cyber literacy essay

Chapter 1: Introduction to Digital Literacy

Cheryl Brown

In this chapter, you will be introduced to the concept of digital literacy  and what new skills are needed in order to engage with the digital world responsibly and effectively. Drawing on your own digital experiences you will think about your digital literacy and digital footprint, developing positive strategies to proactively take control of your own digital identity.

Chapter Topics

Introduction.

• Taking Stock of Your Digital self

What is Digital Literacy?

Why is digital literacy important, improving your digital literacy: becoming a digital citizen.

Learning Objectives

After completing this chapter you should be able to:

• Describe the ways you use technology in your personal life and for learning
• Compare the different ways digital literacy has been referred to by scholars
• Examine how digital literacy differs between people based on the context in which they live and learn and the way they use technology
• Use a basic framework to assess your own digital literacy
• Reflect on your digital footprint
• Develop strategies to control your own digital identity

As digital technology has become more common, affordable, and portable, more and more people from all parts of society are starting to increase their online and digital participation. Understanding the new opportunities, rules, and potential pitfalls of the digital world doesn’t necessarily come automatically with long-term use. Not everyone using digital technology knows how to handle the range of available tools to their best extent, and even experienced digital technology users can fall prey to hackers, lose control of how they are represented online, or otherwise fail to maintain their digital identity in an optimal manner.

Digital literacy is a relatively new concept that emerged in the 1990s during the era of the Internet revolution. Before that, people talked more about “computer literacy.” But in 1997, Paul Gilster, a historian and educator first coined the term “digital literacy,” arguing that digital literacy went beyond just skills in using technology. He said it is about “mastering ideas, not [computer] keystrokes” (Gilster, 1997, p. 1).

Gilster (1997) further defined digital literacy as “the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers” (p. 1). For him, digital literacy involves the ability to critically evaluate information (presented in different formats) and make decisions about how to use this information in different real-life contexts.

By the end of this chapter you will be able to define the concept of digital literacy and its many different components, reflect on your own digital literacy, engage with the digital world responsibly, and be empowered as a digital citizen capable of helping others learn and develop their role in the digital world.

Taking Stock of Your Digital Self

You probably already use a range of technologies and digital tools in different aspects of your life. You might use mobile technologies, like a phone or tablet, to download materials or information from the Internet, or you may use them to communicate with friends and family. You may use information and communication technologies (ICT) mainly for work or for learning, or you might use it primarily for entertainment. In reality, people often use different technologies and tools for a mixture of purposes.

Activity 1.1: Thinking About Your Digital Self

Think about all the ways you use technology in your personal life (e.g. for entertainment, shopping, sharing photos, communicating with people, etc). Who do you interact with digitally, and how do you do this (i.e., what applications/websites do you use and for which purpose)? Now think about yourself as a student and the ways you use technology for learning?

Make a list or draw a diagram of your activities, noting the groups or networks you interact with digitally and thinking about how you use digital technology in the various spheres of your life.

You might like to try doing this digitally using this editable mind map about digital footprints on creatly.com or by making a drawing of your digital self on paper.

The Concept of Literacy

Let’s first start with “What is literacy?” Dictionaries define literacy as the ability to read and write. Within education, literacy is understood as the ability to read, write, and use arithmetic; the emphasis is on proficiency with language and numeracy.

It is important to pause and note that the term literacy has always held a degree of status. Globally, countries are often ranked in terms of literacy rates, compared by what percent of the adult population can read and write, for example. There is more complexity to the terms literate or illiterate, however, and a lot depends on context. “New literacy studies” view literacy as a situated practice; as in it all depends on where you come from and what your purpose is.

Activity 1.2: How is literacy depicted on the Internet?

Use a common search engine like Google and type the term “literacy” into the search bar. Select the option to view the results as images and scroll through the visual depictions of literacy. What do these images depict about the concept of literacy?

Much of what you find in your search will probably suggest a relationship between literacy and words. This may be attributed to the fact that the concept has traditionally been associated with language—i.e., alphabetic literacy. In popular use, the word literacy has increasingly become a synonym for skill, competence, and proficiency—for example, emotional literacy and spiritual literacy, etc.

Whatever your view of the word literacy, what is less questioned is the relationship between literacy and technology. Until quite recently, literacy has, for the most part, been associated with print technology. The increasingly important role that digital technology has taken in shaping our world has led to another defining moment in the evolution of literacy.

The Concept of Digital

So what is digital? When you thought about your digital self  in Activity 1.1, you probably thought about the digital tools and technologies that are available to you. For example: “Oh, I use text messaging on my cell phone to communicate with friends.” Or: “I use email at university on my laptop or in the computer lab to communicate with faculty.” But the digital part (just like literacy) depends on context. The technology that you use and may even take for granted is not the same technology that your grandparents use or that students in another country use. This is why the concept of digital literacy is more often now referred to as digital literacies as a plural, acknowledging the variability of what is both available and relevant.

Digital Literacy

Since the pioneering introduction of computers into education in the 1960s , four key concepts that have dominated the literature on literacies related to digital technology include: information literacy, media literacy, computer literacy, and digital literacy (Brown, Czerniewicz, Huang & Mayisela, 2016). These four literacies are not competing, but in fact are necessary components of what it means to be literate in the twenty-first century. The table below presents an outline of the different terms and how they intersect:

The concept of digital literacy only started to gain attention in the last decade. Initially digital literacy was viewed primarily as the functional skills and competencies that people needed in order to use computers and the Internet. However in the last decade this has been expanded to consider the broader capacity needed to participate in a digital environment. UNESCO (2011) views digital literacy as a life skill that not only increases employability, but serves as a catalyst that “enables the acquisition of other important life skills” (p. 1).

The view of digital literacy offered by Jisc (2015) is even more comprehensive, defining digital literacy as “the capabilities which fit someone for living, learning and working in a digital society” (para. 3).  The capabilities outlined by Jisc :

• information, media, data literacy (critical use);
• digital creation, scholarship and innovation (creative production);
• digital communication, collaboration and participation (participating);
• digital learning and personal/professional development (learning); and
• digital identity and wellbeing (self-actualising).

(JISC, 2015)

Beyond functional and critical skills, the definitions and digital capabilities  identified here propose a particular mindset, a way of being. In particular, the last three capabilities outlined—the abilities to engage in participatory culture, to be a lifelong learner, and to manage a professional digital identity—render digital literacy remarkably different from the initial views of digital literacy simply as mastery of technical skills.

You might be familiar with the concept of a “ digital native ” or the “ net generation .” These terms refer to the idea that a person who has been born or brought up during the age of digital technology will be familiar with computers and the Internet from an early age.

Activity 1.3: Generational View of Digital Natives

There are many cartoons online that comment on the amusing side of this concept. Do a search on Google (or your favourite search engine) for “digital native” a cartoon. You might see images of kids looking at a book with shock and asking each other, “Where is the ‘on’ button?” Or you might see a child returning home from school walking right past their parent exclaiming, “How do you think it was? They didn’t even have Wi-Fi!”

In fact, this generational desire to be constantly connected has even been inserted into Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as the ultimate foundation of basic human needs. This psychological model is depicted as a pyramid with people’s basic survival needs as its foundation which need to be satisfied before people can realise their full potential (Figure 1.3).

However, there has been a lot of criticism about the concept of the digital native because it assumes many things, not least that somehow all young people have access to technology, that older people don’t have the same level of digital literacy as younger people, and that having access to technology automatically means you know how to use it.

So if young people are so adept at using digital technologies, why do they (and perhaps you for that matter) need to improve their digital literacy?

There are many answers, and hopefully this introduction has already hinted at some of them. One is that it’s not enough in this globally connected world to just be able to use technology. You need to be able to develop socially responsible digital practices and also to contribute to digital practices in your own personal, work, and learning lives.

One way of visualizing this is Sharpe and Beetham’s (2010) digital literacy development model (see Figure 1.4).

The pyramid represents a cyclical process for developing digital literacy skills. At the base of the pyramid is awareness of technology and access to it. However, just because you have a piece of hardware or software doesn’t mean you have the ability to use it effectively. As you spend more time using technology, you become more confident in your technical, information, communication, and learning skills. You can then begin to apply those skills to make informed decisions and choices about how to use different technologies. As you move through the cycle, your experiences and practices contribute to the formation of your digital identity, while your identity informs your practices and drives the creative and appropriate use of technology.

This book is aimed at helping you develop your digital literacy in a range of areas in order to become a digital citizen.

Activity 1.4: How digitally literate are you?

Why not take stock of where you are right now. How digitally literate are you, and do you know what that means?

Download this model of the digital literacy development framework and complete it while thinking about your access, skills, practices and identities. This will help you take stock of where you are now and help you focus on where you want to develop.

Explore Your Digital Identity

Digital identity refers to your “online self,” the side of you that people see on the Internet. We all have different identities in different contexts and one of the things about being a digital citizen is the ability to control the representation of yourself in the online environment.

Activity 1.5: How do others see you online?

Search for references to yourself on the Internet by looking up your name using your preferred search engine. What do you have to type in to find the “real you” and not either someone else with the same name or a one-dimensional representation of you? Is this an accurate representation of who you are, what your interests are, what you find interesting, and what you share with others online?

Once you’ve reviewed your search results, have a look at this TedX talk “ What Do Your Digital Footprints Say About You? ” by digital education and social media expert Nicola Osbourne.

Were you happy with the results of the search in Activity 1.5? Is there something you would like to change? One of the problems with information online is that once it is there, it is often very difficult to delete. Being aware of what you share online is a very important digital skill.

Using the image below (Figure 1.5), reflect on your digital footprint . Decide on some SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound), and identify how you want the virtual “you” to look to the various people who might see you online: friends, family (including your grandmother!), teachers and professors, coaches, neighbours, potential employers, potential dates, or complete strangers.

This book is aimed at helping you develop your digital literacy in a range of areas in order to become a better digital citizen. By the end of this book, you will be able to more effectively and responsibly:

• Engage in digital practices.
• Critically evaluate information, online interactions, and online tools.
• Manage and communicate information.
• Collaborate and share digital content.

Brown, C., Czerniewicz., L., Huang, C-W., & Mayisela., T. (2016). Curriculum for digital education leadership: A concept paper. Burnaby, BC: Commonwealth of Learning. Retrieved from http://oasis.col.org/handle/ 11599/2442

European Commission (2007). A European approach to media literacy in the digital environment. Retrieved from http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM%3A2007%3A0833%3AFIN%3AEN%3APDF

Gilster, P. (1997). Digital Literacy . New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

JISC. (2015). Developing students’ digital literacy. Retrieved from https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developing-students-digital-literacy

Sharpe, R. & Beetham, H. (2010) Understanding students’ uses of technology for learning: Towards creative appropriation. In R. Sharpe, H. Beetham and S. de Freitas (Eds.) Rethinking learning for a digital age: how learners shape their experiences , (pp. 85-99). Routledge Falmer, London and New York. Retrieved from   https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/ radar/items/4887c90b-adc6- db4f-397f-ea61e53739e0/1/

UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education. (2011, May). Digital literacy in education policy brief . Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002144/214485e.pdf

Media Attributions

• Chapter 1 header image © Kaitlyn Baker
• Figure 1.3 © Duncan Hull is licensed under a CC BY (Attribution) license
• Figure 1.4 © Rhona Sharpe & Helen Beetham
• Figure 1.5 © Nicola Pallitt is licensed under a CC BY-SA (Attribution ShareAlike) license

The ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers

The way you use the range of technologies and digital tools you use in different aspects of your life

Those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society

The idea that a person who has been born or brought up during the age of digital technology will be familiar with computers and the Internet from an early age.

Refers to your “online self”, the electronic representation of who you are.

The trail of ‘electronic breadcrumbs’ you leave behind you as you use the internet both intentionally but also unintentionally.

Goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Digital Citizenship Toolkit Copyright © by Cheryl Brown is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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What is Cyber Literacy and Why is it Important?

While the word “literacy” alone generally refers to reading and writing skills, when you add on the word “cyber” before it, the term encompasses much, much more. By definition, Cyber Literacy means the ability to use computer technologies effectively and to simultaneously understand the implications of those actions. It is also important to know where to go to find reliable and accurate resources in cyberspace, otherwise known as cyber intelligence. The word understanding is key here, as it goes beyond knowing how to use the technology but to have a consciousness of one’s actions.

So, what is so important about Cyber Literacy?

Actually, quite a lot. You see, just like we use money every single day and should understand those Financial Literacy components, we need to understand the computers we use daily and use that knowledge to protect your data, find information faster, avoid phishing and much more. Recently, a Tenable survey showed that, although virtually all respondents had heard about data breaches, many have failed to change their security habits. This could stem from ignorance, denial or a misunderstanding of their role in protecting data.

The survey also found that only about one-quarter of employees use multifactor authentication (MFA) , and just one-third have reduced their use of open Wi-Fi hotspots as a result of stories describing security compromises. In addition, 45 percent of respondents use a personal identification number (PIN) to lock their laptops and other mobile devices, and 19 percent use some form of biometric tools such as fingerprint or facial recognition. This is alarming because most of these activities, like the cyber literacy discussion itself, have been around for decades.

Understanding the cyber terminology, threats and opportunities is critical for our future managers, law enforcers, business professionals and leaders. As our society becomes more digital, so do our assets. So, whether you’re safe guarding your own personal information (social security numbers, credit card information) or your company’s (client data, confidential information), you should be doing all you can to maintain your understanding of cyber protection and intelligence. We are in the business of building cyber leaders of tomorrow, if you’re interested in learning more about our cyber literacy programs at Cybint, please visit here .

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7 Digital literacies and the skills of the digital age

Cathy L. Green, Oklahoma State University

Oklahoma State University

Abstract – This chapter is intended to provide a framework and understanding of digital literacy, what it is and why it is important. The following pages explore the roots of digital literacy, its relationship to language literacy and its role in 21 st century life.

Introduction

Unlike previous generations, learning in the digital age is marked by the use of rapidly evolving technology, a deluge of information and a highly networked global community (Dede, 2010). In such a dynamic environment, learners need skills beyond the basic cognitive ability to consume and process language. In other words: To understand what the characteristics of the digital age, and of digital learners, means for how people learn in this new and changing landscape, one may turn to the evolving discussion of literacy or, as one might say now, of digital literacy. The history of literacy contextualizes digital literacy and illustrates changes in literacy over time. By looking at literacy as a historical phenomenon, the characteristics of which have evolved over time, we can glean the fundamental characteristics of the digital age. Those characteristics in turn illuminate the skills needed in order to take advantage of digital environments. The following discussion is an overview of digital literacy, its essential components and why it is important for learning in a digital age.

Moving from Literacy to Digital Literacy

Literacy refers to the ability of people to read and write (UNESCO, 2017). Reading and writing then, is about encoding and decoding information between written symbols and sound (Resnick, 1983; Tyner, 1998). More specifically, literacy is the ability to understand the relationship between sounds and written words such that one may read, say and understand them (UNESCO, 2004; Vlieghe, 2015). Literacy is often considered a skill or competency and is often referred to as such. Children and adults alike can spend years developing the appropriate skills for encoding and decoding information.

