What is digital literacy?

What does digital literacy mean?

Digital literacy means “having the skills you need to live, learn, and work in a society where communication and access to information is increasingly through digital technologies like internet platforms, social media, and mobile devices.”

What is the difference between digital literacy and plain ol’ literacy?

Literacy in it’s original meaning is defined as encompassing ” the knowledge and skills needed to access, understand, analyse and evaluate information, make meaning, express thoughts and emotions, present ideas and opinions, interact with others and participate in professional and personal life”.

Standard literacy encompasses ordinary everyday communications like speaking, reading, phone calls etc, while digital literacy only relates to modern communication modes such as text messages, video calls, Tweets, and memes.

What constitutes digital literacy learning and where can I find it?

Do not confuse digital literacy with data literacy which is specifically about being competent in data science. However it is important to know that data literacy exists in all levels and could be an aspect of overall digital literacy. Data literacy is the ability to read, understand, create and communicate data as information. Much like literacy as a general concept, data literacy focuses on the competencies involved in working with data.

As with any literacy, digital literacy exists in varying levels – from a minimum requirement to function right through to expertise programmatic levels in conjunction with the science domain for example.

Digital literacy learning will be different for everyone. For some it might be how to use Microsoft products in a more advanced fashion, or it could be googling better with Boolean logic.

The best way to work on digital literacy is to keep working at it and look for opportunities to better yourself in every digital task that you undertake. Technology is always advancing and everyone of all levels must maintain digital literacy learning as we go into the future.

Here are some examples: