importance of critical thinking in digital literacy

What Is Digital Literacy and Why Is It Important?

• Updated on March 6, 2024

Digital literacy confines our skills required to understand and use digital technologies. It involves peoples critical thinking and ability to navigate online environments.

In this modern world digital age means more than just using technology. It’s about competence to access, analyze, create, and communicate in an increasingly digital world. 

Digital literacy is not only based on a single aspect, it also spans various dimensions including knowledge of basic hardware and software, understanding of internet navigation, and the ethical use of online platforms.

From students to professionals must cultivate these competencies to thrive in modern society. As the digital landscape evolves, staying digitally literate is a continuous journey, essential for participation in the global economy and for engaging with a broader community in an effective, safe, and secure manner.

Digital literacy has become a fundamental skill in the 21st century, related to reading and writing in previous centuries. It bounds a range of abilities that are essential for navigating the technology-saturated world we live in today. Digital Literacy is not merely about knowing how to use a computer; it involves critical thinking and digital problem-solving skills that enable individuals to engage, express, collaborate, and communicate in all aspects of life.

According to the American Library Association (ALA), Digital literacy is the ability to search, evaluate, and communicate information through technology. Beside usage of digital tools it is also a matter of understanding how to use them effectively and responsibly. 

This type of literacy helps you in equipping yourself with the skills to navigate the digital realm safely and confidently.

Importance Of Digital Literacy

Relevance of digital literacy cannot be overstated. In this time of digital age, the ability to understand and utilize technology influences every aspect of life—from personal growth to global participation in the digital economy. Some main key points for highlight its significance are:

• Employment Opportunities: Proficiency in digital tools is often a prerequisite for job candidates.
• Educational Resources: Digital skills open up a wealth of learning materials online.
• Global Communication: Internet breaks down geographical barriers, allowing instant interaction with diverse cultures.
• Information Literacy: Being digitally literate aids in discerning the credibility of online content.

Evolution Of Digital Literacy

Concept of digital literacy has changed as technology has advanced. It began with basic ability to operate a computer and now includes a wide range of competencies:

Progression of digital literacy highlights an ongoing shift toward more complex and integrated uses of technology. To stay current, individuals and organizations must adapt and continuously refine their digital skill sets.

Digital Literacy Skills

Understanding digital literacy skills is essential in our technology-driven age. To thrive in the digital realm, mastering these competencies is crucial as learning to read and write. In essence, digital literacy encompasses a wide array of skills ranging from information evaluation to the responsible use of online platforms. Here, we delve into the core abilities that define a digitally literate individual.

Critical Thinking And Evaluation

In this time of globalization, critical thinking and evaluation are paramount. Digital users must discern credible information from misleading content. This necessitates:

• Analysis of digital resources for accuracy and bias
• Assessment of the relevancy and currency of online data
• Understanding the nuances between opinion and fact

Users who are Equipped with these skills, can navigate the vast digital landscape with a discerning eye by ensuring the veracity and usefulness of consumed information.

Communication And Collaboration

Digital environment extends beyond individual use. Now it’s become a social platform where communication and collaboration reign supreme. Core skills include:

• Effective digital communication using various platforms like email, forums, and social media
• Collaboration using online tools such as shared documents, project management software, and virtual meeting spaces
• Understanding digital etiquette, including tone, privacy, and respect for intellectual property

With these capabilities, one can participate in global conversations, contribute to group projects, and foster community regardless of physical boundaries.

Privacy And Security Awareness

Digital users must be vigilant about privacy and security. Key elements of this critical skill set include:

A solid grounding in these areas is indispensable for ensuring personal and professional data remains secure from various threats.

Principles of Digital Literacy

Digital literacy is grounded in four fundamental principles. Each of the principles forming the core of developing digital literacy skills. Principles of Digital Literacy are as follows:

Understand What You See Online: Digital literacy means knowing how to really get what you’re looking at on the internet. It’s not just about the surface stuff, but digging deeper to grasp the details on digital platforms.

Realize Everything Is Connected: Digital stuff on the web is like a big web of connections. When you know how things link up, you can use digital content better.

Know People Are Different: Remember, online, people come from all walks of life, like different ages, have various educations, jobs, and families. All of these things impact how stuff is made, shared, and stored online.

Learn to Organize What You Find: Think of digital curation as creating your own online library. You can pick and choose what you want to keep, so you can easily find it later.