Over the course of thousands of years, literacy has become much more common and widespread with a global literacy rate ranging from 81% to 90% depending on age and gender (UNESCO, 2016). From a time when literacy was the domain of an elite few, it has grown to include huge swaths of the global population. There are a number of reasons for this, not the least of which are some of the advantages the written word can provide. Kaestle, (1985) tells us that “literacy makes it possible to preserve information as a snapshot in time, allows for recording, tracking and remembering information, and sharing information more easily across distances among others” (p. 16). In short, literacy led “to the replacement of myth by history and the replacement of magic by skepticism and science. Writing allowed bureaucracy, accounting, and legal systems with universal rules and has replaced face-to-face governance with depersonalized administration” (Kaestle, 1985, p. 16). This is not to place a value judgement on the characteristics of literacy but rather to explain some of the many reasons why it spread.

There are, however, other reasons for the spread of literacy. In England, throughout the middle ages literacy grew in part, because people who acquired literacy skills were able to parlay those skills into work with more pay and social advantages (Clanchy, 1983). The great revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries also relied on leaders who could write and compatriots who could read as a way to spread new ideas beyond the street corners and public gatherings of Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. Literacy was perceived as necessary for spreading information to large numbers of people. In the 1970’s Paulo Freire insisted that literacy was vital for people to participate in their own governance and civic life (Tyner, 1998). His classic “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” begins from the premise that bringing the traditional illiterate and uneducated into learning situations as partners with their teachers awakens the critical conscience necessary as a foundation for action to foment change (Freire, 1973). UNESCO (2004) also acknowledges the role that literacy plays in enabling populations to effect change and achieve social justice aims. They speak even more broadly, moving beyond the conditions necessary for revolution, contending that literacy is a fundamental right of every human being, providing employment opportunities, and the fundamental skills necessary to accrue greater wealth and improve one’s quality of life.

Although the benefits of literacy were a driving force in its spread, technological advances also enabled the spread of literacy to greater and greater numbers of people. From stamped tokens, tally sticks and clay tablets, to ancient scrolls, handwritten volumes, the printing press, typewriters, and finally computers, technology is largely responsible for driving the evolution of literacy into the particular forms of encoding and decoding information associated with the digital age. Technology has made it possible for literacy to move from the hands of the few to the hands of the masses and to morph into a digital environment with characteristics extending far beyond anything that has been seen before.

Not only did computers and electronic technology deliver literacy into the hands of many but also created an environment that made it possible to store vast amounts of information. Books and libraries led the way to making information easily available to the public, but within the age of computers and the internet the volume of accessible information is larger than ever, more readily available than ever, and changing more quickly than ever before. In the early 21st century, technology continues to develop more quickly than at any time in the past creating an environment that is constantly changing. These changes contribute to the need for different skills beyond traditional literacy skills also called new media literacy (Jenkins, 2018). For a short video on the reasons why digital literacy is important visit “ The New Media Literacies ” located on YouTube.com and created by the research team at Project New Media Literacies.

Literacy in the Digital Age

If literacy involves the skills of reading and writing, digital literacy requires the ability to extend those skills in order to effectively take advantage of the digital world (ALA, 2013). More general definitions express digital literacy as the ability to read and understand information from digital sources as well as to create information in various digital formats (Bawden, 2008; Gilster, 1997; Tyner, 1998; UNESCO, 2004). Developing digital skills allows digital learners to manage a vast array of rapidly changing information and is key to both learning and working in an evolving digital landscape (Dede, 2010; Koltay, 2011; Mohammadyari & Singh, 2015). As such, it is important for people to develop certain competencies specifically for handling digital content.

People who adapt well to the digital world exhibit characteristics enabling them to develop and maintain digital literacy skills. Lifelong learning is a key characteristic necessary for handling rapid changes in technology and information and thus, critical to digital literacy. Successful digital learners have a high level of self-motivation, a desire for active modes of learning and they exercise the ability to learn how to learn. Maintaining and learning new technical skills also benefits learners in the digital age and an attitude of exploration and play will help learners stay engaged and energized in a world where speed of change and volume of information could otherwise become overwhelming (Dede, 2010; Jenkins, 2018; Visser, 2012). A final characteristic of a digital learner includes the ability to engage in a global network with a greater awareness of one’s place and audience in that network. Together, these characteristics of the digital age guide us in understanding what traits a learner will require to be successful in the digital environment. The following section will help understand what lies at the intersection of digital skills and traits of successful digital learners by reviewing existing digital literacy frameworks.

Reviewing Existing Frameworks for Digital Literacy/ies

Digital literacy is alternately described as complicated, confusing, too broad to be meaningful and always changing (Heitin, 2016; Pangrazio, 2014; Tyner, 1998; Williams, 2006). Due to this confusion, some feel it best to completely avoid the term digital literacy altogether and instead opt for the terms such as digital competencies (Buckingham, 2006), 21st century skills (Williamson, 2011) or digital skills (Heitin, 2016). Another way to sort out the confusion is to look at digital literacy as multiple literacies (Buckingham, 2006; Lankshear & Knobel, 2008; UNESCO, 2004)

Here, I take the latter approach and look at digital literacy as a collection of literacies each of which play a significant role in learning in a digital world. Ng (2012), operationalizes digital literacy as a framework of multiple, specific competencies which, when combined, form a cohesive collection of skills. By taking this approach, we link the characteristics of the digital environment as well as those of the digital learner not to a single digital skill but rather a set of digital literacy practices. In this way, we can consider the various skills needed to navigate the digital world in an organized and consistent manner.

Ng (2012) proposes a three-part schema for discussing the overlapping functional characteristics of a digitally competent person: technical, cognitive, and social (see Figure 1).

Technical literacy, also referred to as operational literacy, refers to the mastery of technical skills and tasks required to access and work with digital technology such as how to operate a computer; use a mouse and keyboard; open software; cut, copy and paste data and files, acquire an internet connection and so on (Lankshear & Knobel, 2008). The cognitive area of digital literacy focuses on activities such as critical thinking, problem solving and decision making (Williamson, 2011) and includes the ability to “evaluate and apply new knowledge gained from digital environments”(Jones-Kavalier & Flannigan, 2006, p. 5). The third of Ng’s three categories – social literacies – covers a wide range of activities which together constitute the ability to communicate in a digital environment both socially and professionally, understand cyber security, follow “netiquette” protocols, and navigate discussions with care so as not to misrepresent or create misunderstandings (Ng, 2012). Of particular note, Ng captures the essence of digital literacy by showing how digital literacy exists at the intersection of the technical, cognitive and social aspects of literacy which are referred to as dimensions. Ng’s framework is not, however, a digital literacy framework itself. Instead it provides a vehicle for exploring the various components of digital literacy at a conceptual level while remaining clear that the individual skills are at all times connected to and dependent upon each other.

There are a number of organizations that publish their own framework for digital literacies including the International Society for Technology in Education ICT Skills (ISTE), the American Association of College and Universities (AACU), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the American Library Association (ALA), and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills among others (Dede, 2010). The digital frameworks exhibit many similarities, and a few differences. There are some differences in the terminology and organization of these frameworks, but they all include similar skills. What follows is a brief overview of the different digital frameworks. See Figure 2 for a composite of these frameworks.

Figure 2. Major Frameworks for 21st Century Skills (American Library Association, 2013; Dede, 2010; SCONUL, 2016; Vockley & Lang, 2008)

Each of the frameworks come from a slightly different angle and will at times reflect the background from which they come. The American Library Association (ALA) framework evolved out of the information literacy tradition of libraries, while the American Association of College and Universities (AACU) and the Society of College and University Libraries (SOCNUL) evolved from higher education perspective, the Partnership for 21st century learning addresses K-12 education, and the ISTE is steeped in a more technical tradition. Even with these different areas of focus the components of each framework are strikingly similar although some in more detail than others. Three of the six specifically address the skills necessary for accessing, searching and finding information in a digital environment while the other three have broader categories in which one might expect to find these skills including, research and information fluency, intellectual skills, and ICT literacy. Cognitive skills required for digital literacy are also covered by all of the frameworks in varying degrees of specificity. Among them one will find references to evaluating, understanding, creating, integrating, synthesizing, creativity and innovation. Finally, four of the six digital frameworks pay homage to the necessity of solid communication skills. They are in turn, referred to as life skills, personal and social responsibility, communication, collaboration, digital citizenship and collective intelligence.

What seems oddly missing from this list of skills is the technical component which only appears explicitly in the ISTE list of skills. The partnership for 21st century learning uses ICT literacy as a designation for the ability to use technology and the ALA, in discussing its framework, makes it clear that technical proficiency is a foundational requirement for digital literacy skills. Even with these references to technical skills the digital literacy frameworks are overwhelmingly partial to the cognitive and social focus of digital skills and technical proficiency tends to be glossed over compared to the other dimensions. Even though technical skills receive relatively little attention by comparison we will assume for this discussion, technical skills are a prerequisite to the other digital skills, and we will look more carefully at each of them in the next section.

To fully understand the many digital literacies, we will use the ALA framework as a point of reference for further discussion using the other frameworks and other materials to further elucidate each skill area. The ALA framework is laid out in terms of basic functions with enough specificity to make it easy to understand and remember but broad enough to cover a wide range of skills. The ALA framework includes the following areas:

• Understanding,
• Evaluating,
• Creating, and
• Communicating (American Library Association, 2013).

Finding information in a digital environment represents a significant departure from the way human beings have searched for information for centuries. The learner must abandon older linear or sequential approaches to finding information such as reading a book, using a card catalog, index or table of contents and instead use lateral approaches like natural language searches, hypermedia text, keywords, search engines, online databases and so on (Dede, 2010; Eshet, 2002). The shift from sequential to lateral involves developing the ability to construct meaningful search parameters (SCONUL, 2016) whereas before, finding the information would have meant simply looking up page numbers based on an index or sorting through a card catalog. Although finding information may depend to some degree on the search tool being used (library, internet search engine, online database, etc.) the search results also depend on how well a person is able to generate appropriate keywords and construct useful Boolean searches. Failure in these two areas could easily return too many results to be helpful, vague or generic results, or potentially no useful results at all (Hangen, 2015).

Not immediately obvious, but part of the challenge of finding information is the ability to manage the results. Because there is so much data, changing so quickly, in so many different formats it can be challenging to organize and store it in such a way as to be useful. SCONUL (2016) talks about this as the ability to organize, store, manage and cite digital resources while the Educational Testing Service also specifically mentions the skills to access and manage information. Some ways to accomplish these tasks is through the use of social bookmarking tools such as Diigo, clipping and organizing software such as Evernote and OneNote, and bibliographic software. Many sites, such as YouTube allow individuals with an account to bookmark videos as well as create channels or collections of videos for specific topics or uses. Other websites have similar features.

Understanding

Understanding in the context of digital literacy perhaps most closely resembles traditional literacy in so much as it too, is the ability to read and interpret text (Jones-Kavalier & Flannigan, 2006). In the digital age, however, the ability to read and understand extends much further than text alone. For example, searches may return results with any combination of text, video, sound, and audio as well as still and moving pictures. As the internet has evolved, there have evolved a whole host of visual languages such as moving images, emoticons, icons, data visualizations, videos and combinations of all of the above. Lankshear & Knoble, (2008) refer to these modes of communication as “post typographic textual practice”. Understanding the variety of modes of digital material may also be referred to as multimedia literacy (Jones-Kavalier & Flannigan, 2006), visual literacy (Tyner, 1998), and digital literacy (Buckingham, 2006).

Evaluating digital media requires competencies ranging from evaluating the importance of a piece of information to determine its accuracy and its source. Evaluating information is not new to the digital age, but the nature of digital information can make it more difficult to understand who the source of information is and whether it can be trusted (Jenkins, 2018). When there is abundant and rapidly changing data across heavily populated networks, anyone with access can generate information online, making decisions about its authenticity, trustworthiness, relevance, and significance daunting. Learning evaluative digital skills means learning to ask questions about who is writing the information, why they are writing it, and who the intended audience is (Buckingham, 2006). Developing critical thinking skills is part of the literacy of evaluating and assessing the suitability for the use of a specific piece of information (SCONUL, 2016).

Looking for secondary sources of information can help confirm the authenticity and accuracy of online data and researching the credentials and affiliations of the author is another way to find out more about whether an article is trustworthy or valid. One may find other places the author has been published and verify they are legitimate. Sometimes one may be able to review affiliated organizations to attest to the expertise of the author such finding out where an employee works if they are a member of a professional organization or a leading researcher in a given field. All of these provide essential clues for use in evaluating information online.

Creating in the digital world makes explicit the production of knowledge and ideas in digital formats. While writing is a critical component of traditional literacy, it is not the only creative tool in the digital toolbox. Other tools are available and include creative activities such as podcasting, making audio-visual presentations, building data visualizations, 3D printing, writing blogs and new tools that haven’t even been thought of yet. In short, all formats in which digital information may be consumed, a digitally literate individual will also want to be able to use in the creation of a product. A key component of creating with digital tools is understanding what constitutes fair use and what is considered plagiarism. While this is not new to the digital age, it may be more challenging to find the line between copying and extending someone else’s work.

In part, the reason for the increased difficulty of finding the line between plagiarism and new work is the “cut and paste culture” of the internet referred to as “reproduction literacy” (Eshet 2002, p.4) also referred to as appropriation in Jenkins’ New Media Literacies (Jenkins, 2018). The question is, what can one change and how much can one change work without being considered copying? This skill requires the ability to think critically, evaluate a work and make appropriate decisions. There are tools and information to help understand and find those answers such as the creative commons. Learning about these resources and learning how to use them is part of this digital literacy.

Communicating

Communicating is the final category of digital skills in the ALA digital framework. The capacity to connect with individuals all over the world creates unique opportunities for learning and sharing information for which developing digital communication skills is vital. Some of the skills required for communicating in a digital environment include digital citizenship, collaboration, and cultural awareness. This is not to say that one does not need to develop communication skills outside of the digital environment but that the skills required for digital communication go beyond what is required in a non-digital environment. Most of us are adept at personal, face to face communication but digital communication needs the ability to engage in asynchronous environments such as email, online forums, blogs and social media platforms where what we say can’t always be deleted but can be easily misinterpreted. Add that to an environment where people number in the millions and the opportunities for misunderstandings and cultural miscues are much more likely.

The communication category of digital literacies covers an extensive array of skills above and beyond what one might need for face to face interactions. It includes competencies around ethical and moral behavior, responsible communication for engagement in social and civic activities (Adam Becker et al., 2017), an awareness of audience and an ability to evaluate the potential impact of one’s actions online. It also includes skills for handling privacy and security in online environments. These activities fall into two main categories of activity including digital citizenship and collaboration.

Digital citizenship refers to one’s ability to interact effectively in the digital world. Part of this skill is good manners, often referred to as “netiquette. There is a level of context which is often missing in digital communication due to physical distance, lack of personal familiarity with people online and the sheer volume of people who may come in contact with our words. People who know us well may understand exactly what we mean when we say something sarcastic or ironic, but those and other vocal and facial cues are missing in most digital communication making it more likely we will be misunderstood. Also, we are also more likely to misunderstand or be misunderstood if we remain unaware of cultural differences amongst people online. So, digital citizenship includes an awareness of who we are, what we intend to say and how it might be perceived by other people we do not know (Buckingham, 2006). It is also a process of learning to communicate clearly and in ways that help others understand what we mean.

