Digital Literacy: A Vital Competence for 2010?

People are living in a fast changing world today in both their business and personal lives. With the rate of change in technology continuing at Gordon Moore’s 1965 predictions [1], what competencies are needed to take full advantage of today’s Knowledge Society? The EU has recognised the need for digital literacy and has included this in the definition of eInclusion [2]. This paper defines digital literacy as a competence which is vital for all citizens, examines the changing definitions of digital literacy, looks at what the certification bodies are saying and proposes the competencies which are required and which define digital literacy today.

[1]  C. Dyke,et al.  Taking “computer literacy” literally , 1987, CACM.

[2]  John Mason,et al.  YACLD: yet another computer literacy definition , 2006 .

[3]  Sebastiaan Jans,et al.  E-learning Competencies for Teachers in Secondary and Higher Education , 2009, iJET.

[4]  Alfred E. Brenner,et al.  Moore's Law , 1997, Science.

[5]  Ruben Jans,et al.  Digital Portfolio: a Strategy for Teachers Professional Development , 2008, iJET.

[6]  Martin Hand.  Making Digital Cultures: Access, Interactivity, and Authenticity , 2008 .

[7]  Michelle Mitchell.  Age Concern and Help the Aged , 2009 .

[8]  Gireesh K. Gupta.  Computer literacy: essential in today's computer-centric world , 2006, SGCS.

[9]  Ela Klecun,et al.  Digital Literacy for Health: The Promise of Health 2.0 , 2010, Int. J. Digit. Lit. Digit. Competence.

[10]  Arthur Luehrmann,et al.  Computer Literacy , 1983 .

[11]  Diane M. Spresser.  A moderate approach to computer literacy , 1985, SIGCSE '85.

[12]  Anthony G. Wilhelm.  Digital Nation: Toward an Inclusive Information Society , 2004 .

[13]  Catherine Waterhouse,et al.  Social exclusion among older people: a preliminary study from inner-city Melbourne , 2005 .

[14]  P. Gilster.  Digital Literacy , 1997, Encyclopedia of Education and Information Technologies.

[15]  Tim Berners-Lee,et al.  The World-Wide Web , 1994, CACM.

[16]  John Norton Moore.  Federalism and Foreign Relations , 1965 .

[17]  Jorge Pérez,et al.  Computing for the masses: extending the computer science curriculum with information technology literacy , 2008 .

[18]  Yair Amichai-Hamburger,et al.  Experiments in Digital Literacy , 2004, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[19]  Paul-Brian McInerney.  Making Digital Cultures: Access, Interactivity, and Authenticity , 2010 .

[20]  Burton S. Kaliski,et al.  Moore's Law , 2005, Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security.