Digital is different forms of communications, and Literacy is the ability to read and write or having knowledge and understanding of how things work. So put them together and digital literacy is having a very good understanding of how things work digitally. Because I know how to read, write and understand written words, and seeing that writing is also digital, it Is safe to say that I have digital literacy. I can take it a step further to say I am fluent in literacy, but not fluent in digital literacy. To build up fluency we would need to have the ability to manipulate our literacies in a way that gives us the same results and traditional approach.
Is Digital Literacy Complex?
Yes I think so. Almost everyone has some kind of literacy. As iImentioned earlier literacy isn’t just knowing how to read and write. It’s also having a good understanding of how things work, and that can be anything for any one. I have quite a few literacy myself. I have hair braiding literacy and crocheting literacy. My best-Friend has accounting literacy, but not everyone has digital literacy. According to Eyman digital literacy requires people to be able to read and write with a number of signed systems. It goes beyond the textual and it include the effective use of symbolic systems, visual representations of language and digital object manipulations. This is where complexity comes in. Literacy relates to communication skills and values rather than on the skills required to use a computer. However, Computer literacy is a necessary component of digital literacy. It would be very challenging using a computer without some understanding of how it works. In my Last post I mentioned that peoples choice of platform will often depends on the digital literacies. If my computer literacy is not great, I may choose to get my news by reading the news paper. The complexity may bee too much.
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