Another key digital skill is collaboration, and it is essential for effective participation in digital projects via the internet. The internet allows people to engage with others we may never see in person and work towards common goals be they social, civic or business oriented. Creating a community and working together requires a degree of trust and familiarity that can be difficult to build given the physical distance between participants. Greater awareness must be paid to inclusive behavior, and more explicit efforts need to be made to make up for perceived or actual distance and disconnectedness. So, while the promise of digital technology to connect people is impressive it is not necessarily an automatic transition, and it requires new skills.

Parting thoughts.

It is clear from our previous discussion of digital literacy that technology and technical skills underpin every other digital skill. A failure to understand hardware, software, the nature of the internet, cloud-based technologies and an inability to learn new concepts and tools going forward handicaps one’s ability to engage with the cognitive and social literacies. While there are sometimes tacit references to technical skills and ability, extant digital literacy frameworks tend to focus more on the cognitive and social aspects of digital environments. There is an implied sense that once technical skills are learned, we the digitally literate person can forget about them and move on to the other skills. Given the rapid pace of technological change in the last 40 years, however, anyone working in a digital environment would be well advised to keep in mind that technical concepts and tools continue to develop. It does not seem likely that we will ever reach a point where people can simply take technological skills for granted and to do so would undermine our ability to address the other digital skills.

Another way to think of this is to recognize that no matter what the skill, none of them operate independently of one another. Whether searching, creating, evaluating, understanding or communicating, it is a combination of skills (or literacies) that allow us to accomplish our goals. Thinking critically, and evaluating information and sources leads to sound decision-making. Understanding and synthesizing information is necessary for creating and again the technical tools are necessary for completing the product. Finding information is of little use if one is unable to analyze its usefulness and creating a great video or podcast will not mean much if one is unable to navigate social and professional networks to communicate those works to others. If only understood in isolation, digital literacies have little meaning and can be of little use in approaching digital environments.

Ng’s (2012) conceptual framework reminds us that digital literacy is that space where technical, cognitive and social literacies overlap. A digital skill is not the same thing as digital literacy but the two are fully intwined. Acquiring digital skills is only the beginning of a study of digital literacies, however, and it would be a mistake to stop here. Furthermore, digital literacies span multiple areas including both the cognitive and the social. The real value of digital literacy lies in understanding the synergistic effect of individual digital literacy skills integrated with sets of competencies that enable one to work effectively in the digital world.

Learning Activities.

Literacy Narratives are stories about reading and composing in any form or context. They often include poignant memories that involve a personal experience with literacy. Digital literacy narratives can sometimes be categorized as narratives that focus on how the writer came to understand the importance of technology in his/her life or teaching pedagogy. More often, they are simply narratives that use a medium beyond the print-based essay to tell the story.

Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, 20(1), available at http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/20.1/praxis/bourelle-et-al

• Combining both aspects of the genre, write a piece based on your technological literacy, choosing a medium you feel best conveys the message you want to share with your audience.
• Find and read 2-4 literacy narratives online that emphasize the use of technology and write a short reflection that discusses the main digital literacies used, summarizes the main points made and describes the elements you felt were most important. Also, describe any digital literacy skills you utilized to complete the assignment.
• Create your literacy narrative that tells the story of a significant experience of your own with digital literacy. Use a multi-modal tool that includes audio and images or video. Share with your classmates and discuss the most important ideas you noticed in others’ narratives.
• Compare two of the literacy frameworks in Figure 2. How are they alike? How are they different? Do you like one better than the other? Why or Why not?
• Digital Literacy and why it matters – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2k3C-iB88w
• The essential elements of digital literacies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8yQPoTcZ78
• What is a Literacy Narrative? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mhl2j-cpZo
• Benji Bissman’s computer literacy narrative – http://daln.osu.edu/handle/2374.DALN/2327 [site can’t be reached, KE 6.12.24]  
• Global Digital Literacy Council [page not found, KE 6.12.24]
• International Society for Technology in Education
• Information and Communication Technologies [site can’t be reached, KE 6.12.24]
• Education Development Center, Inc.
• International Visual Literacy Association
• http://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy-fundamentals/digital-literacy-fundamentals
• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/digitalliteracy/overview.aspx [page not found, KE 6.12.24]
• . http://info.learning.com/hubfs/Corp_Site/Sales%20Tools/12EssentialSkills_Brochure_Apr16.pdf [page not found, KE 6.12.24]
• http://www. digitalliteracy.us
• https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/FAQ/what-are-literacy-skills

References.

Adam Becker, S., Cummins, M., Davis, A., Freeman, A., Hall Gieseinger, C., & Ananthanarayanan, V. (2017). NMC Horizon Report: 2017 Higher Education Edition. NMC Horizon Report. https://doi.org/ISBN 978-0-9977215-7-7

Association, A. L. (2013). Digital literacy, libraries, and public policy (January). Washington, D.C. Retrieved from http://www.districtdispatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/2012_OITP_digilitreport_1_22_13.pdf

Bawden, D. (2008). Origins and concepts of digital literacy. In C. Lankshear & M. Knobel (Eds.) (pp. 17–32).

Buckingham, D. (2006). Defining digital literacy. District Dispatch, 263–276. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-92133-4_4

Clanchy, M. (1983). Looking back from the invention of printing. Resnick (Ed.), Literacy in historical perspective (pp. 7–22). Library of Congress.

Dede, C. (2010). Comparing frameworks for 21st century skills. 21st Century Skills: Rethinking How Students Learn, 51–76.

Eshet, Y. (2002). Digital literacy: A new terminology framework and its application to the design of meaningful technology-based learning environments. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, 1–7.

Gilster, P. (1997). Digital Literacy. New York: Wiley Computer Pub.

Hangen, T. (2015). Historical digital literacy, one classroom at a time. Journal of American History. https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jav062

Heitin, L. (2016). Digital Literacy: Forging agreement on a definition. Retrieved from www.edweek.org/go/changing-literacy

Jenkins, H. (2018). This page has a content security policy that prevents it from being loaded in this way . Retrieved from http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/

Jones-Kavalier, B. B. R., & Flannigan, S. L. (2006). Connecting the digital dots : Literacy of the 21st century. Workforce, 29(2), 8–10. https://doi.org/Article

Kaestle, C. F. (1985). Review of Research in Education. The History of Literacy and the History of Readers, 12(1985), 11–53. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1167145

Koltay, T. (2011). The media and the literacies: Media literacy, information literacy, digital literacy. Media, Culture & Society, 33(2), 211–221. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443710393382

Lankshear, Colin & Knobel, M. (2008). Introduction. In C. & K. M. Lankshear (Ed.), Digital Literacies: Concepts, policies and practices. https://doi.org/9781433101694

Mohammadyari, S., & Singh, H. (2015). Understanding the effect of e-learning on individual performance: The role of digital literacy. Computers and Education, 82, 11–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2014.10.025

Ng, W. (2012). Can we teach digital natives digital literacy? Computers and Education, 59(3), 1065–1078. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.04.016

Pangrazio, L. (2014). Reconceptualising critical digital literacy. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37(2), 163–174. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2014.942836

Reynolds, R. (2016). Defining, designing for, and measuring social constructivist digital literacy development in learners: a proposed framework. Educational Technology Research and Development. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-015-9423-4

SCONUL. (2016). The SCONUL7 pillars of information literacy through a digital literacy “ lens .” Retrieved from https://www.sconul.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/Digital_Lens.pdf

Tyner, K. (1998). Tyner, Kathleen. Literacy in a digital world: Teaching and learning in the age of information (Kindle). Routledge.

UNESCO. (2004) The plurality of literacy. UNESCO, (The plurality of literacy and its Implications for Policies and Programmes UNESCO Education Sector Position Paper). https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004

Visser, M. (2012). Digital literacy definition. Retrieved from http://connect.ala.org/node/181197

Vlieghe, J. (2015). Traditional and digital literacy. The literacy hypothesis, technologies of reading and writing, and the “grammatized” body. Ethics and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449642.2015.1039288

Vockley, M., & Lang, V. (2008). 21st century skills , education & competitiveness. Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/21st_century_skills_education_and_competitiveness_guide.pdf

Williams, B. T. (2006). Girl power in a digital world: Considering the complexity of gender, literacy, and technology. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 50(4), 300–307. https://doi.org/10.1598/JAAL.50.4.6

Williamson, R. (2011). Digital literacy. EPI Education Partnerships, inc. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/aspx

This resource is no cost at https://open.library.okstate.edu/learninginthedigitalage/

Links checked 6.12.24 KE

Learning in the Digital Age Copyright © 2020 by Cathy L. Green, Oklahoma State University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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• October 26, 2022

What Is Digital Literacy And Why Is It Important?

UOTP Marketing

Ever since the innovation of computers and the internet, literacy has gained new meanings as opposed to the traditional one of being able to read, write and comprehend written text. These last few decades, we’ve been introduced to literacy concepts such as computer literacy, media literacy, information literacy, and digital literacy. Although these concepts overlap, digital literacy takes elements from each of them and sums them into a broad concept.

Because of the overflowing abundance of media and information in the digital world, digital literacy has become more than necessary. It ensures users protect their privacy, critically analyze digital data and information, ethically use digital platforms, and communicate with others eloquently. 

If you’re interested in learning more about digital literacy, why it is important, and what skills you need to boost your digital literacy, read on.

Paraphrasing the American Library Association (ALA), digital literacy is the ability to use technologies to find, evaluate, create and communicate information. Furthermore, ALA defines a digitally literate person as one who:

• Possesses technical and cognitive skills to process information in various formats,
• Can use different technologies effectively, 
• Utilizes digital features to collaborate with others and participate actively in civic society and improve communities. 

But also optimizes digital literacy skills and abilities to:

• Curate data and media,
• Consume safe and credible online information,
• Create relevant content,
• Create forums of like-minded people for various subjects.

As a mental exercise, think about how many devices or digital platforms you use daily and if you can still live a fulfilling life off the grid. For most of the population, independence from technology is a thing of the past. Technology has become a permanent addition to our daily lives in the last few decades. With devices offering countless features and accessibility to everyone and making their lives easier, we can say that the world has developed into a digital world. 

Therefore it is crucial to be digitally literate, as it allows users to operate digital platforms to find, produce and share media to their specific needs or preferences.

What Are the Principles of Digital Literacy?

Digital literacy learning and development is based on four main principles, such as:

• Comprehension: This principle applies to the ability to understand digital content.
• Interdependence: A key component of developing digital literacy is understanding how all media forms are interconnected and how users can consume content more easily.
• Social Factors: Age, education, gender, income, and household type help understand how particular media is perceived or what content is more successful. So, it’s no wonder these factors play a huge role in creating an organic ecosystem of creating, sharing, and storing media or content and long-term success.
• Curation: This principle allows users to find, organize and save digital content to their preferences.

Why Digital Literacy Is More Than Reading Online

Although being able to find and read content online displays a level of digital literacy, it’s not that much different from reading print. Digital literacy encompasses a vast collection of skills that help users utilize digital tools to the fullest through finding, creating, sharing, and evaluating information. But also create a unique experience for all users. 

Digital Literacy Skills And Their Importance

Digital literacy skills have become necessary for navigating the ever-digitalizing world. Some of these skills are:

• General computer skills: These skills are the first step to being able to apply digital media for everyday use.
• Researching: Being able to find relevant information in a vast amount of media is a crucial skill in operating different digital platforms.
• Adapting to technological innovations: New technological advancements are presented daily, which is why being able to adapt to changes is an integral part of working with digital platforms.
• Collaborating well with others on different digital platforms: Since a large portion of work and education is being performed digitally, it’s important to be able to navigate various digital media that help collaborate with others.
• A level of understanding of terms and familiarity with common digital media: This skill allows users to utilize the digital feature to their full potential. 

Nonetheless, these skills can be collected into three main piles:

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• We value your privacy.
• Finding-and-consuming skills: Knowing how to find reliable information and utilizing sources for consumption.
• Creating digital content: This includes uploading original content or ideas on digital platforms (Instagram, YouTube, etc.).
• Communicating or sharing digital media: Utilizing digital tools to connect with others and attract consumers with your content.

How to Develop Digital Literacy Skills

Developing your abilities to learn, share, and organize media using digital technology opens a whole new world for you. Some handy tips that’ll help you develop and boost digital literacy skills are:

• Try experimenting with digital tools;
• Keep up-to-date with new technological advancements;
• Focus on the technologies and digital platforms that benefit you most;
• Adopt the mindset of life-long learning,
• Take online courses about different digital technologies and how to use them;
• Ask for help when using new technologies.

When developing digital literacy skills, it’s important to focus on some competency areas:

• General knowledge;
• Legal practices;
• Seamless integration;
• Knowledge of appropriate digital technologies;
• Processing information;
• Balanced attitude, etc.

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The Bottom Line

Digital literacy has become crucial in functioning critically and effectively in the now-digital world, which is why we should encourage teaching and learning digital skills for all ages. The lifelong skills you will develop mean that you will use digital platforms thoughtfully and responsibly, will be able to apply skills across different media and applications and be able to manage your digital footprint in a positive manner.

So, we can conclude that digital literacy does not only benefit individuals but societies as well, as digital literacy skills help countries’ development in economy and security. 

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Digital Literacy for the 21st Century

• January 2017
• In book: Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology (pp.2235-2242)
• Publisher: IGI-Global
• Editors: M. Khosrow-Pour

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CYBERSECURITY LITERACY: FOUNDATION OF DIGITAL COMMONS

Igor Kumagin , Senior Project Manager

Andrey Ochepovsky , Public Affairs Manager

Back in 2021, UN Secretary-General António Guterres first proposed to develop a Global Digital Compact concept, which is expected to “outline shared principles for an open, free and secure digital future for all”.

In its input to the Global Digital Compact, Kaspersky focused on the importance of cyber capacity building, since universally affordable information technology not only provides new opportunities for billions of people, but also entails growing cybersecurity threats. One of the best ways to mitigate these risks is to increase the level of cybersecurity awareness among users throughout the world.

Kaspersky’s contribution to the Global Digital Compact is based on its vast experience and expertise in promoting cybersecurity literacy worldwide, and includes projects involving multilateral cooperation. Our ultimate goal is to provide global access to high-quality IT and cybersecurity courses to all interested individuals and organizations.

The input includes a set of core principles that determine successful cyber capacity building.

#1. Raising the Level of Cybersecurity Literacy 

While access to information technology provides plenty of opportunities, it also presents substantial threats, which are usually not easy to identify by unprepared users. In this regard, a high-quality affordable cybersecurity awareness program is essential, as it can help people worldwide enjoy the digital realm with an awareness of its dangers, enabling them to avoid the risks posed by the internet.

#2. Promoting Digital Inclusivity

Everyone, regardless of their gender, age, or ethnicity, should be able to participate in and benefit from the digital economy. Consequently, both governmental and non-governmental (universities, businesses, etc.) stakeholders should aim their cyber capacity building initiatives to bridge the digital gap and provide equal opportunities in cyberspace for all.

