Defining Digital Literacy

For the last assignment of the first course, we were asked to define ‘digital literacy’. I came across a multitude of definitions and struggled to come up with a succinct and comprehensible one of my own. Many of the definitions I read made sense to me and trying to amalgamate the ideas that seemed most appropriate became a mammoth task.

During my reading, I came across the following presentation via an article about “Developing Digital Literacies in Practice“:

http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=oxfordtalktabethanewmanv10-090407061709-phpapp02&stripped_title=digital-literacy-literature-review-from-terminology-to-action&userName=TabethaNewman

The slideshow identifies the following comprehensive definition of digital literacy written by the DigEuLit Project (Martin 2006):

“The awareness, attitude and ability of individuals to appropriately use digital tools and facilities to identify, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, analyse and synthesise 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.”

While lengthy and loquacious, it was the only definition I could find that seemed to cover all the areas that I believe need to be incorporated in a description of what digital literacy entails. It was therefore the definition that I used in my final submission that you will find at the very end of this post.

Another point that I took from Dr. Newman’s presentation was the suggestion that any definition of digital literacy will evolve as technology evolves.  The digital world is growing every day, so it stands to reason that trying to define something that is constantly changing would prove difficult. Will Martin’s definition still be relevant in ten years time? In five? It is easy, for me, to get lost in the countless definitions of digital literacy and the enormous amount of opinions and conceptions about what it means to be digitally literate. I would love for some ‘expert’ to just hand me some clarification on a plate. A digital one, of course. But that would be too easy. Are we trying to define something that is actually impossible to specifically define? Or perhaps there should be a variety of definitions that we can make more tangible use of in schools. A set of criteria that defines a digitally literate student. A digitally literate teacher. I honestly do not know the answer, but hope to continue to deepen my understanding of the world of digital literacy through continuing my study in this area.

Now, without further ado, here is the final version of my video presentation about Digital Literacy:

#DigitalLiteracy #EducationalTechnology