Above 4 principles are like a map to help you navigate in the digital world. It can help you to understand, connect dots, respect diversity, and stay organized in the vast world of the internet.

Digital Literacy For Lifelong Learning

Embracing the concept of digital literacy is critical in a evolved digital world, especially with its profound impact on lifelong learning. This type of learning is not just confined to the classroom; it extends into every facet of our lives. 

Digital literacy enhances the ability to learn new skills, adapt to changing environments, and access vast resources available through technology. Let’s delve into the various ways digital literacy propels learners of all ages towards ongoing personal and professional development.

Professional Development

In today’s fast-paced world, staying competitive means never standing still. Professional development is a perpetual journey, and digital literacy offers the tools necessary for this quest. With digital competencies, individuals can:

• Enhance job performance by keeping up with industry trends and software updates.
• Participate in online workshops, webinars, and courses that fit within busy schedules.
• Collaborate with global experts, gaining insights and exchanging ideas.

Access To Online Resources

Internet is a treasure trove of information and learning materials— from scholarly articles to instructional videos, educational games to digital libraries. Those who are digitally literate unlock the potential to:

• Discover a wide range of resources tailored to specific learning needs and interests.
• Drive self-paced learning by accessing online tutorials, courses, and certification programs.
• Engage with interactive and multimedia content for a more enriching learning experience.

Navigating The Digital Landscape

Digital landscape is vast and navigating it can be daunting without the necessary skills. Digital literacy empowers individuals to navigate the digital world with confidence and ease. By being digitally literate, users can:

• Identify credible information and avoid the pitfalls of misinformation.
• Use various tools and platforms effectively, from social media to cloud storage.
• Protect personal information and privacy through understanding cybersecurity basics.

Digital Literacy Skills and Their Everyday Use

Digital literacy skills necessary  for people to navigate in this digital world effectively. These skills can be applied in the following ways:

• Digital media: Skills in digital literacy allows ease and comfort of navigating digital media in everyday life.
• Researching: Individuals will gain the ability to find information and identify reliable sources within different digital platforms.
• Social Inclusivity: Digital literacy skills removes barriers of location, allowing for an increase in social opportunities and connection with those online. 
• Understanding Digital Media: With these skills people will be more familiar with common digital media terms and will be able to navigate digital features in their totality.

How to Develop Digital Literacy Skills

Here are some tips from experts to develop and strengthen digital literacy skills. 

• Explore with digital tools to understand how they work.
• Stay updated about the latest technologies to remain relevant.
• Focus on technology devices and digital platforms that align with your needs and preferences.
• Be open to learning new things as the digital landscape is always evolving.
• Enroll in online courses to gain insight into different digital technologies and their uses.
• Seek help when encountering new technology devices or platforms.

Frequently Asked Questions On What Is Digital Literacy

What is meant by digital literacy.

Digital literacy refers to an individual’s ability to find, evaluate, and compose clear information through writing and other mediums on various digital platforms. It is crucial for effective communication and problem-solving in the digital age.

  Why Is Digital Literacy Important?

  Digital literacy is important as it empowers people to navigate technology confidently. This includes safely managing personal data, understanding online resources, and being proficient in digital tools, which are vital skills in today’s tech-driven world.

  How Can You Improve Your Digital Literacy?

  Improving digital literacy involves regular use of technology, seeking education through online courses or workshops, and practicing critical evaluation of digital content. Staying updated with technological advancements also greatly enhances digital literacy skills.

  What Are The Key Components Of Digital Literacy?

  Key components of digital literacy include technical skills to use devices, cognitive skills for critical thinking, and ethical understanding for responsible use of technology.  

Bottom Line

Nowadays digital literacy is becoming one of the essential parts for individuals navigating this digital world. Development of these skills ensures that individuals can explore digital platforms safely and responsibly.

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Teaching critical digital literacy

Critical digital literacy is a set of skills, competencies, and analytical viewpoints that allows a person to use, understand, and create digital media and tools. Related to information literacy skills such as numeracy, listening, speaking, reading, writing and critical thinking, the goal of critical digital literacy is to develop active and engaged thinkers and creators in digital environments. Digital literacy is more than technological understanding or computer skills and involves a range of reflective, ethical, and social perspectives on digital activities.

See also studies of "Critical Media Literacy."

This article is based on work done by Robin Davis as part of the Folger Institute’s Early Modern Digital Agendas (2013) institute. We welcome the addition of resources and readings, particularly those focused on teaching digital literacy from an early modernist perspective and critically analyzing the digital tools related to early modern studies.

