What is Digital Literacy?: Its Real Meaning and
Implications
Developing an Effective Online Teaching Strategy
By Prof. Jonathan Acuña Solano
Saturday, July 10, 2015
Twitter: @jonacuso
Post 184
What
is digital literacy? Unanimously, this kind of literacy is defined as “the
ability to use digital technology, communication tools or networks to locate,
evaluate, use and create information” (University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008) . In the very
same line of thought, the University of New South Wales (n.d.) delineates
digital literacy as “the technical and critical analysis abilities required to
find, evaluate, create and disseminate information using different digital
technologies.” And Visser (2012) encircles
digital literacy as “the ability to use information and
communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate
information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.” In conclusion,
digital literacy, -based on what the experts believe-, implies digital technology, communication tools, the
finding, evaluation, creation, usage, and dissemination of information, along
with cognitive and technical skills.
At first glance, this looks like a
good definition of what digital literacy is, but what about this, “The
ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range
of sources when it is presented via computers?” (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008) . Isn’t this a very
important angle to consider when talking about digital literacy? And what if we
included the individual’s ability to work on a digital environment? Digital
literacy also implies “a person’s ability
to perform tasks effectively in a digital environment... Literacy includes the
ability to read and interpret media, to reproduce data and images through
digital manipulation, and to evaluate and apply new knowledge gained from
digital environments” (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008) . Now this sound like
a more round-up definition for digital literacy that is inclusive of the
individual who is ready to learn from digital ambiences.
But what is being lost from
perspective in any of the definitions cited above is what all this means for a
digitally literate individual. Is this the same for an instructor as well for a
learner? Visser (2012) goes beyond this now
elaborated definition and outlines what a digitally literate person is by
stating that this very individual:
1.
Possesses the variety of
skills – technical and cognitive – required to find, understand, evaluate,
create, and communicate digital information in a wide variety of formats;
2.
Is able to use diverse
technologies appropriately and effectively to retrieve information, interpret
results, and judge the quality of that information;
3.
Understands the relationship
between technology, life-long learning, personal privacy, and stewardship of
information;
4.
Uses these skills and the
appropriate technology to communicate and collaborate with peers, colleagues,
family, and on occasion, the general public; and
5.
Uses these skills to actively
participate in civic society and contribute to a vibrant, informed, and engaged
community.
(Visser, 2012)
How does all this relate to teachers and students as digitally
literate individuals? Well, digitally literate instructors and learners need to
somehow embody what Visser (2012) states, but
how? Here you have my proposal:
To sum up, digital
literacy is not just digital technology,
communication tools, the finding, evaluation, creation, usage, and
dissemination of information, along with cognitive and technical skills. It
is much more when learners and instructors are involved. Each of one of them
has very specific roles and abilities to develop to make good use of virtual
learning environments to teach or to acquire skills and work-related
competencies.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (2008, October 15). What
is Digital Literacy? Retrieved from University Library:
http://www.library.illinois.edu/diglit/definition.html
University of New South Wales. (n.d.). Learning to Teach
Online MOOC. Retrieved from Coursera.Org:
https://class.coursera.org/ltto-002
Visser, M. (2012, September 14). What is Digital
Literacy? Retrieved from ALA Connect:
http://connect.ala.org/files/94226/what%20is%20digilit%20%282%29.pdf
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