Context

"Digital literacy is a broad and holistic concept that embraces much more than the functional IT skills that students need to survive in a digital society. Although many students are skilled technology users, they do not usually come into further or higher education armed with all the digital competencies they need to thrive in their academic lives and in employment. This highlights a key role for universities and colleges to support students to develop differentiated, specialised and advanced digital literacy skills, above the general core entitlement that students expect" (JISC, 2014).

From this we can see that it is important not to make assumptions about the academic digital literacies of students, which are not the same as the social digital literacy skills they may have developed. This is particularly important when we are delivering eLearning. Students accessing eLearning might be assumed to have greater skills than they actually have by virtue of them accessing eLearning materials (like this MOOC). It is important to build into any eLearning, as in learning and teaching generally, ways of developing the digital literacy levels of students.

Content

We can look at digital literacies both in terms of an overview of the literacy areas students need to develop, and the stages of development to reach mastery. JISC (2014) define digital literacies as "the capabilities which fit someone for living, learning and working in a digital society". To help with thinking about this, they have outlined seven elements of digital literacy for consideration, which can be seen in the following diagram:

I have set a poll that follows this section, based on these 7 elements. This diagram makes clear the difference between those literacies that students may arrive at university with, and those they need to gain for success with their studies and in the world of employment at the end of their courses. We can embed these both formally and informally into curricula. In order to achieve this, staff need these literacies too. There is no reason why learning cannot be mutual, and there are many places experimenting with student digital champions to help peers and staff. See Southampton, Exeter, & UAL for examples.

The digital literacy movement is not the same as the digital natives/ digital immigrants debate. Firstly, many of our staff in Higher Education are themselves 'digital natives' having been brought up with digital technology, and now pursuing a career in education; secondly, many other staff who might be seen as 'digital immigrants', have been so for such a long period of time that there is no appreciable difference between them and digital natives; and lastly, that students coming into Higher Education might be digital natives but do not have academic digital literacy skills, whereas the staff facilitating their learning do.

Digital literacy is also not the same as Digitally Enhanced Learning & Teaching (DELT), since DELT is an extension of learning and teaching which leverages technology, and does not necessarily or implicitly include or improve digital literacies.

As well as the 7 elements described in the diagram above, we can look at the development of digital literacies using a developmental framework (Sharpe & Beetham, 2010):

One of the key literacies is the management of online identity and the projection of your digital 'self'. We explore this in the discussion this week.

References & Reading

JISC (2014) Quick guide - Developing students’ digital literacy [WWW] http://digitalcapability.jiscinvolve.org/wp/files/2014/09/JISC_REPORT_Digital_Literacies_280714_PRINT.pdf

Sharpe, R. & Beetham, H. (2010). Understanding students' uses of technology for learning: towards creative appropriation. In R. Sharpe, H. Beetham & S. De Freitas (Eds.), Rethinking Learning for a Digital Age: How learners are shaping their own experiences (pp. 85-99). London and New York: Routledge.

Sharpe, R. & Beetham, H. (2016) Developing Learners for a digital age [WWW] http://dlf.brookesblogs.net/