Defining terms that many take for granted, including myself and both Millennials and Zoomers, is, for the most part, very difficult. We have had it most, if not all, of our lives; it is what it is. Right? Well, Doug Eyman’s “Digital Literacy” § (pp. 45–49) in Defining and Locating Digital Rhetoric explains the necessity behind a concrete concept for digital literacy. Often, we confuse digital with technological, electronic, and computer. Despite the fact that those concepts do take part in what digital is, each of them has its own concrete definition.
The components in relation to digital literacy
Technology, electronic, and computer literacy are key to understanding how digital works and how to use it. The common user doesn’t necessarily care for electronic literacy, but depending on one’s career, you may want to take it into consideration to expand your professional literacy. On the other hand, technology and computer literacy are fundamentally important if one wants to become fluent in digital literacy. Once again, younger generations are “naturals” when it comes to these types of literacy, but elders require extra adaptation steps to use technology and computers in an efficient manner when using new technological artifacts or programs.
Back to Modern Basics: Gaining Digital Literacy
Now, leaving aside those who need to get more familiar with technology and computer literacy and thinking of newer generations’ basic needs to be more experienced in the virtual world, how do we set a minimum limit to necessary concepts? From my personal stand as a young zillennial who didn’t receive much resourceful education in cybernetics terms, there are a few things I consider imperative for younger generations to learn.
Hardware
First things first, we need to learn what we can touch and what is physical, from hardware to software. Students need to have a basic understanding of most common cables and connections; what are those used for, which one travels faster, and maybe even how to repair a cable! Additionally, there should be an exploration of different hardware technologies like cameras, computers, interfaces, receivers, SD cards, and remotes, where students can figure out what the essential buttons (or commands) control remotes should have, depending on what they are controlling.
Software
Once we have a basic understanding of hardware, we can move to software. Schools should have an elementary class that focuses on using our primordial operating systems (OSs) like MacOS, Windows, and Linux. This class would explore the main functions of each OS, keyboard functions and commands, different pointers and their functions, essential or included programs, and storage needs. Moving on things, students will need to learn the World Wide Web, looking at internet browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Explorer, and discuss the basics of the Internet: cookies, cachè, VPNs, IP addresses, browser extensions, and computer protection.
All this knowledge should serve as a precedent for studying particular OS unaffiliated programs. Here, students will learn industry-standard programs for a series of lines of work. These should include, but are not limited to, Google Office programs, Adobe Creative Cloud, introduction to software like Slack or Webex, social media platforms as a professional tool, website hosting services and domain sellers, introduction to programming languages and software, and basic programming for website hosting.
All That Just to be Digitally Literate?!
I know, I know. I know it seems like a lot, especially compared to the education I had and the potential audience reading this blog post that had no idea what any of that meant. However, I believe that the education of the aforementioned concepts, hardware, software, and programs is the absolute basics for students to be prepared for college and the professional world. As fast as technology advances are moving, knowledge of how to use hardware and software is extremely important to promote one’s professional growth in alignment with a technological society. Only this way, I believe one can achieve digital literacy, which is no longer just a privilege, but also a necessity.
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