{"id":4059,"date":"2017-02-07T14:58:41","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T22:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/?p=4059"},"modified":"2017-02-07T22:51:18","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T06:51:18","slug":"digital-literacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachinginhighered.com\/2017\/02\/07\/digital-literacy\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Increase Our Digital Literacy Literacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As I begin to compose this blog post, my browser has more tabs open than I think I've ever had open at one time before. I've bookmarked 30+ articles about digital literacy<\/a>\u00a0the past couple of years, with each post\u00a0linking to a plethora of\u00a0additional resources on the subject. My goal in this post is to increase our literacy about the topic of digital literacy.<\/p>\n

My Quest<\/h3>\n

I want to write a post about digital literacy, as a means of recapping my conversation with Mike Caulfield<\/a> that was published last week.<\/p>\n

The Trouble<\/h3>\n

It is so challenging to even just begin by defining digital literacy, let alone to begin to discuss some of the criticisms<\/a> of the more popular publications on the topic.<\/p>\n

My Compromise<\/h3>\n

Instead of trying to give readers a thorough exploration of the topic (Mike Caulfield admitted on Twitter that his Digital Literacies: Which One?<\/a> post was initially intended to be just a few hundred words, but before he knew it, quickly grew into thousands), I'm going to introduce a few places to get started with the subject.<\/p>\n

Digital Literacy: A Definition<\/h2>\n

JISC defines digital literacy as<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Digital literacies are those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They go on to explain:<\/p>\n

Digital literacy looks beyond functional IT skills to describe a richer set of digital behaviours, practices and identities. What it means to be digitally literate changes over time and across contexts, so digital literacies are essentially a set of academic and professional situated practices supported by diverse and changing technologies. This definition quoted above can be used as a starting point to explore what key digital literacies are in a particular context eg university, college, service, department, subject area or professional environment.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lest I leave you assuming that this is the agreed-upon definition for digital literacy, there are as many definitions as there seem to be publications on the subject.\u00a0Belshaw cautions us<\/a> about the ambiguity that emerges, when we refer to digital literacy.<\/p>\n

Belshaw's TEDx talk on the essential elements of digital literacy provides a wonderful overview:
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