• 1 Multi-literacies of digital environments
• 2 Teaching critical early modern digital literacy
• 3 Pedagogical settings for digital literacy
• 4.2 Exercises
• 4.3 Information about tools and infrastructure
• 5.1 Introductions
• 5.2 Short reads
• 5.3 Long reads

Multi-literacies of digital environments

Juliet Hinrichsen and Antony Coombs at the University of Greenwich propose a "5 Resources Model" for articulating the scope and dimensions of digital literacies. The five resources are:

• Decoding : Learners need to develop familiarity with the structures and conventions of digital media, sensitivity to the different modes at work within digital artifacts and confident use of the operational frameworks within which they exist. These skills focus on understanding the navigational mechanisms and movement of the digital landscape (buttons, scrolling, windows, bars); understanding the norms and practices of digital environments (safety and online behavior, community norms, privacy and sharing); understanding common operations (e.g. saving, upload and download, organizing files); recognizing and evaluating stylistics (e.g. the social codes embedded in color, font, transition, and layout choices); and recognizing that different modes of digital texts (twitter streams, video, immersive games) have different characteristics and conventions.
• Meaning Making : This aspect maps onto other well-recognized literacy concepts in recognizing the agency of the learner as a participant in constructing meaning. This dimension of digital literacy focuses on reading , the fluent assimilation of digital content and the ability to follow a narrative across diverse semantic, visual and structural elements; relating , or recognizing relationships between new and existing knowledge and adapting mental models; and expressing , or the capacity to translate a purpose, intention, feeling or idea into a digital form.
• Using : Learners need to develop the ability to effectively and creatively deploy digital tools. This includes finding the tool and the requisite evaluation of different tool options, effectively apply tools and techniques, employ problem solving, and have the confidence to explore, experiment, and innovate to create solutions with imaginative approaches, techniques, or content.
• Analyzing : Learners need to develop the ability to make informed judgements and choices in the digital domain. This includes deconstructing digital resources to analyze their constituent parts, selecting resources and tools, and interrogating the provenance, purpose, and structures that affect digital content and influence its output.
• Persona : Sensitivity to the issues of reputation, identity and membership within different digital contexts. In identity building, learners develop a sense of their own role in digital environments; reputation management emphasizes the importance of building and maintaining both individual and community reputations as assets; while participation focuses on the nature of the collaborative (both synchronous and asynchronous) contributions that make up many digital projects and their ethical and cultural challenges.

Teaching critical early modern digital literacy

Students encounter early modern texts, images, and objects through an increasing array of digital tools and sources. By reading an edited version of Macbeth via the Folger Digital Texts, critiquing a digital facsimile of a pamphlet on Early English Books Online, or navigating the Agas Map at the Map of Early Modern London , digital texts and tools allow for interactive and expansive exploration of early modern topics. In encouraging students to engage with early modern literature and history through these tools, we also need to provide them with the skills to analyze the tool, its intended audiences, its affordances and limitations. By teaching students how to assess digital editions and tools critically, we can prepare them not only to select the best tools for their purpose, but also provide the skills necessary for further development of digital texts, tools, and resources. Critical digital literacy is the first step towards digital authorship.

Pedagogical settings for digital literacy

Critical digital literacy, writ broadly, is taught in a variety of settings, including humanities and information courses; public, academic, and special collections libraries; and K-12 classrooms and after-school programs. The articles listed below present a variety of perspectives on the benefits of critical digital literacy and point to some of the fields in which discussions of critical digital literacy are taking place.

• Graduate education; Rhetoric and Composition.
• Undergraduate education; English Department.
• High school education and postsecondary education; English, Art, Preservice teacher education.
• High School, Academic standards and student attitudes.
• Undergraduate education; Academic libraries.

Teaching resources and exercises

Many digital literacy exercises are designed to make the affordances of specific tools visible. Many students treat digital humanities tools as "black boxes": opaque systems in which a user provides input and receives a product, but does not have information about what happens in between. The goal of many of these exercises is to make the box a little less opaque and open up digital humanities tools, programs, and databases to criticism. We want students to question the assumptions and choices made in the selection, organization, and presentation of content and understand what their tools are doing for them.

http://dhbox.org/ : streamlines installation processes and provides a digital humanities laboratory in the cloud through simple sign-in via a web browser.

