, Housand, Liu, and O'Neil (2007) conclude that most new literacies, including digital literacy, share four assumptions: (a) new literacies include the new skills, strategies, dispositions, and social practices that are required by new technologies for information and communication; (b) new literacies are central to full participation in a global community; (c) new literacies regularly change as their defining technologies change; and (d) new literacies are multifaceted and our understanding of them benefits from multiple points of view. Leu, O'Byrne, Zawilinski, McVerry, and Everett-Cacopardo (2009) describe how new

Digital literacy: The quest of an inclusive definition

Reading & Writing

Forces of globalisation and economic competition enhanced by, among others, the digital technologies, are radically transforming the social context. Digital technologies are characterised by a powerful and pervasive Internet as well as the related information and communication technologies. Globalisation is facilitated by the universally accessible, reliable and inexpensive communication assisted by these digital technologies. However, there is growing and valid scepticism regarding the digitally influenced socio-economic emancipation. This scepticism is mainly driven by a lack of understanding of digital literacy as a holistic process of creating the necessary social, economic and political changes within a given context. The understanding of digital literacy therefore needs to join a number of seemingly divergent views of digital technology when dealing with these technologies’ benefits in socio-economic emancipation. This understanding of digital literacy should therefore be shap...

Digital Literacy in Theory and Practice

Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fourth Edition, 2018

The concept of digital literacy must be understood in the context of “literacies” writ broadly. Contemporary understandings of literacy have expanded the traditional definition that includes reading and writing (possibly also including numeracy and oralcy), to include interpretive and creative abilities or competencies across a range of texts, in written and other forms. Digital literacy, from a pragmatic point of view, is the set of skills, knowledge and attitudes required to access digital information effectively, efficiently, and ethically. It includes knowing how to evaluate digital information, and how to use it in decision-making. Digital literacy certainly has the potential to contribute to far-reaching and important personal and societal consequences. Thus, increasing focus on development of digital literacy, however defined, should be a policy priority for all sectors.

Shifting landscapes of digital literacy

The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy

This paper explores how changing digital literacy practices in educational contexts require that we continually revisit conceptualisations of digital literacy education. We begin by analysing the positions taken by stakeholders who contribute to digital literacy discourses in Australia, exploring how competing interests produce effects which manifest in ways that differently consecrate social and cultural practice in the digital age. We advocate the need for pedagogic frameworks that support digital literacy education. Existing approaches tend to privilege the operationalisation of digital technology. By contrast, teaching is needed which focusses on meaning-making and creating. However, the ‘datafication of everyday life’ (Barassi, 2018, p.170) has included extraordinary interventions into schooling that have significant implications for teachers and students. We argue that preparing young people for digital citizenship must include a focus on critical digital literacies that are r...

Digital literacy – towards a re description of literacy for the digital learning environments

The concepts of ‘digital literacy’ and ‘digital competence’ are the focus in this paper. The paper will argue that the traditional concepts regarding literacy need to be re described and augmented when faced with the challenges and affordances of the digital learning environments. The paper will suggest a theoretical framework for how to understand the ways in which young people include digital technologies into their social and cultural practices. Some examples from the empirical material will be shown. The traditional concepts of literacy will be juxtaposed to the development of the digital practices that are being developed in parallel by the learners themselves outside the control and influence of the classroom.

Developing Digital Literacy for Teaching and Learning

Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education, 2022

Digital literacy is a critical competence for empowering citizenship in a digital world. It has become a key element in teaching and learning across the different educational stages that has been addressed since the last decade of the twentieth century within the field of open, distance, and digital education. The literature so far has not agreed on a common definition, but multiple international, national, and even local, frameworks exist to foster digital literacy and to evaluate and certificate it, especially with a focus on educators and students in different educational levels, but also with the citizen perspective. These frameworks are

Digital literacy: An analysis of the contemporary paradigms

… . org/IJSTER (c). Int. …, 2010

Digital (computer) literacy is the new title for 'educated'. Both teachers and students have no option but to acquire a level of computer-literacy to catch up with the growing digital societies. Governments and higher education institutions (mHEIs) are making all out ...