#3. Building a Skilled Workforce

Effective cybersecurity requires thousands of highly qualified professionals. As a result, growing investments are needed in comprehensive training programs in cybersecurity, ethical hacking and digital forensics. The focus should be on state-supported educational initiatives – especially in developing countries – in order to bridge the dangerous gap between the level of digitalization and the number of skilled cybersecurity professionals in the market.

#4. Cyber Hygiene for Everyone : As digital technologies constitute an important part of everyday life, cyber skills become essential not just for IT specialists, but for everybody. In this regard, cybersecurity awareness should be an integral part of school and university education, as well as in the workplace in the form of training courses. Involvement in developing and promoting educational programs should be an intrinsic component of the social responsibility of ICT vendors and technological leaders.

#5. Enhancing International Cooperation : While providing access to the digital world, governments as well as non-state actors (including ICT vendors) should bear in mind the importance of cybersecurity. And, as cyberthreats are of a global nature, broad international cooperation under an established framework is required that will involve all interested parties, including private sector.

#6. Fostering Public-Private Partnerships : Cooperation between the public and private sectors allows for the pooling of resources, expertise, and technology to strengthen cyber capacity and counter cyber threats.

Cybersecurity education and raising public awareness of basic rules of staying safe online should be a priority for every organization that contributes to the creation of the digital world. In order to reach these objectives, Kaspersky is putting a great deal of effort into a wide range of projects. Here are just a few of them:

• Cyber Capacity Building Program
• Kaspersky Academy
• Coalition Against Stalkerware

It is worth mentioning that Kaspersky is not going to confine its participation in the Global Digital Compact to simply submitting written input. The company is currently getting ready for participation in online in public sessions held by the UN to have an opportunity to share its vision of global digital development with national governments, the corporate sector and civil society. And, as the initiative moves on, Kaspersky stands ready to contribute to the global efforts to create a safe and secure digital future for all.

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Digital Literacy in the Classroom: Benefits, Challenges, and Impact on Learning

The need to promote digital literacy in the classroom may not seem immediately obvious. Approximately 90 percent of US households have a computer, and many children know how to use digital devices better than their parents. However, digital literacy isn’t limited to computer literacy or technical know-how—digital literacy also addresses online information, social interactions, and the evolving ways that students engage with the world.

Educators need to stay ahead of the curve in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, honing their teaching methods and expertise in programs like American University’s online Master of Arts in Teaching and online Master of Education Policy and Leadership .

What Is Digital Literacy?

Digital literacy is the ability to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information on digital platforms, including computers and mobile devices. Digital literacy doesn’t replace traditional ideas of literacy, but rather builds upon them to address competency related to computers and other digital devices, the internet, and social media.

For teachers, digital literacy has implications for both curriculum and teaching methods. The use of computers in the classroom, educational software integration, and expanding access to school materials via the internet are part of digital literacy, as is students’ mastery of foundational computer skills, such as manipulating input and output devices, navigating and managing file systems, and using search and navigation tools. Teaching students skills and practices related to digital information—verifying the credibility of online information, using digital resources ethically, protecting online privacy—is also part of digital literacy.

Benefits of Digital Literacy in the Classroom

Digital literacy addresses the growing need for critical analysis of digital content, teaching students to assess its source, credibility, and quality. Digital literacy instruction engages students’ cognitive abilities, asking them to apply critical thinking skills to their actions, behavior, and social engagement on digital platforms. Social media’s explosive growth has made information literacy and digital citizenship increasingly important components of digital literacy.

Analysis of online news and advertising teaches critical thinking skills and prepares students to identify credible information sources. Lessons in responsible digital communication and ethical use of digital resources (proper citations, treatment of copyrighted material) better equip them for their academic and professional careers. Privacy and security are also components of digital literacy. Teaching students to understand their digital footprints—personal information actively and inadvertently shared online—makes them less likely to fall victim to criminal behavior, such as cyberbullying and identity theft.

Bridging the Gap in the Digital Divide

Among the challenges facing students and teachers is the digital divide. Disparities remain among various populations regarding access to digital technology, be it hardware, software, or basic internet access. Although most young people in the United States have access to the internet, the quality and ease of their access vary. In the United States, 97 percent of urban dwellers have access to high-speed fixed broadband service, while in rural areas only 65 percent have access and on tribal lands only 60 percent have access.

Nearly 30 million Americans face this discrepancy, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Such disparities have been highlighted by the coronavirus outbreak, which was declared a public health emergency in the United States in early 2020. School districts ordering students to stay home and access coursework online have faced the reality that some will be disadvantaged by limited internet access.

For teachers, the growing expectation that school curriculums will address digital literacy sometimes outpaces resources and training. In its 2020 survey on literacy trends, the International Literacy Association received mixed results regarding the focus put on digital literacy, with roughly equal numbers of respondents reporting that the topic receives too much or not enough attention. However, when respondents were asked to identify professional development needs, digital literacy ranked first; nearly half of respondents expressed that they want more professional development in the area of using digital resources to support literacy instruction.

Preparing to Promote Digital Literacy in the Classroom

Educators interested in digital literacy education can explore American University’s School of Education , which offers degree programs, including an online Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) and an online Master of Education (MEd) in Education Policy and Leadership. Preparing teachers and policymakers to excel in the digital age, American University’s School of Education emphasizes the need to transform the education system to benefit all learners.

How to Be a Better Teacher: Reaching Students in the 21st Century

MEd vs. MAT: Developing Leadership Styles in Education

Virtual Reality in Education: Benefits, Tools, and Resources

Federal Communications Commission, Bridging the Digital Divide for All Americans

Forbes, “Why 2020 Is a Critical Global Tipping Point for Social Media”

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The Digital Literacy Imperative

Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images

Table of Contents

Brief by Romina Bandura and Elena I. Méndez Leal

Published July 18, 2022

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The Issue: 

• Digital literacy has become indispensable for every global citizen, whether to communicate, find employment, receive comprehensive education, or socialize. Acquiring the right set of digital skills is not only important for learning and workforce readiness but also vital to foster more open, inclusive, and secure societies.
• Digital literacy , like other competencies, should start at school. However, many education systems lack the proper infrastructure, technological equipment, teacher training, or learning benchmarks to effectively integrate digital literacy into curriculums.

Effective strategies to address digital literacy and skill-building will require public and private investments in digital infrastructure, policy and governance frameworks, and training in the use of digital technologies.

• The U.S. government—particularly through the work of the U.S. Agency for International Aid (USAID) , its premier development agency—can partner with the private sector, local organizations, and civil society to lead and support an international coalition on digital skills. It can lead in this space by convening a multistakeholder working group on digital skills, investing in skills development among vulnerable and excluded populations (such as women and girls), and enhancing digital skills in basic curriculums.

Introduction

Reading, writing, and numeracy: these are foundational skills people learn at school and continue using throughout their lifetimes. But as societies evolve and technology progresses, the learning needs and demands of one generation change for the next. Curriculums in educational institutions must keep up with these changes to reflect the new realities. They do so by removing outdated content, incorporating new disciplines, and innovating with new educational tools and techniques. While previous American generations learned Latin and shorthand, current generations learn Spanish or French and practice typing. In many public schools across the United States, cursive handwriting is no longer taught. Children now practice writing and typing using new technology such as tablets and computers, not typewriters. In advanced countries, educational equipment such as blackboards, chalkboards, and even whiteboards have been replaced with high-tech tools such as Promethean boards.

While numeracy and basic literacy are still fundamental to learning, digital literacy has emerged as another critical life skill and is now, per the World Economic Forum, part of the twenty-first-century toolkit (see Figure 1). Beyond basic literacy, digital skills have become indispensable for every global citizen, whether to communicate, find employment, receive comprehensive education , or socialize. More than 90 percent of professional roles in across sectors in Europe require a basic level of digital knowledge and understanding. This need has become even more evident during the Covid-19 pandemic, making it more urgent for countries to embrace digital technologies and their associated skills.

Figure 1: The Skills Toolkit for the Twenty-First Century

To keep up with technological advancements, companies need to hire employees that have the right skills. However, workforces are not always equipped with the requisite digital skills, and businesses often struggle to find qualified talent. Digital skills are at a premium, even in advanced economies. For instance, the European Union’s Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) shows that approximately 42 percent of Europeans lack basic digital skills, including 37 percent of those in the workforce. Women are particularly underrepresented in tech-related professions; only one in six information and communications technology (ICT) specialists and one in three science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduates are women.

However, acquiring the right set of digital skills is not only important for learning and workforce readiness: digital skills are also vital to fostering more open, inclusive, and secure societies. When people interact with digital infrastructure, they need to be aware of the privacy and data risks as well as cybersecurity challenges (e.g., ransomware and phishing attacks). Thus, digital literacy also includes handling security and safety challenges created by technology. At the same time, with the rise of digital authoritarianism , misinformation, and disinformation , as well as limitations on personal freedoms, it is equally important to maintain a values framework for digital transformation.

Acquiring the right set of digital skills is not only important for learning and workforce readiness: digital skills are also vital to fostering more open, inclusive, and secure societies.

Digital Literacy in a Continuum

What exactly does “digital literacy” entail? There are many competing definitions, but it can be thought of as the ability to use digital technologies—both hardware and software—safely and appropriately. According to the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO ) , this includes competencies such as using ICT, processing information, and engaging with media. However, digital skills do not exist in a vacuum and interact with other capabilities such as general literacy and numeracy, social and emotional skills, critical thinking, complex problem solving, and the ability to collaborate.

Digital skills also have different degrees of complexity. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), digital skills exist along a continuum ranging from basic to intermediate to advanced (see Figure 2). Basic digital skills comprise the effective use of hardware (e.g., typing or operating touch-screen technology), software (e.g., word processing, organizing files on laptops, and managing privacy settings on mobile phones), and internet/ICT tasks (e.g., emailing, browsing the internet, or completing an online form). Intermediate digital skills comprise the ability to critically evaluate technology or create content; they are characterized as “job-ready skills” and include desktop publishing, digital graphic design, and digital marketing. Finally, specialists use advanced digital skills in ICT professions such as computer programming and network management. Many technology-sector jobs now require advanced digital skills related to such innovations as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, natural language processing, cybersecurity, the Internet of Things (IoT), software development, and digital entrepreneurship.

Figure 2: The Digital Skills Continuum

Digital literacy, like other competencies, should start at school. But many education systems are not equipped to teach children these skills because they lack the proper infrastructure, technological equipment, teacher training, curriculum, or learning benchmarks. This gap is further pronounced in developing countries. A 2020 study conducted in Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru assessed teachers’ digital skills and readiness for remote learning, finding that 39 percent of teachers were only able to execute basic tasks, 40 percent were able to perform basic tasks and use the internet to browse or send email, and only 13 percent of teachers could do more complex functions.

Moreover, enhancing digital literacy goes beyond providing access to computers, smartphones, or tablets. Although nearly half of the world is still offline, supplying hardware alone will be insufficient to acquire digital literacy. That is, beyond the estimated $428 billion in investment required to close the digital coverage gap, there is little information on the total investment or demand for addressing this issue. There are alternative models for delivering digital literacy—particularly to vulnerable and under-connected communities—including interactive voice response (IVR), solar-powered devices, downloadable learning, and feature phones. Despite the many innovations in this space, there is scant evidence of what works or what can be scaled.

Although nearly half of the world is still offline, supplying hardware alone will be insufficient to acquire digital literacy.

Multilateral Efforts on Digital Literacy

The need to equip current and future generations with the necessary skills is captured in the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs). Under target 4.4, the United Nations nudges countries to increase the proportion of youth and adults who have skills relevant for the job market. More specifically, indicator 4.4.1 calls on governments to measure the proportion of youth and adults with ICT skills.

In this regard, international organizations, the private sector, and national governments have established initiatives on digital literacy (see text box). For example, frameworks that measure digital skills target different societal sectors, including primary and secondary schools, government structures, and specific industries. The most relevant frameworks include the ITU’s Digital Toolkit, the Eurostat digital skills indicator survey, and the European Union’s Digital Competence 2.0 Framework for Citizens . In addition, the DQ Framework aggregates 24 leading international frameworks to promote digital literacy and digital skills around the world.

Digital literacy is both an international and local issue. Countries and regions will require tailored approaches to meet their unique needs and contexts. Some governments are putting together strategic plans to increase citizens’ digital literacy, albeit for different purposes. For example, the Republic of Korea has prioritized fostering digital skills in public administration officials to improve efficiency in delivering public services. Meanwhile, Oman has used Microsoft’s Digital Literacy curriculum to improve the ICT industry’s workforce and prepare youth for employment. In 2019, the Ukrainian government launched a national digital education platform called Diia Digital Education offering over 75 courses and teaching materials to its citizens.  Through its skills agenda, the European Union has set a target to ensure that 70 percent of adults have basic digital skills by 2025 and to cut the percentage of teens who underperform in computing and digital literacy from 30 percent in 2019 to 15 percent by 2030. Ghana has partnered with the World Bank’s Digital Economy for Africa initiative, launching a $212 million “eTransform” program to increase training, mentoring, and access to technologies.

Digital literacy is both an international and local issue. Countries and regions will require tailored approaches to meet their unique needs and contexts.

Examples of International Digital-Skills Initiatives

USAID released its first four-year digital strategy plan in 2020 to achieve safe and inclusive digital ecosystems in developing countries. In April 2022, the agency also released its Digital Literacy Primer , which aims to raise awareness on how digital literacy can contribute to global development goals and what role USAID can play to improve digital-literacy programming and initiatives.

UNESCO has partnered with Pearson’s Project Literacy program to create digital-literacy guidelines for nongovernmental organizations, governments, and the private sector to utilize when pursuing digital-literacy projects. UNESCO’s Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE) hosts discussion events, provides training programs to educators and schools, and advocates for digital-literacy education policies.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) conducted a report on access to digital technology, in which it promoted initiatives to combat growing digital divides. In addition, the OECD’s Going Digital project explains to policymakers why digital development is crucial.

The ITU operates projects around the world centered on digital inclusion through “digital transformation centers,” “smart villages,” and digitizing government services. The ITU and Cisco Systems have also partnered to address digital-skills and -literacy gaps in developing countries.

The World Bank ’s Development Data Group was implemented to expand access and promote digital-skills development across multiple sector In World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives , the World Bank offers recommendations for digital-literacy campaigns and strategies. This builds upon the multiple projects in several regions it has instituted to support digital literacy since 2006, as well as its joint program with EQUALS Global Partnership and local organizations to increase digital skills and literacy for women and girls in Rwanda, Nigeria, and Uganda. 

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) explored digital-literacy frameworks in 2019, seeking to partner with multiple stakeholders and expand its research on this issue. Thus far, UNICEF primarily researches and publishes reports on digital-literacy plans but does include related goals and resources in its various education programs .

DO4Africa aims to expand digital innovation and projects on the continent, including by promoting digital literacy .

The Role of the United States in Digital Literacy

The Covid-19 pandemic has made evident the need to increase the adoption of innovative digital solutions and, in turn, build the skills that can accompany this wave of digitization. While the impact of the pandemic has increased opportunities for digital payments, e-services, and telework, digital technologies will not foster development and inclusion on their own. Effective strategies to address digital literacy and skill-building will require public and private investments in digital infrastructure, policy and governance frameworks, and training in the use of digital technologies.