• How to see through the cloud : using traceroute to walk through the physical network of the Internet
• Governing Algorithms: Provocation piece : short essay split into 38 provocations concerning algorithms, policy, and practice. #21 is a great discussion starter, courtesy of Solon Barocas, Sophie Hood, and Malte Ziewitz.
• Teaching with Lingfish : Using the Early Modern Recipe Archive, Luna, the OED, and EEBO to examine how different repositories deal with fish, courtesy of Nancy Simpson-Younger.

Information about tools and infrastructure

• The Basement : what an internet hub for a major American city looks like, courtesy of Cabel Sasser.

Further reading

Introductions.

• Folgerpedia's Glossary of digital humanities terms
• A career-focused and skills-focused list of resources by the Department of Commerce. This page allows practitioners in service-oriented organizations—such as libraries, schools, community centers, community colleges, and workforce training centers—to find digital literacy content.
• This section looks at the various aspects and principles relating to digital literacy and the many skills and competencies that fall under the digital literacy umbrella. The relationship between digital literacy and digital citizenship is also explored and tips are provided for teaching these skills in the classroom.
• Kellner, Douglas and Jeff Share, "Toward Critical Media Literacy: Core concepts, debates, organizations, and policy," Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education . 26, no. 3 (September 2005): 369-86.

Short reads

• Practicing Freedom in the Digital Library by Barbara Fister in Library Journal (2013)
• Beyond Citation student project at the CUNY Graduate Center (2014)
• Digital Humanities Pedagogy: Practices, Principles, and Politics edited by Brett D. Hirsch (2012)
• "Hacking the Classroom: Eight Perspectives" Eds. Mary Hocks and Jentry Sayers. Computers and Composition Online . (Spring 2014).
• Suggested readings from CRTCLDGTL , a reading group at Northwestern
• Never Neutral: Critical Approaches to Digital Tools & Culture in the Humanities , essay by Josh Honn (2013)
• Folger Institute
• Digital humanities
• Bibliography

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Critical Thinking: The Key to Digital Literacy

By: fishtree - november 10, 2014.

How should we define digital literacy? Educational leader and PhD student, Lynnea West, explains her research on the principle ways of redefining education through technology, using digital literacy as a key driver: “I would hope that moving forward, we just call them ‘literacies’ and they’re just considered essential components of good literacy practices. We’re living in an online world and digital tools are our reality , so literacy in the broader context is just how we make meaning of what we’re reading or interpreting and how that joins together with our place in the world.”

The concept of digital literacy has been broken down in numerous attempts to define what constitutes a ‘digital native’ and what skills are central to our understanding and interpretation of digital content. Lynnea argues the key to fostering a digital mindset lies in the emphasis of critical thinking. “Critical thinking has always been emphasized in literacy skills but they become much more apparent when it comes to interpreting digital content”, she says. Referencing the work of Dr. Julie Coiro and Donald J. Leu, Lynnea explains, “there’s actually no real correlation between how well a student reads on paper and how well a student can read in a digital environment, so you have to teach those skills and strategies really explicitly about analyzing and evaluating.”

The Evolution of Literacy

Lynnea outlines how digital technology has changed the way we interact with text, taking a more collaborative approach to the way in which we make meaning. “Before, it was like: ‘Here’s your paper, do your worksheet’. Now, we have the opportunity to represent our thinking using visual images in a collage, or by creating a video, so we have a lot of different ways to respond to reading. We also get the opportunity to create meaning together. For example, when responding to a concept, you can create your meaning and demonstrate that through a video. Then, your students can reply to that video and the story gets continued. So it’s not just this singular piece anymore, it’s this dynamic and multimodal process, it’s a back and forth, and it’s collaborative . ”

Lynnea describes technology’s potential to give every single student a voice, showcasing student creativity and critical thinking skills like never before. “If you have a student who is somewhat quiet in a face-to-face conversation, they may just need that time to process, think, listen and then reflect later, and have their voice heard. So you can use technology to increase student voice in a way that they’d never have been able to before.”

The Digital Native

There has been widespread debate on the topic of the digital native, and whether or not the digital generation should inherit the title. Lynnea explains her logic that it’s not simply a question of ‘being’, but rather of ‘becoming’, a digital native. “I’m not in the generation of the digital native but I can certainly navigate my way through technology”, she says. “I don’t think it’s as simple as you are or you aren’t, I think you can be developed in whatever it is that you want to do. Anything, if you have that growth mindset, you can take to the next level .”

