• 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 ability to use digital technology, communication tools or networks to locate, evaluate, use and create information.  ¹ 
   
  •  The ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers.  ² 
   
  •  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.  ³ 
   
   

  What is a Digital Learning Librarian?

• Digital Literacy is...

   

    Digital literacy is the ability to find, evaluate, utilize, share, and create content using information technologies and the Internet. As a Cornell student, activities including writing papers, creating multimedia presentations, and posting information about yourself or others online are all a part of your day-to-day life, and all of these activities require varying degrees of digital literacy. Is simply knowing how to do these things enough? No—there’s more to it than that.

• The digital society is here, 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. 

• A digital citizen is one who knows what is right and wrong, exhibits intelligent technology behavior, and makes good choices when using technology. To understand the complexity of digital citizenship and the issues of technology use, abuse, and misuse, Mark Ribble had identified nine elements that together make up digital citizenship, which can be grouped into three categories. They are:
                                                                                                                           

  			Digital Rights and Responsibilities the privileges and freedoms extended to all digital technology users, and the behavioral expectations that come with them
  			Digital Communication   the electronic exchange of information
  			Digital Access   full electronic participation in society
  			Digital Etiquette   the standards of conduct expected by other digital technology users
  			Digital Security   the precautions that all technology users must take to guarantee their personal safety and the security of their network
  			Digital Literacy   the capability to use digital technology and knowing when and how to use it
  			Digital Law   the legal rights and restrictions governing technology use
  			Digital Health and Wellness   the elements of physical and psychological well-being related to digital technology use
  			Digital Commerce   the buying and selling of goods online

• Digital citizenship is usually defined as the "norms of behavior with regard to technology use." It encompasses digital literacy, ethics, etiquette, online safety, norms, rights, culture and more.
• Managing your online behavior and monitoring your reputation are important elements of good digital citizenship

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• Digital Identity and Reputation Management consists of the ongoing monitoring and analysis of the online reputation for a brand or individual as represented by all media types across the Social Web.

    

  Your reputation reflects how trustworthy your brand is. Managing your online reputation starts with a transparent Digital Identity that enables you to earn trust and build connections.    Anonymity is no longer an option for those trying to create Social Capital in the networked world.

• "As other users interact with an established online identity, it acquires a reputation, which enables them to decide whether the identity is worthy of trust." ^[1]

   

  Wikipedia

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• Digital Identity has been described as "the sum of all digitally available information about an individual." It's your digital footprint—your life in updates, photos, comments, pins, blog posts and other online interactions.

• The combined advent of the social Web and mobile technology has resulted in an historic change in how people communicate. We are increasingly living and sharing our lives online by telling the world where we are, what we are doing and what we are thinking. And in doing so we are creating a detailed digital footprint, a digital identity, a story.

   

  With increasing choices for connecting, consuming and sharing information your Digital Identity is arguably your most important asset.

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• Digital identity—the sum of all digitally available information about an individual—offers enormous potential value. Applications leveraging personal data can boost efficiency, focus research and marketing, and spur the creation of personalized products and services. But to unlock its full value, organizations must embrace responsibility, transparency, and user control.

• Secure protection of digital identities, assets, and   transactions is vital for individuals, enterprises and public sector   organizations. The technology must be both trustworthy and easy to use, so   that users can enjoy their interactions in confidence.

   

  So we define Digital Security as those solutions that protect and enhance   digital identities, assets and interactions, based on a combination of   secure personal devices, software platforms, and services.

• Digital Safety and Security (self-protection): this issue relates to a person's well-being and safety online, technically meaning on the computer and on the internet. Also what precautions could be taken to prevent one from any possible dangers on the internet. The internet is open to everyone, those who are friendly and innocent and others who's intentions are not as clear. As all people, whom ever they may be can access a site or blog online, there really is a limited amount of things that are viewed as acceptable online. Most of us today consider being safe as surrounding yourself with others, locking your doors at night, keeping treasured items in safes, however when it comes to being safe online these things are not available, and so one protects themselves by remembering to not share all their personal information such as their whereabouts and phone numbers. By following only the guidelines above and possibly a few more, each one of us can be digital citizens.
  

• Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.
• It entails the examination of those structures or elements of thought implicit in all reasoning: purpose, problem, or question-at-issue; assumptions; concepts; empirical grounding; reasoning leading to conclusions; implications and consequences; objections from alternative viewpoints; and frame of reference. Critical thinking — in being responsive to variable subject matter, issues, and purposes — is incorporated in a family of interwoven modes of thinking, among them: scientific thinking, mathematical thinking, historical thinking, anthropological thinking, economic thinking, moral thinking, and philosophical thinking.

• Critical thinking helps you step back, examine your thought processes and make them more effective. You’ll ask the right questions, challenge presumptions and see others’ viewpoints with clarity. Business leaders agree it’s the only way to think at work—because it helps you get the best possible results.

• Critical thinking depends on knowing relevant content very well and thinking about it, repeatedly
• In layperson's terms, critical thinking consists of seeing both sides of an issue, being open to new evidence that disconfirms your ideas, reasoning dispassionately, demanding that claims be backed by evidence, deducing and inferring conclusions from available facts, solving problems, and so forth.

• At UNC, plagiarism is defined as “the deliberate or reckless representation of another’s words, thoughts, or ideas as one’s own without attribution in connection with submission of academic work, whether graded or otherwise.
• All knowledge is built from previous knowledge. As we read, study, perform experiments, and gather perspectives, we are drawing on other people’s ideas. Building on their ideas and experiences, we create our own. When you put your ideas on paper, your instructors want to distinguish between the building block ideas borrowed from other people and your own newly reasoned perspectives or conclusions. You make these distinctions in a written paper by citing the sources for your building block ideas. Providing appropriate citations will also help readers who are interested in your topic find additional, related material to read—in this way, they will be able to build on the work you have done to find sources.

• In college courses, we are continually engaged with other people’s   ideas: we read them in texts, hear them in lecture, discuss them in class,   and incorporate them into our own writing. As a result, it is very important   that we give credit where it is due. Plagiarism is using others’   ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information.

   

  How Can Students Avoid Plagiarism?

   

  To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use

   
   
  • another person’s idea, opinion, or theory;
   
  • any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings—any pieces of information—that   are not common knowledge;
   
  • quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words;   or
   
  • paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written words.

• Research-based writing in American institutions, both educational and corporate, is filled with rules that writers, particularly beginners, aren't aware of or don't know how to follow. Many of these rules have to do with research and proper citation. Gaining familiarity with these rules, however, is critically important, as inadvertent mistakes can lead to charges of plagiarism, which is the uncredited use (both intentional and unintentional) of somebody else's words or ideas.

   

  While some rhetorical traditions may not insist so heavily on documenting sources of words, ideas, images, sounds, etc., American academic rhetorical tradition does. A charge of plagiarism can have severe consequences, including expulsion from a university or loss of a job, not to mention a writer's loss of credibility and professional standing.

•  The definition of digital rights and responsibilities is having the right and freedom to use all types of digital technology while using the technology in an acceptable and appropriate manner. As a user of digital technology, you also have the right to privacy and the freedom of personal expression.