In this regard, the U.S. government—particularly through the work of USAID, its premier development agency—can partner with the private sector, local organizations, and civil society to lead and support an international coalition on digital skills. Through its Digital Strategy , USAID is breaking silos internally, incorporating “digital” as an all-encompassing issue across the agency’s strategies and operations. This puts the United States ahead of the curve: Among bilateral donor agencies in the OECD, only 12 countries have digitalization strategies within their organizations.

First, the United States should convene a multistakeholder working group on digital skills. Although many important institutions are working in this sector (including UNESCO, the ITU, the OECD, and the World Bank), USAID can play an important role in supporting a values-based approach to digital transformation and digital literacy. Donors need to think carefully about the principles and values being embedded into digital systems. Without strong guiding standards (such as the Principles for Digital Development) and values for these systems, we risk empowering malign actors instead of lifting people out of poverty; we risk enabling surveillance, disinformation, and digital authoritarianism instead of personal freedom and financial inclusivity; and we risk the wrong kind of systemic change by destabilizing the financial system and entrenching existing inequalities.

To ensure maximum lasting impact, public and private organizations need to work together in a skills-development ecosystem, with more actors connecting through digital platforms and learning. As the saying goes, “If you want to walk fast, you walk alone; if you want to walk far, you walk together.” In this regard, USAID has a comparative advantage in engaging with the private sector. Specifically, the agency could convene a multi-pronged approach that effectively coordinates efforts from the international donor community, multilateral institutions, local governments, and companies. This includes taking stock of existing collaborations and developing a single channel through which donors can communicate and coordinate. The U.S. government and relevant agencies should engage at not just the bilateral level but also multilaterally in order to maintain leadership roles across donor and recipient initiatives and participate in discussions to address digital-literacy challenges such as infrastructure and access.

Second, the United States and its partners should learn from previous digital-transformation approaches and elevate and invest in skills development among vulnerable and excluded populations such as women and girls. In low- and middle-income countries, fewer than 50 percent of women have access to the internet, and far fewer have the skills to effectively and safely interact online, thus impeding their social and economic opportunities . Investment in general education, in addition to digital education, will also be critical to developing twenty-first-century literacy and skills. Digital literacy is a very nuanced topic with many different elements, but research on related programming and interventions is not as robust. USAID can promote and facilitate evidence-based learning around what types of interventions work best for digital literacy—for now there is a large amount of innovation in this field, but there is also a lack of scale.

Third, in partnership with the donor community, USAID should work to enhance digital skills in basic curriculums and identify critical gaps in education systems. The earlier digital education begins, the more attainable a high degree of digital literacy is. Digital Education would improve the overall quality of life in low- to middle-income countries and equip future workforces with necessary skills in a rapidly digitizing world. Where possible, integrating technology and digital skills into curriculums will allow for early development of digital literacy, allowing students to familiarize themselves with modern methods of communication and accessing information. These initiatives will need to be adapted to different countries’ and communities’ local and cultural contexts to maximize learning impact and ensure minimal exclusion. USAID can also assist governments in establishing upskilling initiatives to train older workers and employers in how to integrate digital technologies into businesses and sectors. These initiatives should emphasize preventing “brain drain” and retaining local digital talent. Improving ICT infrastructure will also increase the ability for people to access programs and integrate digital skills into their daily lives.

Digitalization is no longer a sectoral issue but is all-encompassing across sectors and actors. In that regard, “ the future is already here ”—and investing in digital-literacy programs will be critical to establishing global leadership in the digital age. Meeting digital demands and supporting digital transitions worldwide will be essential for global development programming and progressing toward a free, sustainable, and equitable future. In a world that is increasingly online, accessing technologies and the proper digital skills will be critical for countries’ development, security, and inclusion.

Romina Bandura is a senior fellow with the Project on Prosperity and Development and the Project on U.S. Leadership in Development  at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C.  Elena I. Méndez Leal is a program coordinator and research assistant with the Project on Prosperity and Development at CSIS.

This brief is made possible by the generous support from USAID and DAI.

CSIS Briefs  are produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).

© 2022 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All rights reserved.

Romina Bandura

Elena I. Méndez Leal

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A systematic review on digital literacy

Hasan tinmaz.

1 AI & Big Data Department, Endicott College of International Studies, Woosong University, Daejeon, South Korea

Yoo-Taek Lee

2 Endicott College of International Studies, Woosong University, Daejeon, South Korea

Mina Fanea-Ivanovici

3 Department of Economics and Economic Policies, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania

Hasnan Baber

4 Abu Dhabi School of Management, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Associated Data

The authors present the articles used for the study in “ Appendix A ”.

The purpose of this study is to discover the main themes and categories of the research studies regarding digital literacy. To serve this purpose, the databases of WoS/Clarivate Analytics, Proquest Central, Emerald Management Journals, Jstor Business College Collections and Scopus/Elsevier were searched with four keyword-combinations and final forty-three articles were included in the dataset. The researchers applied a systematic literature review method to the dataset. The preliminary findings demonstrated that there is a growing prevalence of digital literacy articles starting from the year 2013. The dominant research methodology of the reviewed articles is qualitative. The four major themes revealed from the qualitative content analysis are: digital literacy, digital competencies, digital skills and digital thinking. Under each theme, the categories and their frequencies are analysed. Recommendations for further research and for real life implementations are generated.

Introduction

The extant literature on digital literacy, skills and competencies is rich in definitions and classifications, but there is still no consensus on the larger themes and subsumed themes categories. (Heitin, 2016 ). To exemplify, existing inventories of Internet skills suffer from ‘incompleteness and over-simplification, conceptual ambiguity’ (van Deursen et al., 2015 ), and Internet skills are only a part of digital skills. While there is already a plethora of research in this field, this research paper hereby aims to provide a general framework of digital areas and themes that can best describe digital (cap)abilities in the novel context of Industry 4.0 and the accelerated pandemic-triggered digitalisation. The areas and themes can represent the starting point for drafting a contemporary digital literacy framework.

Sousa and Rocha ( 2019 ) explained that there is a stake of digital skills for disruptive digital business, and they connect it to the latest developments, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud technology, big data, artificial intelligence, and robotics. The topic is even more important given the large disparities in digital literacy across regions (Tinmaz et al., 2022 ). More precisely, digital inequalities encompass skills, along with access, usage and self-perceptions. These inequalities need to be addressed, as they are credited with a ‘potential to shape life chances in multiple ways’ (Robinson et al., 2015 ), e.g., academic performance, labour market competitiveness, health, civic and political participation. Steps have been successfully taken to address physical access gaps, but skills gaps are still looming (Van Deursen & Van Dijk, 2010a ). Moreover, digital inequalities have grown larger due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and they influenced the very state of health of the most vulnerable categories of population or their employability in a time when digital skills are required (Baber et al., 2022 ; Beaunoyer, Dupéré & Guitton, 2020 ).

The systematic review the researchers propose is a useful updated instrument of classification and inventory for digital literacy. Considering the latest developments in the economy and in line with current digitalisation needs, digitally literate population may assist policymakers in various fields, e.g., education, administration, healthcare system, and managers of companies and other concerned organisations that need to stay competitive and to employ competitive workforce. Therefore, it is indispensably vital to comprehend the big picture of digital literacy related research.

Literature review

Since the advent of Digital Literacy, scholars have been concerned with identifying and classifying the various (cap)abilities related to its operation. Using the most cited academic papers in this stream of research, several classifications of digital-related literacies, competencies, and skills emerged.

Digital literacies

Digital literacy, which is one of the challenges of integration of technology in academic courses (Blau, Shamir-Inbal & Avdiel, 2020 ), has been defined in the current literature as the competencies and skills required for navigating a fragmented and complex information ecosystem (Eshet, 2004 ). A ‘Digital Literacy Framework’ was designed by Eshet-Alkalai ( 2012 ), comprising six categories: (a) photo-visual thinking (understanding and using visual information); (b) real-time thinking (simultaneously processing a variety of stimuli); (c) information thinking (evaluating and combining information from multiple digital sources); (d) branching thinking (navigating in non-linear hyper-media environments); (e) reproduction thinking (creating outcomes using technological tools by designing new content or remixing existing digital content); (f) social-emotional thinking (understanding and applying cyberspace rules). According to Heitin ( 2016 ), digital literacy groups the following clusters: (a) finding and consuming digital content; (b) creating digital content; (c) communicating or sharing digital content. Hence, the literature describes the digital literacy in many ways by associating a set of various technical and non-technical elements.

Digital competencies

The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp 2.1.), the most recent framework proposed by the European Union, which is currently under review and undergoing an updating process, contains five competency areas: (a) information and data literacy, (b) communication and collaboration, (c) digital content creation, (d) safety, and (e) problem solving (Carretero, Vuorikari & Punie, 2017 ). Digital competency had previously been described in a technical fashion by Ferrari ( 2012 ) as a set comprising information skills, communication skills, content creation skills, safety skills, and problem-solving skills, which later outlined the areas of competence in DigComp 2.1, too.

Digital skills

Ng ( 2012 ) pointed out the following three categories of digital skills: (a) technological (using technological tools); (b) cognitive (thinking critically when managing information); (c) social (communicating and socialising). A set of Internet skill was suggested by Van Deursen and Van Dijk ( 2009 , 2010b ), which contains: (a) operational skills (basic skills in using internet technology), (b) formal Internet skills (navigation and orientation skills); (c) information Internet skills (fulfilling information needs), and (d) strategic Internet skills (using the internet to reach goals). In 2014, the same authors added communication and content creation skills to the initial framework (van Dijk & van Deursen). Similarly, Helsper and Eynon ( 2013 ) put forward a set of four digital skills: technical, social, critical, and creative skills. Furthermore, van Deursen et al. ( 2015 ) built a set of items and factors to measure Internet skills: operational, information navigation, social, creative, mobile. More recent literature (vaan Laar et al., 2017 ) divides digital skills into seven core categories: technical, information management, communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving.

It is worth mentioning that the various methodologies used to classify digital literacy are overlapping or non-exhaustive, which confirms the conceptual ambiguity mentioned by van Deursen et al. ( 2015 ).

Digital thinking

Thinking skills (along with digital skills) have been acknowledged to be a significant element of digital literacy in the educational process context (Ferrari, 2012 ). In fact, critical thinking, creativity, and innovation are at the very core of DigComp. Information and Communication Technology as a support for thinking is a learning objective in any school curriculum. In the same vein, analytical thinking and interdisciplinary thinking, which help solve problems, are yet other concerns of educators in the Industry 4.0 (Ozkan-Ozen & Kazancoglu, 2021 ).

However, we have recently witnessed a shift of focus from learning how to use information and communication technologies to using it while staying safe in the cyber-environment and being aware of alternative facts. Digital thinking would encompass identifying fake news, misinformation, and echo chambers (Sulzer, 2018 ). Not least important, concern about cybersecurity has grown especially in times of political, social or economic turmoil, such as the elections or the Covid-19 crisis (Sulzer, 2018 ; Puig, Blanco-Anaya & Perez-Maceira, 2021 ).

Ultimately, this systematic review paper focuses on the following major research questions as follows:

• Research question 1: What is the yearly distribution of digital literacy related papers?
• Research question 2: What are the research methods for digital literacy related papers?
• Research question 3: What are the main themes in digital literacy related papers?
• Research question 4: What are the concentrated categories (under revealed main themes) in digital literacy related papers?

This study employed the systematic review method where the authors scrutinized the existing literature around the major research question of digital literacy. As Uman ( 2011 ) pointed, in systematic literature review, the findings of the earlier research are examined for the identification of consistent and repetitive themes. The systematic review method differs from literature review with its well managed and highly organized qualitative scrutiny processes where researchers tend to cover less materials from fewer number of databases to write their literature review (Kowalczyk & Truluck, 2013 ; Robinson & Lowe, 2015 ).

Data collection

To address major research objectives, the following five important databases are selected due to their digital literacy focused research dominance: 1. WoS/Clarivate Analytics, 2. Proquest Central; 3. Emerald Management Journals; 4. Jstor Business College Collections; 5. Scopus/Elsevier.

The search was made in the second half of June 2021, in abstract and key words written in English language. We only kept research articles and book chapters (herein referred to as papers). Our purpose was to identify a set of digital literacy areas, or an inventory of such areas and topics. To serve that purpose, systematic review was utilized with the following synonym key words for the search: ‘digital literacy’, ‘digital skills’, ‘digital competence’ and ‘digital fluency’, to find the mainstream literature dealing with the topic. These key words were unfolded as a result of the consultation with the subject matter experts (two board members from Korean Digital Literacy Association and two professors from technology studies department). Below are the four key word combinations used in the search: “Digital literacy AND systematic review”, “Digital skills AND systematic review”, “Digital competence AND systematic review”, and “Digital fluency AND systematic review”.

A sequential systematic search was made in the five databases mentioned above. Thus, from one database to another, duplicate papers were manually excluded in a cascade manner to extract only unique results and to make the research smoother to conduct. At this stage, we kept 47 papers. Further exclusion criteria were applied. Thus, only full-text items written in English were selected, and in doing so, three papers were excluded (no full text available), and one other paper was excluded because it was not written in English, but in Spanish. Therefore, we investigated a total number of 43 papers, as shown in Table ​ Table1. 1 . “ Appendix A ” shows the list of these papers with full references.

Number of papers identified sequentially after applying all inclusion and exclusion criteria

Data analysis

The 43 papers selected after the application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, respectively, were reviewed the materials independently by two researchers who were from two different countries. The researchers identified all topics pertaining to digital literacy, as they appeared in the papers. Next, a third researcher independently analysed these findings by excluded duplicates A qualitative content analysis was manually performed by calculating the frequency of major themes in all papers, where the raw data was compared and contrasted (Fraenkel et al., 2012 ). All three reviewers independently list the words and how the context in which they appeared and then the three reviewers collectively decided for how it should be categorized. Lastly, it is vital to remind that literature review of this article was written after the identification of the themes appeared as a result of our qualitative analyses. Therefore, the authors decided to shape the literature review structure based on the themes.

As an answer to the first research question (the yearly distribution of digital literacy related papers), Fig.  1 demonstrates the yearly distribution of digital literacy related papers. It is seen that there is an increasing trend about the digital literacy papers.

Yearly distribution of digital literacy related papers

Research question number two (The research methods for digital literacy related papers) concentrates on what research methods are employed for these digital literacy related papers. As Fig.  2 shows, most of the papers were using the qualitative method. Not stated refers to book chapters.

Research methods used in the reviewed articles

When forty-three articles were analysed for the main themes as in research question number three (The main themes in digital literacy related papers), the overall findings were categorized around four major themes: (i) literacies, (ii) competencies, (iii) skills, and (iv) thinking. Under every major theme, the categories were listed and explained as in research question number four (The concentrated categories (under revealed main themes) in digital literacy related papers).