While most educators are moving towards this digital mindset, many remain reluctant to embrace the ‘digital native’ status. Lynnea argues that much of this reluctance boils down to the fear of letting go. “I think there are some teachers who have been teaching with pretty impressive results, who feel a sense of mastery, and it’s really uncomfortable to let that go”, she says.

Blurred Lines

Another reason for such reluctance, Lynnea explains, is the blurring of lines between students and teacher, as the traditional school structure begins to change shape. With educators now being urged to join in the learning cycle with their students, the idea of taking a back seat remains frightening to some. “It’s going to continue to change and evolve, and I think the students will be the drivers of that, and that makes the lines a little blurry between teachers and students… Who’s the learner? And who’s the teacher? ”

While many may grimace at the idea of these blurred lines, Lynnea is excited at the prospect of students taking the reigns. “To me, this is awesome. I have two kids, and if they can be put in the role of leader at the age of eleven, then great. That’s a sense of mastery and accomplishment. It’s exciting to me to have those roles a little more blurry”, she says.

As literacies continue to evolve and adapt to our more complex, digital surroundings, the skills at the center are gaining more significance than ever. Could critical thinking be the key driver in our quest for the ‘digital native’? Should educators take a step back to promote the innovative mindset of the 21st century? Are we essentially foreigners in the land of the digital generation? Perhaps it’s time for us to indulge in some critical thinking of our own.

P.S. If you liked this post, you might want to check out fishtree.com . Start teaching with the 21st century learning platform today… the ideal tool for adaptive, blended and mobile learning!

About the author:

Lorna Keane is a teacher of French, English and ESL. She specializes in language teaching and has taught in second and third-level institutions in several countries. She holds a B.A in languages and cultural studies and an M.A in French literature, theory and visual culture. Follow her on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn .

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Image credits:  Lucélia Ribeiro  /  CC BY 2.0

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The Digital Literacy Imperative

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Table of Contents

Brief by Romina Bandura and Elena I. Méndez Leal

Published July 18, 2022

Available Downloads

• Download the CSIS Brief 1106kb

The Issue: 

• Digital literacy has become indispensable for every global citizen, whether to communicate, find employment, receive comprehensive education, or socialize. Acquiring the right set of digital skills is not only important for learning and workforce readiness but also vital to foster more open, inclusive, and secure societies.
• Digital literacy , like other competencies, should start at school. However, many education systems lack the proper infrastructure, technological equipment, teacher training, or learning benchmarks to effectively integrate digital literacy into curriculums.

Effective strategies to address digital literacy and skill-building will require public and private investments in digital infrastructure, policy and governance frameworks, and training in the use of digital technologies.

• The U.S. government—particularly through the work of the U.S. Agency for International Aid (USAID) , its premier development agency—can partner with the private sector, local organizations, and civil society to lead and support an international coalition on digital skills. It can lead in this space by convening a multistakeholder working group on digital skills, investing in skills development among vulnerable and excluded populations (such as women and girls), and enhancing digital skills in basic curriculums.

Introduction

Reading, writing, and numeracy: these are foundational skills people learn at school and continue using throughout their lifetimes. But as societies evolve and technology progresses, the learning needs and demands of one generation change for the next. Curriculums in educational institutions must keep up with these changes to reflect the new realities. They do so by removing outdated content, incorporating new disciplines, and innovating with new educational tools and techniques. While previous American generations learned Latin and shorthand, current generations learn Spanish or French and practice typing. In many public schools across the United States, cursive handwriting is no longer taught. Children now practice writing and typing using new technology such as tablets and computers, not typewriters. In advanced countries, educational equipment such as blackboards, chalkboards, and even whiteboards have been replaced with high-tech tools such as Promethean boards.

While numeracy and basic literacy are still fundamental to learning, digital literacy has emerged as another critical life skill and is now, per the World Economic Forum, part of the twenty-first-century toolkit (see Figure 1). Beyond basic literacy, digital skills have become indispensable for every global citizen, whether to communicate, find employment, receive comprehensive education , or socialize. More than 90 percent of professional roles in across sectors in Europe require a basic level of digital knowledge and understanding. This need has become even more evident during the Covid-19 pandemic, making it more urgent for countries to embrace digital technologies and their associated skills.

Figure 1: The Skills Toolkit for the Twenty-First Century

To keep up with technological advancements, companies need to hire employees that have the right skills. However, workforces are not always equipped with the requisite digital skills, and businesses often struggle to find qualified talent. Digital skills are at a premium, even in advanced economies. For instance, the European Union’s Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) shows that approximately 42 percent of Europeans lack basic digital skills, including 37 percent of those in the workforce. Women are particularly underrepresented in tech-related professions; only one in six information and communications technology (ICT) specialists and one in three science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduates are women.

