• Defining Digital Literacy

    

    Posted on April 2, 2012 by Marijke Visser    —  12 Comments ↓  

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  When I was invited to serve as a member of the Digital Literacy Task Force in the spring of 2011 I was thrilled that OITP was forming a group to focus on the issue of digital literacy. I knew that digital literacy was a growing area of discussion not just among librarians but among policy makers and others concerned with the digital divide, 21st century skills and participatory citizenship.

   

   

  Because of the short turn-around time for the Task Force and limited opportunities for in-person meetings we put our digital literacy skills to work for virtual meetings beginning in May 2011. One of the first action items the Digital Literacy Task Force agreed upon was the need for a clear definition of digital literacy. Because the Task Force is comprised of librarians from different types of positions in different types of libraries we all had a different perspective on digital literacy issues. We wanted to ensure that all librarians were talking the same talk when it came to the definition of digital literacy. We also knew that digital literacy is a hot topic not just among librarians but among policy makers across the country. The problem was there was no universal definition for digital literacy.

   

  As we worked on a definition we considered definitions being used by other agencies, what foundation literacy means and the needs of 21st century citizens. We soon realized we had a need for more than one definition. In the age of Twitter and sound-bites we needed a succinct definition to share in appropriate venues. We also needed a longer fully developed version for getting into the depth and breadth of the issues.

   

  After careful consideration we agreed that digital literacy is:

   

  the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information requiring both cognitive and technical skills.

   

  This definition is also in a forthcoming primer that looks more deeply into the necessary skills, the need for digital literacy, the digital divide and the role of all types of libraries.

   

  Bobbi L. Newman

• Enhancing Digital Literacy

   

  What is Digital Literacy?

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      Digital literacy is more than knowing how to send a text or watch a music video. It means having the knowledge and ability to use a range of technology tools for varied purposes. A digitally literate person can use technology strategically to find and evaluate information, connect and collaborate with others, produce and share original content, and use the Internet and technology tools to achieve many academic, professional, and personal goals.  

• What is digital literacy? The term has been rising in visibility since 2009 but it has been used quite differently by a variety of stakeholders including policy makers, educators, and business and technology professionals. At the American Library Association’s annual conference, I’ll be moderating a discussion about four distinct but interrelated definitions and uses of this important term. Sharing ideas with me will be Judith Kleinberg of Knight Foundation, Roseanne Cordell, a librarian at Indiana University South Bend, and Laurel Felt, a doctoral candidate at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism.

   

    Depending on what group of people you talk to, the term ‘digital literacy’ might suggest one or more of these meanings. Which of these definitions are most (and least) useful to your work? For school, academic or public librarians, which of these terms is most relevant? For those in K-12 education, which do you focus on? And for technology educators, where do you focus? Funders and policymakers, which ones are most likely to resonate with decision makers in local, state and national government?

   

   

• Computer Skills and Access Issues. Having broadband access and knowing how to use the Internet enable full participation in society. For some, basic keyboard and mouse skills are essential skills while others may benefit from a greater understanding of file management and browsers. For example, websites like DigitalLiteracy.gov emphasize the value of using the Internet to find a job, create a resume and for career exploration.

   

    Issues of Authorship. People are creating and sharing more than ever. The concept of digital literacy reflects the growing importance of user-generated content and the changing role of authorship in a digital age. Digital literacy programs like YouMedia empower people with easy access to powerful tools of expression and communication using social media, images, language, music, sound, and interactivity.

   

    Issues of Representation.  How do you decide what to believe? Librarians who value information literacy note the important skill of being able to evaluate the credibility of information sources. Credibility assessment websites like Politifact and FactCheck.org offer an examination of the relationship between the symbol and the thing symbolized. Determining what’s more accurate or less accurate (or what a “quality” source is) is a judgment about issues of representation.

   

    Online social responsibility. How do people learn to integrate ethics in both their online and offline lives? Many people have real concerns about how people behave in online social relationships. The immediacy and instantaneousness of digital media may promote cyberbullying, sexting, disrespect for copyright, privacy violations and inappropriate information sharing. Groups like Common Sense Media provide guidance for helping young people develop the knowledge they need to make appropriate choices about how to manage their digital life.

• Drawing from the Key Competencies and Values in the New Zealand Curriculum and a growing body of research knowledge, NetSafe, in consultation with New Zealand teachers has produced this definition of a New Zealand Digital Citizen.