The authors utilized an overt categorization for the depiction of these major themes. For example, when the ‘creativity’ was labelled as a skill, the authors also categorized it under the ‘skills’ theme. Similarly, when ‘creativity’ was mentioned as a competency, the authors listed it under the ‘competencies’ theme. Therefore, it is possible to recognize the same finding under different major themes.

Major theme 1: literacies

Digital literacy being the major concern of this paper was observed to be blatantly mentioned in five papers out forty-three. One of these articles described digital literacy as the human proficiencies to live, learn and work in the current digital society. In addition to these five articles, two additional papers used the same term as ‘critical digital literacy’ by describing it as a person’s or a society’s accessibility and assessment level interaction with digital technologies to utilize and/or create information. Table ​ Table2 2 summarizes the major categories under ‘Literacies’ major theme.

Categories (more than one occurrence) under 'literacies' major theme

Computer literacy, media literacy and cultural literacy were the second most common literacy (n = 5). One of the article branches computer literacy as tool (detailing with software and hardware uses) and resource (focusing on information processing capacity of a computer) literacies. Cultural literacy was emphasized as a vital element for functioning in an intercultural team on a digital project.

Disciplinary literacy (n = 4) was referring to utilizing different computer programs (n = 2) or technical gadgets (n = 2) with a specific emphasis on required cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills to be able to work in any digital context (n = 3), serving for the using (n = 2), creating and applying (n = 2) digital literacy in real life.

Data literacy, technology literacy and multiliteracy were the third frequent categories (n = 3). The ‘multiliteracy’ was referring to the innate nature of digital technologies, which have been infused into many aspects of human lives.

Last but not least, Internet literacy, mobile literacy, web literacy, new literacy, personal literacy and research literacy were discussed in forty-three article findings. Web literacy was focusing on being able to connect with people on the web (n = 2), discover the web content (especially the navigation on a hyper-textual platform), and learn web related skills through practical web experiences. Personal literacy was highlighting digital identity management. Research literacy was not only concentrating on conducting scientific research ability but also finding available scholarship online.

Twenty-four other categories are unfolded from the results sections of forty-three articles. Table ​ Table3 3 presents the list of these other literacies where the authors sorted the categories in an ascending alphabetical order without any other sorting criterion. Primarily, search, tagging, filtering and attention literacies were mainly underlining their roles in information processing. Furthermore, social-structural literacy was indicated as the recognition of the social circumstances and generation of information. Another information-related literacy was pointed as publishing literacy, which is the ability to disseminate information via different digital channels.

Other mentioned categories (n = 1)

While above listed personal literacy was referring to digital identity management, network literacy was explained as someone’s social networking ability to manage the digital relationship with other people. Additionally, participatory literacy was defined as the necessary abilities to join an online team working on online content production.

Emerging technology literacy was stipulated as an essential ability to recognize and appreciate the most recent and innovative technologies in along with smart choices related to these technologies. Additionally, the critical literacy was added as an ability to make smart judgements on the cost benefit analysis of these recent technologies.

Last of all, basic, intermediate, and advanced digital assessment literacies were specified for educational institutions that are planning to integrate various digital tools to conduct instructional assessments in their bodies.

Major theme 2: competencies

The second major theme was revealed as competencies. The authors directly categorized the findings that are specified with the word of competency. Table ​ Table4 4 summarizes the entire category set for the competencies major theme.

Categories under 'competencies' major theme

The most common category was the ‘digital competence’ (n = 14) where one of the articles points to that category as ‘generic digital competence’ referring to someone’s creativity for multimedia development (video editing was emphasized). Under this broad category, the following sub-categories were associated:

• Problem solving (n = 10)
• Safety (n = 7)
• Information processing (n = 5)
• Content creation (n = 5)
• Communication (n = 2)
• Digital rights (n = 1)
• Digital emotional intelligence (n = 1)
• Digital teamwork (n = 1)
• Big data utilization (n = 1)
• Artificial Intelligence utilization (n = 1)
• Virtual leadership (n = 1)
• Self-disruption (in along with the pace of digitalization) (n = 1)

Like ‘digital competency’, five additional articles especially coined the term as ‘digital competence as a life skill’. Deeper analysis demonstrated the following points: social competences (n = 4), communication in mother tongue (n = 3) and foreign language (n = 2), entrepreneurship (n = 3), civic competence (n = 2), fundamental science (n = 1), technology (n = 1) and mathematics (n = 1) competences, learning to learn (n = 1) and self-initiative (n = 1).

Moreover, competencies were linked to workplace digital competencies in three articles and highlighted as significant for employability (n = 3) and ‘economic engagement’ (n = 3). Digital competencies were also detailed for leisure (n = 2) and communication (n = 2). Furthermore, two articles pointed digital competencies as an inter-cultural competency and one as a cross-cultural competency. Lastly, the ‘digital nativity’ (n = 1) was clarified as someone’s innate competency of being able to feel contented and satisfied with digital technologies.

Major theme 3: skills

The third major observed theme was ‘skills’, which was dominantly gathered around information literacy skills (n = 19) and information and communication technologies skills (n = 18). Table ​ Table5 5 demonstrates the categories with more than one occurrence.

Categories under 'skills' major theme

Table ​ Table6 6 summarizes the sub-categories of the two most frequent categories of ‘skills’ major theme. The information literacy skills noticeably concentrate on the steps of information processing; evaluation (n = 6), utilization (n = 4), finding (n = 3), locating (n = 2) information. Moreover, the importance of trial/error process, being a lifelong learner, feeling a need for information and so forth were evidently listed under this sub-category. On the other hand, ICT skills were grouped around cognitive and affective domains. For instance, while technical skills in general and use of social media, coding, multimedia, chat or emailing in specific were reported in cognitive domain, attitude, intention, and belief towards ICT were mentioned as the elements of affective domain.

Sub-categories under ‘information literacy’ and ‘ICT’ skills

Communication skills (n = 9) were multi-dimensional for different societies, cultures, and globalized contexts, requiring linguistic skills. Collaboration skills (n = 9) are also recurrently cited with an explicit emphasis for virtual platforms.

‘Ethics for digital environment’ encapsulated ethical use of information (n = 4) and different technologies (n = 2), knowing digital laws (n = 2) and responsibilities (n = 2) in along with digital rights and obligations (n = 1), having digital awareness (n = 1), following digital etiquettes (n = 1), treating other people with respect (n = 1) including no cyber-bullying (n = 1) and no stealing or damaging other people (n = 1).

‘Digital fluency’ involved digital access (n = 2) by using different software and hardware (n = 2) in online platforms (n = 1) or communication tools (n = 1) or within programming environments (n = 1). Digital fluency also underlined following recent technological advancements (n = 1) and knowledge (n = 1) including digital health and wellness (n = 1) dimension.

‘Social intelligence’ related to understanding digital culture (n = 1), the concept of digital exclusion (n = 1) and digital divide (n = 3). ‘Research skills’ were detailed with searching academic information (n = 3) on databases such as Web of Science and Scopus (n = 2) and their citation, summarization, and quotation (n = 2).

‘Digital teaching’ was described as a skill (n = 2) in Table ​ Table4 4 whereas it was also labelled as a competence (n = 1) as shown in Table ​ Table3. 3 . Similarly, while learning to learn (n = 1) was coined under competencies in Table ​ Table3, 3 , digital learning (n = 2, Table ​ Table4) 4 ) and life-long learning (n = 1, Table ​ Table5) 5 ) were stated as learning related skills. Moreover, learning was used with the following three terms: learning readiness (n = 1), self-paced learning (n = 1) and learning flexibility (n = 1).

Table ​ Table7 7 shows other categories listed below the ‘skills’ major theme. The list covers not only the software such as GIS, text mining, mapping, or bibliometric analysis programs but also the conceptual skills such as the fourth industrial revolution and information management.

Categories (one-time occurrence) under 'skills' major theme

Major theme 4: thinking

The last identified major theme was the different types of ‘thinking’. As Table ​ Table8 8 shows, ‘critical thinking’ was the most frequent thinking category (n = 4). Except computational thinking, the other categories were not detailed.

Categories under ‘thinking’ major theme

Computational thinking (n = 3) was associated with the general logic of how a computer works and sub-categorized into the following steps; construction of the problem (n = 3), abstraction (n = 1), disintegration of the problem (n = 2), data collection, (n = 2), data analysis (n = 2), algorithmic design (n = 2), parallelization & iteration (n = 1), automation (n = 1), generalization (n = 1), and evaluation (n = 2).

A transversal analysis of digital literacy categories reveals the following fields of digital literacy application:

• Technological advancement (IT, ICT, Industry 4.0, IoT, text mining, GIS, bibliometric analysis, mapping data, technology, AI, big data)
• Networking (Internet, web, connectivity, network, safety)
• Information (media, news, communication)
• Creative-cultural industries (culture, publishing, film, TV, leisure, content creation)
• Academia (research, documentation, library)
• Citizenship (participation, society, social intelligence, awareness, politics, rights, legal use, ethics)
• Education (life skills, problem solving, teaching, learning, education, lifelong learning)
• Professional life (work, teamwork, collaboration, economy, commerce, leadership, decision making)
• Personal level (critical thinking, evaluation, analytical thinking, innovative thinking)

This systematic review on digital literacy concentrated on forty-three articles from the databases of WoS/Clarivate Analytics, Proquest Central, Emerald Management Journals, Jstor Business College Collections and Scopus/Elsevier. The initial results revealed that there is an increasing trend on digital literacy focused academic papers. Research work in digital literacy is critical in a context of disruptive digital business, and more recently, the pandemic-triggered accelerated digitalisation (Beaunoyer, Dupéré & Guitton, 2020 ; Sousa & Rocha 2019 ). Moreover, most of these papers were employing qualitative research methods. The raw data of these articles were analysed qualitatively using systematic literature review to reveal major themes and categories. Four major themes that appeared are: digital literacy, digital competencies, digital skills and thinking.

Whereas the mainstream literature describes digital literacy as a set of photo-visual, real-time, information, branching, reproduction and social-emotional thinking (Eshet-Alkalai, 2012 ) or as a set of precise specific operations, i.e., finding, consuming, creating, communicating and sharing digital content (Heitin, 2016 ), this study reveals that digital literacy revolves around and is in connection with the concepts of computer literacy, media literacy, cultural literacy or disciplinary literacy. In other words, the present systematic review indicates that digital literacy is far broader than specific tasks, englobing the entire sphere of computer operation and media use in a cultural context.

The digital competence yardstick, DigComp (Carretero, Vuorikari & Punie, 2017 ) suggests that the main digital competencies cover information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, digital content creation, safety, and problem solving. Similarly, the findings of this research place digital competencies in relation to problem solving, safety, information processing, content creation and communication. Therefore, the findings of the systematic literature review are, to a large extent, in line with the existing framework used in the European Union.

The investigation of the main keywords associated with digital skills has revealed that information literacy, ICT, communication, collaboration, digital content creation, research and decision-making skill are the most representative. In a structured way, the existing literature groups these skills in technological, cognitive, and social (Ng, 2012 ) or, more extensively, into operational, formal, information Internet, strategic, communication and content creation (van Dijk & van Deursen, 2014 ). In time, the literature has become richer in frameworks, and prolific authors have improved their results. As such, more recent research (vaan Laar et al., 2017 ) use the following categories: technical, information management, communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving.

Whereas digital thinking was observed to be mostly related with critical thinking and computational thinking, DigComp connects it with critical thinking, creativity, and innovation, on the one hand, and researchers highlight fake news, misinformation, cybersecurity, and echo chambers as exponents of digital thinking, on the other hand (Sulzer, 2018 ; Puig, Blanco-Anaya & Perez-Maceira, 2021 ).

This systematic review research study looks ahead to offer an initial step and guideline for the development of a more contemporary digital literacy framework including digital literacy major themes and factors. The researchers provide the following recommendations for both researchers and practitioners.

Recommendations for prospective research

By considering the major qualitative research trend, it seems apparent that more quantitative research-oriented studies are needed. Although it requires more effort and time, mixed method studies will help understand digital literacy holistically.

As digital literacy is an umbrella term for many different technologies, specific case studies need be designed, such as digital literacy for artificial intelligence or digital literacy for drones’ usage.

Digital literacy affects different areas of human lives, such as education, business, health, governance, and so forth. Therefore, different case studies could be carried out for each of these unique dimensions of our lives. For instance, it is worth investigating the role of digital literacy on lifelong learning in particular, and on education in general, as well as the digital upskilling effects on the labour market flexibility.

Further experimental studies on digital literacy are necessary to realize how certain variables (for instance, age, gender, socioeconomic status, cognitive abilities, etc.) affect this concept overtly or covertly. Moreover, the digital divide issue needs to be analysed through the lens of its main determinants.

New bibliometric analysis method can be implemented on digital literacy documents to reveal more information on how these works are related or centred on what major topic. This visual approach will assist to realize the big picture within the digital literacy framework.

Recommendations for practitioners

The digital literacy stakeholders, policymakers in education and managers in private organizations, need to be aware that there are many dimensions and variables regarding the implementation of digital literacy. In that case, stakeholders must comprehend their beneficiaries or the participants more deeply to increase the effect of digital literacy related activities. For example, critical thinking and problem-solving skills and abilities are mentioned to affect digital literacy. Hence, stakeholders have to initially understand whether the participants have enough entry level critical thinking and problem solving.

Development of digital literacy for different groups of people requires more energy, since each group might require a different set of skills, abilities, or competencies. Hence, different subject matter experts, such as technologists, instructional designers, content experts, should join the team.

It is indispensably vital to develop different digital frameworks for different technologies (basic or advanced) or different contexts (different levels of schooling or various industries).

These frameworks should be updated regularly as digital fields are evolving rapidly. Every year, committees should gather around to understand new technological trends and decide whether they should address the changes into their frameworks.

Understanding digital literacy in a thorough manner can enable decision makers to correctly implement and apply policies addressing the digital divide that is reflected onto various aspects of life, e.g., health, employment, education, especially in turbulent times such as the COVID-19 pandemic is.

Lastly, it is also essential to state the study limitations. This study is limited to the analysis of a certain number of papers, obtained from using the selected keywords and databases. Therefore, an extension can be made by adding other keywords and searching other databases.

See Table ​ Management9 9 .

List of papers (n = 43) included in the qualitative analysis—ordered alphabetically by title

Author contributions

The authors worked together on the manuscript equally. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

This research is funded by Woosong University Academic Research in 2022.

Availability of data and materials

Declarations.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Contributor Information

Hasan Tinmaz, Email: rk.ca.ttocidne@zamnith .

Yoo-Taek Lee, Email: rk.ca.usw@eelty .

Mina Fanea-Ivanovici, Email: [email protected] .

Hasnan Baber, Email: [email protected] .

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Cyber Literacy 1

Cyber Literacy provides high school students with an introduction to cyber engineering and introductory cybersecurity topics. Using a robotics platform as the textbook, students will take a variety of deep dives into cybersecurity relevant real-world topics such as programming, electricity and circuits, sensors and autonomy, current events, and what it means to be a cyber citizen in today’s evolving digital world.  

The robotics platforms that are supported in the Cyber Literacy course include the following Parallax devices: the BoeBot, ShieldBot with Arduino, and cyber:bot with micro:bit. 