However, acquiring the right set of digital skills is not only important for learning and workforce readiness: digital skills are also vital to fostering more open, inclusive, and secure societies. When people interact with digital infrastructure, they need to be aware of the privacy and data risks as well as cybersecurity challenges (e.g., ransomware and phishing attacks). Thus, digital literacy also includes handling security and safety challenges created by technology. At the same time, with the rise of digital authoritarianism , misinformation, and disinformation , as well as limitations on personal freedoms, it is equally important to maintain a values framework for digital transformation.

Acquiring the right set of digital skills is not only important for learning and workforce readiness: digital skills are also vital to fostering more open, inclusive, and secure societies.

Digital Literacy in a Continuum

What exactly does “digital literacy” entail? There are many competing definitions, but it can be thought of as the ability to use digital technologies—both hardware and software—safely and appropriately. According to the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO ) , this includes competencies such as using ICT, processing information, and engaging with media. However, digital skills do not exist in a vacuum and interact with other capabilities such as general literacy and numeracy, social and emotional skills, critical thinking, complex problem solving, and the ability to collaborate.

Digital skills also have different degrees of complexity. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), digital skills exist along a continuum ranging from basic to intermediate to advanced (see Figure 2). Basic digital skills comprise the effective use of hardware (e.g., typing or operating touch-screen technology), software (e.g., word processing, organizing files on laptops, and managing privacy settings on mobile phones), and internet/ICT tasks (e.g., emailing, browsing the internet, or completing an online form). Intermediate digital skills comprise the ability to critically evaluate technology or create content; they are characterized as “job-ready skills” and include desktop publishing, digital graphic design, and digital marketing. Finally, specialists use advanced digital skills in ICT professions such as computer programming and network management. Many technology-sector jobs now require advanced digital skills related to such innovations as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, natural language processing, cybersecurity, the Internet of Things (IoT), software development, and digital entrepreneurship.

Figure 2: The Digital Skills Continuum

Digital literacy, like other competencies, should start at school. But many education systems are not equipped to teach children these skills because they lack the proper infrastructure, technological equipment, teacher training, curriculum, or learning benchmarks. This gap is further pronounced in developing countries. A 2020 study conducted in Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru assessed teachers’ digital skills and readiness for remote learning, finding that 39 percent of teachers were only able to execute basic tasks, 40 percent were able to perform basic tasks and use the internet to browse or send email, and only 13 percent of teachers could do more complex functions.

Moreover, enhancing digital literacy goes beyond providing access to computers, smartphones, or tablets. Although nearly half of the world is still offline, supplying hardware alone will be insufficient to acquire digital literacy. That is, beyond the estimated $428 billion in investment required to close the digital coverage gap, there is little information on the total investment or demand for addressing this issue. There are alternative models for delivering digital literacy—particularly to vulnerable and under-connected communities—including interactive voice response (IVR), solar-powered devices, downloadable learning, and feature phones. Despite the many innovations in this space, there is scant evidence of what works or what can be scaled.

Although nearly half of the world is still offline, supplying hardware alone will be insufficient to acquire digital literacy.

Multilateral Efforts on Digital Literacy

The need to equip current and future generations with the necessary skills is captured in the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs). Under target 4.4, the United Nations nudges countries to increase the proportion of youth and adults who have skills relevant for the job market. More specifically, indicator 4.4.1 calls on governments to measure the proportion of youth and adults with ICT skills.

In this regard, international organizations, the private sector, and national governments have established initiatives on digital literacy (see text box). For example, frameworks that measure digital skills target different societal sectors, including primary and secondary schools, government structures, and specific industries. The most relevant frameworks include the ITU’s Digital Toolkit, the Eurostat digital skills indicator survey, and the European Union’s Digital Competence 2.0 Framework for Citizens . In addition, the DQ Framework aggregates 24 leading international frameworks to promote digital literacy and digital skills around the world.

