Digital Literacy: What is Digital Literacy?

The term “digital literacy,” also referred to as digital fluency, builds on several historic literacy movements. In the 1960s, media literacy encompassed critical approaches to interpret mass media, and information literacy helped users beginning in the late 1980s to navigate the burgeoning internet for information. Digital literacy embodies these precursors’ philosophies of skepticism about content and critical thinking, while upgrading them for the digital age. This next incarnation in the evolution of literacy includes addressing users not only as consumers, but also as content producers.

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCAT) has developed a framework for digital literacy. To be successful in the global society, one must:
* Participate effectively and critically in a networked world;
* Explore and engage critically, thoughtfully, and across a wide variety of inclusive texts and tools/modalities;
* Consume, curate, and create actively across contexts;
* Advocate for equitable access to and accessibility of texts, tools, and information;
* Build and sustain intentional global and cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so as to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought;
* Promote culturally sustaining communication and recognize the bias and privilege present in the interactions;
* Examine the rights, responsibilities, and ethical implications of the use and creation of information;
* Determine how and to what extent texts and tools amplify one’s own and others’ narratives as well as counter unproductive narratives;
* Recognize and honor the multilingual literacy identities and culture experiences individuals bring to learning environments, and provide opportunities to promote, amplify, and encourage these differing variations of language (e.g., dialect, jargon, register).

Stony Brook University Libraries defines digital literacy as the ability to use digital technology, communication tools or networks to locate, evaluate, use and create information.

Virginia Tech University Libraries defines digital literacy as a set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that empower learners to engage with their digital lives. Digital literacy at Virginia Tech includes data, information, media, and invention literacies, which are comprised of key values built on core competencies. These competencies empower learners to become engaged global citizens in a digital world. They are as follows: Identity & Wellbeing, Discovery, Evaluation, Ethics, Creation & Scholarship, Communication & Collaboration and Curation.

The concept of digital literacy encompasses a range of skills and knowledge necessary to evaluate, use, and create digital information in various forms. Digital literacies include data literacy, information literacy, visual literacy, media literacy, and metaliteracy, as well as related capacities for assessing social and ethical issues in our digital world. Administrators, faculty members, librarians, instructional designers, and others have a pivotal role to play in helping students understand how information is shaped and shared today across the digital landscape.