The electricity module engages students by discussing the history of electricity while also challenging them with interactive lab activities that practice what they’ve learned. The practical lab experiences include building and testing a variety of circuits and electrical theories, including: Parallax Boe-Bot, Parallax Shieldbot with Arduino, and Parallax cyber:bot with micro:bit.

Grades Levels: 9, 10, 11

View Unit Overview

The robotics module makes use of a physical computing platform to engage students in programming while investigating the impacts of technology and its uses. Students create, modify, and troubleshoot increasingly challenging activities as they learn a certain programming language. Cyber Literacy offers three different robotics platform options: Parallax Boe-Bot, Parallax Shieldbot with Arduino, and Parallax cyber:bot with micro:bit.

Students are encouraged to consider the ethical responsibilities of cyber technologies, careers, and societal impact. The Liberal Arts content dives into how technology has influenced society and the rights and responsibilities every person has as a citizen of both a physical and digital world.  

Boe-Bot Kit

Available through Parallax.com

cyber:bot Robot Kit - with micro:bit

Shield-Bot with Arduino Kit

Cyber literacy supply kit, cyber:bot robot kit (without micro:bit), c yber:bot conversion kit, cyber:bot board for micro:bit.

• Open access
• Published: 08 June 2022

A systematic review on digital literacy

• Hasan Tinmaz   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4310-0848 1 ,
• Yoo-Taek Lee   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1913-9059 2 ,
• Mina Fanea-Ivanovici   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2921-2990 3 &
• Hasnan Baber   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8951-3501 4  

Smart Learning Environments volume  9 , Article number:  21 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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The purpose of this study is to discover the main themes and categories of the research studies regarding digital literacy. To serve this purpose, the databases of WoS/Clarivate Analytics, Proquest Central, Emerald Management Journals, Jstor Business College Collections and Scopus/Elsevier were searched with four keyword-combinations and final forty-three articles were included in the dataset. The researchers applied a systematic literature review method to the dataset. The preliminary findings demonstrated that there is a growing prevalence of digital literacy articles starting from the year 2013. The dominant research methodology of the reviewed articles is qualitative. The four major themes revealed from the qualitative content analysis are: digital literacy, digital competencies, digital skills and digital thinking. Under each theme, the categories and their frequencies are analysed. Recommendations for further research and for real life implementations are generated.

Introduction

The extant literature on digital literacy, skills and competencies is rich in definitions and classifications, but there is still no consensus on the larger themes and subsumed themes categories. (Heitin, 2016 ). To exemplify, existing inventories of Internet skills suffer from ‘incompleteness and over-simplification, conceptual ambiguity’ (van Deursen et al., 2015 ), and Internet skills are only a part of digital skills. While there is already a plethora of research in this field, this research paper hereby aims to provide a general framework of digital areas and themes that can best describe digital (cap)abilities in the novel context of Industry 4.0 and the accelerated pandemic-triggered digitalisation. The areas and themes can represent the starting point for drafting a contemporary digital literacy framework.

Sousa and Rocha ( 2019 ) explained that there is a stake of digital skills for disruptive digital business, and they connect it to the latest developments, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud technology, big data, artificial intelligence, and robotics. The topic is even more important given the large disparities in digital literacy across regions (Tinmaz et al., 2022 ). More precisely, digital inequalities encompass skills, along with access, usage and self-perceptions. These inequalities need to be addressed, as they are credited with a ‘potential to shape life chances in multiple ways’ (Robinson et al., 2015 ), e.g., academic performance, labour market competitiveness, health, civic and political participation. Steps have been successfully taken to address physical access gaps, but skills gaps are still looming (Van Deursen & Van Dijk, 2010a ). Moreover, digital inequalities have grown larger due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and they influenced the very state of health of the most vulnerable categories of population or their employability in a time when digital skills are required (Baber et al., 2022 ; Beaunoyer, Dupéré & Guitton, 2020 ).

The systematic review the researchers propose is a useful updated instrument of classification and inventory for digital literacy. Considering the latest developments in the economy and in line with current digitalisation needs, digitally literate population may assist policymakers in various fields, e.g., education, administration, healthcare system, and managers of companies and other concerned organisations that need to stay competitive and to employ competitive workforce. Therefore, it is indispensably vital to comprehend the big picture of digital literacy related research.

Literature review

Since the advent of Digital Literacy, scholars have been concerned with identifying and classifying the various (cap)abilities related to its operation. Using the most cited academic papers in this stream of research, several classifications of digital-related literacies, competencies, and skills emerged.

Digital literacies

Digital literacy, which is one of the challenges of integration of technology in academic courses (Blau, Shamir-Inbal & Avdiel, 2020 ), has been defined in the current literature as the competencies and skills required for navigating a fragmented and complex information ecosystem (Eshet, 2004 ). A ‘Digital Literacy Framework’ was designed by Eshet-Alkalai ( 2012 ), comprising six categories: (a) photo-visual thinking (understanding and using visual information); (b) real-time thinking (simultaneously processing a variety of stimuli); (c) information thinking (evaluating and combining information from multiple digital sources); (d) branching thinking (navigating in non-linear hyper-media environments); (e) reproduction thinking (creating outcomes using technological tools by designing new content or remixing existing digital content); (f) social-emotional thinking (understanding and applying cyberspace rules). According to Heitin ( 2016 ), digital literacy groups the following clusters: (a) finding and consuming digital content; (b) creating digital content; (c) communicating or sharing digital content. Hence, the literature describes the digital literacy in many ways by associating a set of various technical and non-technical elements.

• Digital competencies

The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp 2.1.), the most recent framework proposed by the European Union, which is currently under review and undergoing an updating process, contains five competency areas: (a) information and data literacy, (b) communication and collaboration, (c) digital content creation, (d) safety, and (e) problem solving (Carretero, Vuorikari & Punie, 2017 ). Digital competency had previously been described in a technical fashion by Ferrari ( 2012 ) as a set comprising information skills, communication skills, content creation skills, safety skills, and problem-solving skills, which later outlined the areas of competence in DigComp 2.1, too.

• Digital skills

Ng ( 2012 ) pointed out the following three categories of digital skills: (a) technological (using technological tools); (b) cognitive (thinking critically when managing information); (c) social (communicating and socialising). A set of Internet skill was suggested by Van Deursen and Van Dijk ( 2009 , 2010b ), which contains: (a) operational skills (basic skills in using internet technology), (b) formal Internet skills (navigation and orientation skills); (c) information Internet skills (fulfilling information needs), and (d) strategic Internet skills (using the internet to reach goals). In 2014, the same authors added communication and content creation skills to the initial framework (van Dijk & van Deursen). Similarly, Helsper and Eynon ( 2013 ) put forward a set of four digital skills: technical, social, critical, and creative skills. Furthermore, van Deursen et al. ( 2015 ) built a set of items and factors to measure Internet skills: operational, information navigation, social, creative, mobile. More recent literature (vaan Laar et al., 2017 ) divides digital skills into seven core categories: technical, information management, communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving.

It is worth mentioning that the various methodologies used to classify digital literacy are overlapping or non-exhaustive, which confirms the conceptual ambiguity mentioned by van Deursen et al. ( 2015 ).

• Digital thinking

Thinking skills (along with digital skills) have been acknowledged to be a significant element of digital literacy in the educational process context (Ferrari, 2012 ). In fact, critical thinking, creativity, and innovation are at the very core of DigComp. Information and Communication Technology as a support for thinking is a learning objective in any school curriculum. In the same vein, analytical thinking and interdisciplinary thinking, which help solve problems, are yet other concerns of educators in the Industry 4.0 (Ozkan-Ozen & Kazancoglu, 2021 ).

However, we have recently witnessed a shift of focus from learning how to use information and communication technologies to using it while staying safe in the cyber-environment and being aware of alternative facts. Digital thinking would encompass identifying fake news, misinformation, and echo chambers (Sulzer, 2018 ). Not least important, concern about cybersecurity has grown especially in times of political, social or economic turmoil, such as the elections or the Covid-19 crisis (Sulzer, 2018 ; Puig, Blanco-Anaya & Perez-Maceira, 2021 ).

Ultimately, this systematic review paper focuses on the following major research questions as follows:

Research question 1: What is the yearly distribution of digital literacy related papers?

Research question 2: What are the research methods for digital literacy related papers?

Research question 3: What are the main themes in digital literacy related papers?

Research question 4: What are the concentrated categories (under revealed main themes) in digital literacy related papers?

This study employed the systematic review method where the authors scrutinized the existing literature around the major research question of digital literacy. As Uman ( 2011 ) pointed, in systematic literature review, the findings of the earlier research are examined for the identification of consistent and repetitive themes. The systematic review method differs from literature review with its well managed and highly organized qualitative scrutiny processes where researchers tend to cover less materials from fewer number of databases to write their literature review (Kowalczyk & Truluck, 2013 ; Robinson & Lowe, 2015 ).

Data collection

To address major research objectives, the following five important databases are selected due to their digital literacy focused research dominance: 1. WoS/Clarivate Analytics, 2. Proquest Central; 3. Emerald Management Journals; 4. Jstor Business College Collections; 5. Scopus/Elsevier.

The search was made in the second half of June 2021, in abstract and key words written in English language. We only kept research articles and book chapters (herein referred to as papers). Our purpose was to identify a set of digital literacy areas, or an inventory of such areas and topics. To serve that purpose, systematic review was utilized with the following synonym key words for the search: ‘digital literacy’, ‘digital skills’, ‘digital competence’ and ‘digital fluency’, to find the mainstream literature dealing with the topic. These key words were unfolded as a result of the consultation with the subject matter experts (two board members from Korean Digital Literacy Association and two professors from technology studies department). Below are the four key word combinations used in the search: “Digital literacy AND systematic review”, “Digital skills AND systematic review”, “Digital competence AND systematic review”, and “Digital fluency AND systematic review”.

A sequential systematic search was made in the five databases mentioned above. Thus, from one database to another, duplicate papers were manually excluded in a cascade manner to extract only unique results and to make the research smoother to conduct. At this stage, we kept 47 papers. Further exclusion criteria were applied. Thus, only full-text items written in English were selected, and in doing so, three papers were excluded (no full text available), and one other paper was excluded because it was not written in English, but in Spanish. Therefore, we investigated a total number of 43 papers, as shown in Table 1 . “ Appendix A ” shows the list of these papers with full references.

Data analysis

The 43 papers selected after the application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, respectively, were reviewed the materials independently by two researchers who were from two different countries. The researchers identified all topics pertaining to digital literacy, as they appeared in the papers. Next, a third researcher independently analysed these findings by excluded duplicates A qualitative content analysis was manually performed by calculating the frequency of major themes in all papers, where the raw data was compared and contrasted (Fraenkel et al., 2012 ). All three reviewers independently list the words and how the context in which they appeared and then the three reviewers collectively decided for how it should be categorized. Lastly, it is vital to remind that literature review of this article was written after the identification of the themes appeared as a result of our qualitative analyses. Therefore, the authors decided to shape the literature review structure based on the themes.

As an answer to the first research question (the yearly distribution of digital literacy related papers), Fig.  1 demonstrates the yearly distribution of digital literacy related papers. It is seen that there is an increasing trend about the digital literacy papers.

Yearly distribution of digital literacy related papers

Research question number two (The research methods for digital literacy related papers) concentrates on what research methods are employed for these digital literacy related papers. As Fig.  2 shows, most of the papers were using the qualitative method. Not stated refers to book chapters.

Research methods used in the reviewed articles

When forty-three articles were analysed for the main themes as in research question number three (The main themes in digital literacy related papers), the overall findings were categorized around four major themes: (i) literacies, (ii) competencies, (iii) skills, and (iv) thinking. Under every major theme, the categories were listed and explained as in research question number four (The concentrated categories (under revealed main themes) in digital literacy related papers).

The authors utilized an overt categorization for the depiction of these major themes. For example, when the ‘creativity’ was labelled as a skill, the authors also categorized it under the ‘skills’ theme. Similarly, when ‘creativity’ was mentioned as a competency, the authors listed it under the ‘competencies’ theme. Therefore, it is possible to recognize the same finding under different major themes.

Major theme 1: literacies

Digital literacy being the major concern of this paper was observed to be blatantly mentioned in five papers out forty-three. One of these articles described digital literacy as the human proficiencies to live, learn and work in the current digital society. In addition to these five articles, two additional papers used the same term as ‘critical digital literacy’ by describing it as a person’s or a society’s accessibility and assessment level interaction with digital technologies to utilize and/or create information. Table 2 summarizes the major categories under ‘Literacies’ major theme.

Computer literacy, media literacy and cultural literacy were the second most common literacy (n = 5). One of the article branches computer literacy as tool (detailing with software and hardware uses) and resource (focusing on information processing capacity of a computer) literacies. Cultural literacy was emphasized as a vital element for functioning in an intercultural team on a digital project.

Disciplinary literacy (n = 4) was referring to utilizing different computer programs (n = 2) or technical gadgets (n = 2) with a specific emphasis on required cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills to be able to work in any digital context (n = 3), serving for the using (n = 2), creating and applying (n = 2) digital literacy in real life.

Data literacy, technology literacy and multiliteracy were the third frequent categories (n = 3). The ‘multiliteracy’ was referring to the innate nature of digital technologies, which have been infused into many aspects of human lives.

Last but not least, Internet literacy, mobile literacy, web literacy, new literacy, personal literacy and research literacy were discussed in forty-three article findings. Web literacy was focusing on being able to connect with people on the web (n = 2), discover the web content (especially the navigation on a hyper-textual platform), and learn web related skills through practical web experiences. Personal literacy was highlighting digital identity management. Research literacy was not only concentrating on conducting scientific research ability but also finding available scholarship online.

Twenty-four other categories are unfolded from the results sections of forty-three articles. Table 3 presents the list of these other literacies where the authors sorted the categories in an ascending alphabetical order without any other sorting criterion. Primarily, search, tagging, filtering and attention literacies were mainly underlining their roles in information processing. Furthermore, social-structural literacy was indicated as the recognition of the social circumstances and generation of information. Another information-related literacy was pointed as publishing literacy, which is the ability to disseminate information via different digital channels.

While above listed personal literacy was referring to digital identity management, network literacy was explained as someone’s social networking ability to manage the digital relationship with other people. Additionally, participatory literacy was defined as the necessary abilities to join an online team working on online content production.

Emerging technology literacy was stipulated as an essential ability to recognize and appreciate the most recent and innovative technologies in along with smart choices related to these technologies. Additionally, the critical literacy was added as an ability to make smart judgements on the cost benefit analysis of these recent technologies.

Last of all, basic, intermediate, and advanced digital assessment literacies were specified for educational institutions that are planning to integrate various digital tools to conduct instructional assessments in their bodies.

Major theme 2: competencies

The second major theme was revealed as competencies. The authors directly categorized the findings that are specified with the word of competency. Table 4 summarizes the entire category set for the competencies major theme.