Digital literacy is both an international and local issue. Countries and regions will require tailored approaches to meet their unique needs and contexts. Some governments are putting together strategic plans to increase citizens’ digital literacy, albeit for different purposes. For example, the Republic of Korea has prioritized fostering digital skills in public administration officials to improve efficiency in delivering public services. Meanwhile, Oman has used Microsoft’s Digital Literacy curriculum to improve the ICT industry’s workforce and prepare youth for employment. In 2019, the Ukrainian government launched a national digital education platform called Diia Digital Education offering over 75 courses and teaching materials to its citizens.  Through its skills agenda, the European Union has set a target to ensure that 70 percent of adults have basic digital skills by 2025 and to cut the percentage of teens who underperform in computing and digital literacy from 30 percent in 2019 to 15 percent by 2030. Ghana has partnered with the World Bank’s Digital Economy for Africa initiative, launching a $212 million “eTransform” program to increase training, mentoring, and access to technologies.

Digital literacy is both an international and local issue. Countries and regions will require tailored approaches to meet their unique needs and contexts.

Examples of International Digital-Skills Initiatives

USAID released its first four-year digital strategy plan in 2020 to achieve safe and inclusive digital ecosystems in developing countries. In April 2022, the agency also released its Digital Literacy Primer , which aims to raise awareness on how digital literacy can contribute to global development goals and what role USAID can play to improve digital-literacy programming and initiatives.

UNESCO has partnered with Pearson’s Project Literacy program to create digital-literacy guidelines for nongovernmental organizations, governments, and the private sector to utilize when pursuing digital-literacy projects. UNESCO’s Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE) hosts discussion events, provides training programs to educators and schools, and advocates for digital-literacy education policies.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) conducted a report on access to digital technology, in which it promoted initiatives to combat growing digital divides. In addition, the OECD’s Going Digital project explains to policymakers why digital development is crucial.

The ITU operates projects around the world centered on digital inclusion through “digital transformation centers,” “smart villages,” and digitizing government services. The ITU and Cisco Systems have also partnered to address digital-skills and -literacy gaps in developing countries.

The World Bank ’s Development Data Group was implemented to expand access and promote digital-skills development across multiple sector In World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives , the World Bank offers recommendations for digital-literacy campaigns and strategies. This builds upon the multiple projects in several regions it has instituted to support digital literacy since 2006, as well as its joint program with EQUALS Global Partnership and local organizations to increase digital skills and literacy for women and girls in Rwanda, Nigeria, and Uganda. 

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) explored digital-literacy frameworks in 2019, seeking to partner with multiple stakeholders and expand its research on this issue. Thus far, UNICEF primarily researches and publishes reports on digital-literacy plans but does include related goals and resources in its various education programs .

DO4Africa aims to expand digital innovation and projects on the continent, including by promoting digital literacy .

The Role of the United States in Digital Literacy

The Covid-19 pandemic has made evident the need to increase the adoption of innovative digital solutions and, in turn, build the skills that can accompany this wave of digitization. While the impact of the pandemic has increased opportunities for digital payments, e-services, and telework, digital technologies will not foster development and inclusion on their own. Effective strategies to address digital literacy and skill-building will require public and private investments in digital infrastructure, policy and governance frameworks, and training in the use of digital technologies.

In this regard, the U.S. government—particularly through the work of USAID, its premier development agency—can partner with the private sector, local organizations, and civil society to lead and support an international coalition on digital skills. Through its Digital Strategy , USAID is breaking silos internally, incorporating “digital” as an all-encompassing issue across the agency’s strategies and operations. This puts the United States ahead of the curve: Among bilateral donor agencies in the OECD, only 12 countries have digitalization strategies within their organizations.

First, the United States should convene a multistakeholder working group on digital skills. Although many important institutions are working in this sector (including UNESCO, the ITU, the OECD, and the World Bank), USAID can play an important role in supporting a values-based approach to digital transformation and digital literacy. Donors need to think carefully about the principles and values being embedded into digital systems. Without strong guiding standards (such as the Principles for Digital Development) and values for these systems, we risk empowering malign actors instead of lifting people out of poverty; we risk enabling surveillance, disinformation, and digital authoritarianism instead of personal freedom and financial inclusivity; and we risk the wrong kind of systemic change by destabilizing the financial system and entrenching existing inequalities.

To ensure maximum lasting impact, public and private organizations need to work together in a skills-development ecosystem, with more actors connecting through digital platforms and learning. As the saying goes, “If you want to walk fast, you walk alone; if you want to walk far, you walk together.” In this regard, USAID has a comparative advantage in engaging with the private sector. Specifically, the agency could convene a multi-pronged approach that effectively coordinates efforts from the international donor community, multilateral institutions, local governments, and companies. This includes taking stock of existing collaborations and developing a single channel through which donors can communicate and coordinate. The U.S. government and relevant agencies should engage at not just the bilateral level but also multilaterally in order to maintain leadership roles across donor and recipient initiatives and participate in discussions to address digital-literacy challenges such as infrastructure and access.

