Digital Literacy
Reviewed and Updated: February 2008
Learning and communicating requires an ability to read, write and locate information. Today’s technology driven society also requires digital literacy, which means that an individual can read and write digitally in order to 'access the Internet; find, manage and edit digital information; join in communications; and otherwise engage with an online information and communications network...' (Blackall, L 2005). Digital literacy also includes an ability to 'identify…integrate, evaluate, analyse and synthesize digital resources, construct new knowledge, create media expressions, and communicate with others, in the context of specific life situations, in order to enable constructive social action; and to reflect upon this process' (DigEuLit project, 2006).
Websites
Wikipaedia – Digital Literacy
Wikipedia entry for digital literacy, offering community contributed information on the topic.
Publications
BLACKALL,
Leigh 2005, Digital
literacy: How it affects teaching practices and networked learning
futures - a proposal for action research
Provides a definition for Digital Literacy and discusses how itaffects teaching practices in Australian education.
elearningeuropa.info 2006, Digital literacy needed in an 'e-permeated' world - progress report of DigEuLit 2006
DigEuLit project started in January 2005 and was proposed as a response to a call for actions on ‘digital literacy’ in the context of the eLearning Programme of the European Commission. This report presents some of project's first outcomes, such as their definition for 'Digital Literacy' term.
JONES-KAVALIER, Barbara R & Flannigan, Suzanne L 2006, Connecting the Digital Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century, EQ Educause Quarterly, Vol 29, No 2
The article examines the terms 'digital' and 'visual literacy' in the context of a 21st century ‘accelerated, media-saturated, and automated’ society. Authors are critical of a lack of technology plans and professional development in educational organisations as well as trial-and-error approaches in classrooms. There is a need to apply the skills of critical thinking (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) to the teaching of digital literacy. The authors provide a bibliography of resources.