The most common category was the ‘digital competence’ (n = 14) where one of the articles points to that category as ‘generic digital competence’ referring to someone’s creativity for multimedia development (video editing was emphasized). Under this broad category, the following sub-categories were associated:

Problem solving (n = 10)

Safety (n = 7)

Information processing (n = 5)

Content creation (n = 5)

Communication (n = 2)

Digital rights (n = 1)

Digital emotional intelligence (n = 1)

Digital teamwork (n = 1)

Big data utilization (n = 1)

Artificial Intelligence utilization (n = 1)

Virtual leadership (n = 1)

Self-disruption (in along with the pace of digitalization) (n = 1)

Like ‘digital competency’, five additional articles especially coined the term as ‘digital competence as a life skill’. Deeper analysis demonstrated the following points: social competences (n = 4), communication in mother tongue (n = 3) and foreign language (n = 2), entrepreneurship (n = 3), civic competence (n = 2), fundamental science (n = 1), technology (n = 1) and mathematics (n = 1) competences, learning to learn (n = 1) and self-initiative (n = 1).

Moreover, competencies were linked to workplace digital competencies in three articles and highlighted as significant for employability (n = 3) and ‘economic engagement’ (n = 3). Digital competencies were also detailed for leisure (n = 2) and communication (n = 2). Furthermore, two articles pointed digital competencies as an inter-cultural competency and one as a cross-cultural competency. Lastly, the ‘digital nativity’ (n = 1) was clarified as someone’s innate competency of being able to feel contented and satisfied with digital technologies.

Major theme 3: skills

The third major observed theme was ‘skills’, which was dominantly gathered around information literacy skills (n = 19) and information and communication technologies skills (n = 18). Table 5 demonstrates the categories with more than one occurrence.

Table 6 summarizes the sub-categories of the two most frequent categories of ‘skills’ major theme. The information literacy skills noticeably concentrate on the steps of information processing; evaluation (n = 6), utilization (n = 4), finding (n = 3), locating (n = 2) information. Moreover, the importance of trial/error process, being a lifelong learner, feeling a need for information and so forth were evidently listed under this sub-category. On the other hand, ICT skills were grouped around cognitive and affective domains. For instance, while technical skills in general and use of social media, coding, multimedia, chat or emailing in specific were reported in cognitive domain, attitude, intention, and belief towards ICT were mentioned as the elements of affective domain.

Communication skills (n = 9) were multi-dimensional for different societies, cultures, and globalized contexts, requiring linguistic skills. Collaboration skills (n = 9) are also recurrently cited with an explicit emphasis for virtual platforms.

‘Ethics for digital environment’ encapsulated ethical use of information (n = 4) and different technologies (n = 2), knowing digital laws (n = 2) and responsibilities (n = 2) in along with digital rights and obligations (n = 1), having digital awareness (n = 1), following digital etiquettes (n = 1), treating other people with respect (n = 1) including no cyber-bullying (n = 1) and no stealing or damaging other people (n = 1).

‘Digital fluency’ involved digital access (n = 2) by using different software and hardware (n = 2) in online platforms (n = 1) or communication tools (n = 1) or within programming environments (n = 1). Digital fluency also underlined following recent technological advancements (n = 1) and knowledge (n = 1) including digital health and wellness (n = 1) dimension.

‘Social intelligence’ related to understanding digital culture (n = 1), the concept of digital exclusion (n = 1) and digital divide (n = 3). ‘Research skills’ were detailed with searching academic information (n = 3) on databases such as Web of Science and Scopus (n = 2) and their citation, summarization, and quotation (n = 2).

‘Digital teaching’ was described as a skill (n = 2) in Table 4 whereas it was also labelled as a competence (n = 1) as shown in Table 3 . Similarly, while learning to learn (n = 1) was coined under competencies in Table 3 , digital learning (n = 2, Table 4 ) and life-long learning (n = 1, Table 5 ) were stated as learning related skills. Moreover, learning was used with the following three terms: learning readiness (n = 1), self-paced learning (n = 1) and learning flexibility (n = 1).

Table 7 shows other categories listed below the ‘skills’ major theme. The list covers not only the software such as GIS, text mining, mapping, or bibliometric analysis programs but also the conceptual skills such as the fourth industrial revolution and information management.

Major theme 4: thinking

The last identified major theme was the different types of ‘thinking’. As Table 8 shows, ‘critical thinking’ was the most frequent thinking category (n = 4). Except computational thinking, the other categories were not detailed.

Computational thinking (n = 3) was associated with the general logic of how a computer works and sub-categorized into the following steps; construction of the problem (n = 3), abstraction (n = 1), disintegration of the problem (n = 2), data collection, (n = 2), data analysis (n = 2), algorithmic design (n = 2), parallelization & iteration (n = 1), automation (n = 1), generalization (n = 1), and evaluation (n = 2).

A transversal analysis of digital literacy categories reveals the following fields of digital literacy application:

Technological advancement (IT, ICT, Industry 4.0, IoT, text mining, GIS, bibliometric analysis, mapping data, technology, AI, big data)

Networking (Internet, web, connectivity, network, safety)

Information (media, news, communication)

Creative-cultural industries (culture, publishing, film, TV, leisure, content creation)

Academia (research, documentation, library)

Citizenship (participation, society, social intelligence, awareness, politics, rights, legal use, ethics)

Education (life skills, problem solving, teaching, learning, education, lifelong learning)

Professional life (work, teamwork, collaboration, economy, commerce, leadership, decision making)

Personal level (critical thinking, evaluation, analytical thinking, innovative thinking)

This systematic review on digital literacy concentrated on forty-three articles from the databases of WoS/Clarivate Analytics, Proquest Central, Emerald Management Journals, Jstor Business College Collections and Scopus/Elsevier. The initial results revealed that there is an increasing trend on digital literacy focused academic papers. Research work in digital literacy is critical in a context of disruptive digital business, and more recently, the pandemic-triggered accelerated digitalisation (Beaunoyer, Dupéré & Guitton, 2020 ; Sousa & Rocha 2019 ). Moreover, most of these papers were employing qualitative research methods. The raw data of these articles were analysed qualitatively using systematic literature review to reveal major themes and categories. Four major themes that appeared are: digital literacy, digital competencies, digital skills and thinking.

Whereas the mainstream literature describes digital literacy as a set of photo-visual, real-time, information, branching, reproduction and social-emotional thinking (Eshet-Alkalai, 2012 ) or as a set of precise specific operations, i.e., finding, consuming, creating, communicating and sharing digital content (Heitin, 2016 ), this study reveals that digital literacy revolves around and is in connection with the concepts of computer literacy, media literacy, cultural literacy or disciplinary literacy. In other words, the present systematic review indicates that digital literacy is far broader than specific tasks, englobing the entire sphere of computer operation and media use in a cultural context.

The digital competence yardstick, DigComp (Carretero, Vuorikari & Punie, 2017 ) suggests that the main digital competencies cover information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, digital content creation, safety, and problem solving. Similarly, the findings of this research place digital competencies in relation to problem solving, safety, information processing, content creation and communication. Therefore, the findings of the systematic literature review are, to a large extent, in line with the existing framework used in the European Union.

The investigation of the main keywords associated with digital skills has revealed that information literacy, ICT, communication, collaboration, digital content creation, research and decision-making skill are the most representative. In a structured way, the existing literature groups these skills in technological, cognitive, and social (Ng, 2012 ) or, more extensively, into operational, formal, information Internet, strategic, communication and content creation (van Dijk & van Deursen, 2014 ). In time, the literature has become richer in frameworks, and prolific authors have improved their results. As such, more recent research (vaan Laar et al., 2017 ) use the following categories: technical, information management, communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving.

Whereas digital thinking was observed to be mostly related with critical thinking and computational thinking, DigComp connects it with critical thinking, creativity, and innovation, on the one hand, and researchers highlight fake news, misinformation, cybersecurity, and echo chambers as exponents of digital thinking, on the other hand (Sulzer, 2018 ; Puig, Blanco-Anaya & Perez-Maceira, 2021 ).

This systematic review research study looks ahead to offer an initial step and guideline for the development of a more contemporary digital literacy framework including digital literacy major themes and factors. The researchers provide the following recommendations for both researchers and practitioners.

Recommendations for prospective research

By considering the major qualitative research trend, it seems apparent that more quantitative research-oriented studies are needed. Although it requires more effort and time, mixed method studies will help understand digital literacy holistically.

As digital literacy is an umbrella term for many different technologies, specific case studies need be designed, such as digital literacy for artificial intelligence or digital literacy for drones’ usage.

Digital literacy affects different areas of human lives, such as education, business, health, governance, and so forth. Therefore, different case studies could be carried out for each of these unique dimensions of our lives. For instance, it is worth investigating the role of digital literacy on lifelong learning in particular, and on education in general, as well as the digital upskilling effects on the labour market flexibility.

Further experimental studies on digital literacy are necessary to realize how certain variables (for instance, age, gender, socioeconomic status, cognitive abilities, etc.) affect this concept overtly or covertly. Moreover, the digital divide issue needs to be analysed through the lens of its main determinants.

New bibliometric analysis method can be implemented on digital literacy documents to reveal more information on how these works are related or centred on what major topic. This visual approach will assist to realize the big picture within the digital literacy framework.

Recommendations for practitioners

The digital literacy stakeholders, policymakers in education and managers in private organizations, need to be aware that there are many dimensions and variables regarding the implementation of digital literacy. In that case, stakeholders must comprehend their beneficiaries or the participants more deeply to increase the effect of digital literacy related activities. For example, critical thinking and problem-solving skills and abilities are mentioned to affect digital literacy. Hence, stakeholders have to initially understand whether the participants have enough entry level critical thinking and problem solving.

Development of digital literacy for different groups of people requires more energy, since each group might require a different set of skills, abilities, or competencies. Hence, different subject matter experts, such as technologists, instructional designers, content experts, should join the team.

It is indispensably vital to develop different digital frameworks for different technologies (basic or advanced) or different contexts (different levels of schooling or various industries).

These frameworks should be updated regularly as digital fields are evolving rapidly. Every year, committees should gather around to understand new technological trends and decide whether they should address the changes into their frameworks.

Understanding digital literacy in a thorough manner can enable decision makers to correctly implement and apply policies addressing the digital divide that is reflected onto various aspects of life, e.g., health, employment, education, especially in turbulent times such as the COVID-19 pandemic is.

Lastly, it is also essential to state the study limitations. This study is limited to the analysis of a certain number of papers, obtained from using the selected keywords and databases. Therefore, an extension can be made by adding other keywords and searching other databases.

Availability of data and materials

The authors present the articles used for the study in “ Appendix A ”.

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Department of Economics and Economic Policies, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania

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Abu Dhabi School of Management, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

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Tinmaz, H., Lee, YT., Fanea-Ivanovici, M. et al. A systematic review on digital literacy. Smart Learn. Environ. 9 , 21 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-022-00204-y

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Cyber & Digital Literacy

"Definition and Importance"

What is Cyber/Digital Literacy?

While the term "literacy" by itself normally refers to reading and writing abilities, when the word "cyber" is added before it, it incorporates a lot more. Cyber Literacy is defined as the capacity to use computer technology successfully while also understanding the consequences of those actions. It's also crucial to know where to go in cyberspace to find dependable and accurate materials, sometimes known as cyber intelligence. Understanding is important because it entails not just knowing how to utilize technology but also being aware of one's actions.

"Cyber literacy" is best defined as understanding where to go on the Internet to find reliable and correct information. It focuses on assisting students in locating relevant resources and avoiding inaccuracies.

Digital literacy is the ability to live, learn, and work in a society where communication and information access are increasingly facilitated by digital technologies such as the Internet, social media, and mobile devices.

Digital literacy, also called cyberliteracy, is the ability to use computers and other digital technologies in the best way possible.

Digital literacy has nothing to do with your age or job. Instead, it's all about the skills you need to grow, communicate, and do well in the digital age. These skills include:

Handling different devices and operating systems.

Navigating through various online platforms.

Understanding how the digital world works.

Using technology creatively and innovatively to solve problems.

Identifying information within different types of media.

Evaluating digital resources critically.

Recognizing and handling digital threats.

Using digital tools in a safe and ethical way.

Creating and sharing information effectively.

Even though digital literacy is new, it is still related to other kinds of literacy. Together, they help us learn about the world, connect with other people, and grow as community members.

Jisc's digital capabilities: The six elements

Digital Capabilities

Digital capability refers to the abilities and attitudes that individuals and organizations must possess in order to survive in the modern world. Individuals with digital skills can adapt and prosper in a modern learning environment while also contributing to a global society.

Being digitally literate can show your versatility and ability to pick up new skills and behaviors. It displays high ethical, responsible, and culturally aware behavior when it comes to technology and the law; a digitally literate person is ethical, responsible, and culturally aware in their interactions with others.

Your employability is directly influenced by your digital literacy skills. Employers are searching for proof of candidates' digital literacy; those who can function well as independent learners are more likely to succeed in the job market and their future jobs.

Importance of Cyber/ Digital Literacy

Just like we use money every day and should know how it works, we need to know how computers work so we can protect our data, find information faster, avoid phishing, and do a lot more.

As a college student, you really need to know how to use technology. It will also be very important in the future when you start working. At your job, you'll need to interact with people in digital environments, use information in the right way, and work with others to come up with new ideas and products. As the digital world continues to change quickly, you'll need to keep your digital identity and well-being in good shape.

Digitally literate students understand how to locate and consume digital content. They understand how to develop, communicate, and distribute digital material. Students who are developing digital literacy skills understand the fundamentals of Internet safety, such as choosing strong passwords, understanding and utilizing privacy settings, and knowing what to publish and what not to share on social media. They are aware of the dangers of cyberbullying and work to stop current bullies as well as prevent others from cyberbullying.

More About Digital Literacy

Cyber literacy . (n.d.). Rosen Publishing. https://rosenpublishing.com/product/cyber-literacy

Devon. (2021, January 27). What is cyber literacy and why is it important? Cybint. https://www.cybintsolutions.com/what-is-cyber-literacy-why-important/#:~:text=By%20definition%2C%20Cyber%20Literacy%20means,otherwise%20known%20as%20cyber%20intelligence

What is digital literacy? (n.d.). https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/studysmart/home/study_skills_guides/digital_literacy/what_is_digital_literacy

What is digital literacy and why it's crucial to us now | CyberGhostVPN privacy hub . (2021, March 4). CyberGhostVPN Privacy Hub - Latest Privacy and Security News. https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/privacyhub/what-is-digital-literacy-and-why-its-crucial-to-us-now/

What is digital literacy and why does it matter? (2019, April 12). Renaissance. https://www.renaissance.com/2019/02/08/blog-digital-literacy-why-does-it-matter/

What is digital capability? (n.d.). JISC. https://www.digitalcapability.jisc.ac.uk/what-is-digital-capability/#:~:text=Digital%20capability%20is%20the%20term,work%20in%20a%20digital%20society

Library & student services: Digital literacy: What is digital literacy? (2019, October 2). Library & Student Services at AECC University College. https://libguides.aecc.ac.uk/digitalliteracy#:~:text=Information%2C%20media%20and%20data%20literacy,Learning%20and%20personal%2Fprofessional%20development

Photos from:

https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/studysmart/home/study_skills_guides/digital_literacy/what_is_digital_literacy

https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2021/07/13/teachers-digital-literacy-teaching-online/