Defining digital literacy isn’t as straightforward as it seems. I had to dissect the immediate thoughts that came up when I heard that term. The world relates “digital” to all types of technology. And literacy is easiest understood as the ability to read and write. According to Doug Eyman’s “Defining and Locating Digital Rhetoric”, that term goes a little bit deeper than that.
Digital
Digital literacy is a requirement of digital rhetoric. It is complex because it requires the user to be able to read and write with a number of sign systems. For example, web pages, video/audio, animation, etc. Each of these has its own functional and critical requirements. However, “digital” is not limited to only technological things. Anything that can be manipulated with our hands to store or share information is considered digital. For example, writing with a pen and paper.
Literacy
Literacy is more than just knowing how to read and write. Not all information can be put into words. Sometimes it’s shown with pictures or symbols instead. Literacy is also the ability to understand a specific topic. Due to the fact there are multiple areas of things someone can be knowledgeable of, it’s difficult to have just one definition.
Combining digital and literacy together is hard to understand. However, Eyman acknowledges that literacy will evolve forever. As years pass and technology and society changes, literacy will too. His resolution for this is multiliteracies. This term was intentionally created to be not too exclusive or inclusive. It is for the general knowledge of multiple different literacies, hence the name multiliteracies.
Clearly, digital literacy is far more complicated than it’s made out to be. We do not really take into account the ideas and examples of how we use digital literacy on a day to day basis without even realizing it. Digital literacy is developing more every day and students should be informed sooner on how important it is.
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