   

  A digital citizen:

   
   
  • is a confident and capable user of ICT
   
  • uses technologies to participate in educational, cultural, and economic activities
   
  • uses and develops critical thinking skills in cyberspace
   
  • is literate in the language, symbols, and texts of digital technologies
   
  • is aware of ICT challenges and can manage them effectively
   
  • uses ICT to relate to others in positive, meaningful ways
   
  • demonstrates honesty and integrity and ethical behaviour in their use of ICT
   
  • respects the concepts of privacy and freedom of speech in a digital world
   
  • contributes and actively promotes the values of digital citizenship
   
   
   

  Digital literacy or the ability to understand and fully participate in the digital world is fundamental to digital citizenship. It is the combination of technical and social skills that enable a person to be successful and safe in the information age. Like literacy and numeracy initiatives which provide people with the skills to participate in the work force, digital literacy has become an essential skill to be a confident, connected, and actively involved life long learner.

• so what is digital citizenship? Just as we are citizens of a physical country, so are we citizens of the digital world. Just as we need to obey the laws, and not harm anyone, that same spirit exists in the digital world – and it impacts the physical world as well. The mean words and pictures that are posted online, can hurt people in their daily lives at school and in their community.

  
   

  But citizenship means more than behaving responsibly, it also means that we should be civically engaged: voting, keeping current and having our voice in political matters, and contributing to society. To this end, we need to get accurate information, and decide the verity of political messages that surround us. This same pro-active attitude and behavior also applies to the digital environment. Technology enables us to research significant social issues and to voice our opinions to a global audience.
   
   In short, digital citizenship means the ability to use technology safely, responsibly, critically, and pro-actively to contribute to society.

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  CyberWise Top Ten Digital Citizenship Resources
  

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  So what is digital citizenship? (Check out our short video for a quick explanation). While there is still some debate as to the exact definition of the term, we like this one found on Anne Collier’s blog: “Critical thinking and ethical choices about the content and impact on oneself, others, and one’s community of what one sees, says, and produces with media, devices, and technologies.” Okay, it is a bit of a mouthful, so perhaps a better way to consider digital citizenship is like this” Just like Driver’s Education prepares young people to get behind the wheel of a car, Digital Citizenship provides young people with the behaviors and skills they need to navigate the information superhighway confidently and safely. The powerful technologies that most kids carry around in their pockets connect them with the world in new ways that can be both positive and destructive. Digital citizenship is a preemptive measure that helps tip the balance towards positive online interactions.

• What is a Digital Identity?

   

  A new sense of reality: life Online

   

  In the Internet, you may decide to create an avatar personality, a desired alter ego, or work using a pseudonym to blog, chat, Google, Skype and tweet. You can even exist in “the book of friends” with a fictional identity. Love online, flirt online, shop online, gamble online: in the Internet everything is just one click away. But beware. It is for your own interest to educate yourself about the risks that exist in this world.

• A new legal concept of identity

   

  "In today's digital environment the concept of identity is an issue of much greater complexity than it was in the days of the offline world. Our digital identity can exist in many forms and for many different purposes. Its existence on the Web becomes a currency that can be unscrupulously traded and abused.
   
  It has never been more important to protect the concept of "who we are". We are at the beginning of a new discipline of Web Science in which such issues need to be researched across disciplines. This text offers an excellent starting point for work in this area."
   
  Professor Stephen Saxby,
  School of Law,

• How Do You Define Your Online Identity?

   

    Author: Adi Gaskell 
    Published: January 21, 2013 at 5:05 am 

        

   

   

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  That was the question asked by the UK government's Foresight science department in their latest report, published today.

   

  The report, called Future Identities, believes that hyper-connectivity is a major driver behind our changing sense of identity.  With over seven billion devices connected to the internet, and some 60% of us members of a social network, the web offers us unlimited capabilities to document any aspect of our lives.

   

  
   This data is increasingly being mined for insights, primarily by private companies such as Facebook, who look to that data to target advertising at us as we browse their websites.  Therefore our online identities are now a valuable commodity.

   

  
   This sense of hyper-connectivity has implications across society.  Migrant communities can for instance maintain closer connections with family and friends from around the world.  People now increasingly switch between online and offline that any boundaries between the two are increasingly dissolving.

   

  
   The web allows us to find others like themselves and discuss ideas as well as promulgate misinformation, which can quickly go viral.  Therefore whilst this hyper-connectivity can be a source for good, it can also make society more volatile.

• What's Digital Law?

  ---

  Digital Law relates to crimes of stealing or causing damage to other people’s work, identity, or digital property.  
   
  • Stealing someone's identity is called identity theft. (Covered in Section #7, Digital Security.)
   
  • Stealing someone's digital property can be intellectual property theft, digital piracy, or plagiarism.
   
  • Causing damage to others would be crimes such as hacking or creating and sending viruses.

• 1. Overview/Description of the various aspects of the topic.

