The 5 Elements of Digital literacy to Focus On

What is Digital Literacy?

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According to Cornell University digital literacy happens to be the ability to find, evaluate, utilize, share, and create content using information technologies and the Internet, while Henry Jenkins as quoted on Wikipedia defines it as the Digital literacy is the ability to effectively and critically navigate, evaluate and create information using a range of digital technologies. It requires one "to recognize and use that power, to manipulate and transform digital media, to distribute pervasively, and to easily adapt them to new forms.”

The New Literacy

Many teachers now recognize digital literacy to be the number four on the list of literacies their students should have or be striving towards acquiring, as is the case. Reading, writing, and math are now followed by digital literacy.

In his dissertation on the topic Doug Belshaw identifies some of the key elements of digital literacy. Following Belshaw, it must be recognized that these elements are contextual, that is, they depend on the personal, social and cultural context within which they develop. While all graduate students will be expected to have core skills, attributes and identities, discipline-specific literacies will build upon these core elements. They provide a foundation on which more subject/discipline-specific and contextual literacies can flourish.

5 Key Elements of Digital Literacy

Doug Belshaw, in his thesis identifies eight key elements of digital literacy five of which we will elaborate here further.

• CULTURAL



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Developing the cultural component of digital literacy means that the student is able to move easily between different digital environments and use learning technologies in a variety of different contexts. For example he knows how to distinguish between using Facebook for my personal and social connections, and using it for my academic course. He or she is am also aware of the norms, values and codes that are specific to the subject at hand and how these might impact on his use of learning technologies.


• COGNITIVE
This is the need to master the ‘how-to’s of specific tools and technologies that are important for my development as a graduate, including those which are subject-specific as well as more general tools that will make the individual involved a more digitally literate person.

CREATIVE

To develop the student’s creative element he has to use digital technologies to create new things which have value to himself and others. Be prepared to take risks and to value randomness and discovery when engaging with digital technologies. Develop an understanding of the processes, procedures and systems that lie behind digital technologies rather than the specific elements of software/hardware involved.

CRITICAL

You need to be a critical user of digital technologies by becoming aware of the power structures and assumptions behind different digital tools and practices. Like, think about your audience and how they might interpret your digital texts in different ways. You also need to develop an understanding of online security, identity and data management in your own literacy practices.

CONSTRUCTIVE

Learn how to take resources and content that already exists and rearrange and recreate it in order to create something new and that adds to and benefits my learning. 

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