   

  ---

    Digital law is identified as the responsibility of being safe online and following online rules. It is basically know as the law of internet. Being able to follow the rules while using the internet. Abusing laws of the Internet can cause serious consequences. Examples of misusage are like Hacking into people’s computers, pirating software, downloading illegal music and creating viruses. Globally People consider it as " Digital Law: electronic responsibility for actions and deeds which is either ethical or unethical. Digital responsibility deals with the ethics of technology. Unethical use manifests itself in form of theft and/or crime. Ethical use manifests itself in the form of abiding by the laws of society. Students should not be able to steal or cause damage to other people’s work, identity, or property. There are certain rules of society that fall under illegal acts. These laws apply to students as well. "

• The post-millennial "digital native," a term coined by U.S. author Marc Prensky in 2001 is emerging as the globe's dominant demographic, while the "digital immigrant," becomes a relic of a previous time.

   

  The digital native-immigrant concept describes the generational switchover where people are defined by the technological culture which they're familiar with.

• A digital native can be defined as a person who was born after the introduction of digital technology. Digital Natives use online services like Facebook, YouTube, Hulu, and Twitter on various digital technologies, such as smart phones or a tablet device. Digital Natives have blended their online life with their offline life.

• igital Natives  are the generation born during or after the general introduction of digital technology. While individuals from elder generations recall organizing, planning and interacting with one another without mobile devices, computers or the Internet, Digital Natives have been using these technologies since their early years. They are the same, but different to previous generations.

   

  Digital Natives have an inherent understanding of digital technologies, as they’ve been integrated into their lives since early childhood. They are part of a tech-savvy generation at the forefront of technological progress and want to be connected when they wish, from anywhere. Now graduated from secondary education, the first generation of Digital Natives is entering the working world – and transforming it at a fast pace. Is the workplace ready to embrace this change?

• According to Prensky and others who have adopted the terms, digital immigrants who possess "accented" behavior due to their untechnologically saturated backgrounds, struggle to teach and engage with digital natives who think, learn, and respond differently than previous generations due to their immersion in technology. Digital natives are not physically or mentally wired to respond to the "old" methods of teaching but instead require new pedagogical methods and educational content which responds better to their multi-tasking, fast-downloading, hypertext-surfing ways.

• If you're reading this, and are therefore using the Internet for information or research, then you are probably a ‘digital immigrant'. Sound strange? Well, we could assume that anyone that is aged over approximately 25 years and uses the Internet on a regular basis is a digital immigrant. After all, as a general definition, you are a digital immigrant if you were not born into the ‘digital age' of computers, the Internet, email, mobile phones and the like, but have taken on these concepts as a natural part of your everyday life. Sounds like most of us out there, doesn't it.  

• In contrast, the term "digital immigrant" refers to those born before about 1964 and who grew up in a pre-computer world. The terms "digital immigrants" and "digital natives" were popularized and elaborated upon by Dr. Mark Prensky (2001) and critiqued for their validity and usefulness by Harding (2010) among others. In the most general terms, digital natives speak and breathe the language of computers and the culture of the web into which they were born, while digital immigrants will never deal with technology as naturally as those who grew up with it.

• 
  Features of a wiki:
  •  quick definition: webpage with an edit button
  •  easy to correct mistakes
  •  easy to allow people to contribute
  •  does not prevent the making of mistakes
  •  “wisdom of crowds” – collaborative (wikipedia)
  •  “notification” – asked to be notified when changes occur – that’s how stuff gets fixed in 2 minutes.
  •  web 2.0 applications work with old computers - no need to spend money on software
• 
  Features of a wiki:
  •  quick definition: webpage with an edit button
  •  easy to correct mistakes
  •  easy to allow people to contribute
  •  does not prevent the making of mistakes
  •  “wisdom of crowds” – collaborative (wikipedia)
  •  “notification” – asked to be notified when changes occur – that’s how stuff gets fixed in 2 minutes.
  •  web 2.0 applications work with old computers - no need to spend money on software
• 
  Features of a wiki:
  •  quick definition: webpage with an edit button
  •  easy to correct mistakes
  •  easy to allow people to contribute
  •  does not prevent the making of mistakes
  •  “wisdom of crowds” – collaborative (wikipedia)
  •  “notification” – asked to be notified when changes occur – that’s how stuff gets fixed in 2 minutes.
  •  web 2.0 applications work with old computers - no need to spend money on software

1 more annotation...

• A wiki is a website that any user can edit – right there live on the webpage, in real time – as well as read.  In its purest sense this means that any visitor to the site is also an author, with no technical controls on what they add or delete and no gatekeeping editorial process prior to posting; in more limited forms it means any user within a defined group who has access to the wiki – a project team working on collaborative documents, for example.