Second, the United States and its partners should learn from previous digital-transformation approaches and elevate and invest in skills development among vulnerable and excluded populations such as women and girls. In low- and middle-income countries, fewer than 50 percent of women have access to the internet, and far fewer have the skills to effectively and safely interact online, thus impeding their social and economic opportunities . Investment in general education, in addition to digital education, will also be critical to developing twenty-first-century literacy and skills. Digital literacy is a very nuanced topic with many different elements, but research on related programming and interventions is not as robust. USAID can promote and facilitate evidence-based learning around what types of interventions work best for digital literacy—for now there is a large amount of innovation in this field, but there is also a lack of scale.

Third, in partnership with the donor community, USAID should work to enhance digital skills in basic curriculums and identify critical gaps in education systems. The earlier digital education begins, the more attainable a high degree of digital literacy is. Digital Education would improve the overall quality of life in low- to middle-income countries and equip future workforces with necessary skills in a rapidly digitizing world. Where possible, integrating technology and digital skills into curriculums will allow for early development of digital literacy, allowing students to familiarize themselves with modern methods of communication and accessing information. These initiatives will need to be adapted to different countries’ and communities’ local and cultural contexts to maximize learning impact and ensure minimal exclusion. USAID can also assist governments in establishing upskilling initiatives to train older workers and employers in how to integrate digital technologies into businesses and sectors. These initiatives should emphasize preventing “brain drain” and retaining local digital talent. Improving ICT infrastructure will also increase the ability for people to access programs and integrate digital skills into their daily lives.

Digitalization is no longer a sectoral issue but is all-encompassing across sectors and actors. In that regard, “ the future is already here ”—and investing in digital-literacy programs will be critical to establishing global leadership in the digital age. Meeting digital demands and supporting digital transitions worldwide will be essential for global development programming and progressing toward a free, sustainable, and equitable future. In a world that is increasingly online, accessing technologies and the proper digital skills will be critical for countries’ development, security, and inclusion.

Romina Bandura is a senior fellow with the Project on Prosperity and Development and the Project on U.S. Leadership in Development  at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C.  Elena I. Méndez Leal is a program coordinator and research assistant with the Project on Prosperity and Development at CSIS.

This brief is made possible by the generous support from USAID and DAI.

CSIS Briefs  are produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).

© 2022 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All rights reserved.

Romina Bandura

Elena I. Méndez Leal

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• Education, Work, and Youth

Media and Information Literacy, a critical approach to literacy in the digital world

What does it mean to be literate in the 21 st century? On the celebration of the International Literacy Day (8 September), people’s attention is drawn to the kind of literacy skills we need to navigate the increasingly digitally mediated societies.

Stakeholders around the world are gradually embracing an expanded definition for literacy, going beyond the ability to write, read and understand words. Media and Information Literacy (MIL) emphasizes a critical approach to literacy. MIL recognizes that people are learning in the classroom as well as outside of the classroom through information, media and technological platforms. It enables people to question critically what they have read, heard and learned.

As a composite concept proposed by UNESCO in 2007, MIL covers all competencies related to information literacy and media literacy that also include digital or technological literacy. Ms Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO has reiterated significance of MIL in this media and information landscape: “Media and information literacy has never been so vital, to build trust in information and knowledge at a time when notions of ‘truth’ have been challenged.”

MIL focuses on different and intersecting competencies to transform people’s interaction with information and learning environments online and offline. MIL includes competencies to search, critically evaluate, use and contribute information and media content wisely; knowledge of how to manage one’s rights online; understanding how to combat online hate speech and cyberbullying; understanding of the ethical issues surrounding the access and use of information; and engagement with media and ICTs to promote equality, free expression and tolerance, intercultural/interreligious dialogue, peace, etc. MIL is a nexus of human rights of which literacy is a primary right.

Learning through social media

In today’s 21 st century societies, it is necessary that all peoples acquire MIL competencies (knowledge, skills and attitude). Media and Information Literacy is for all, it is an integral part of education for all. Yet we cannot neglect to recognize that children and youth are at the heart of this need. Data shows that 70% of young people around the world are online. This means that the Internet, and social media in particular, should be seen as an opportunity for learning and can be used as a tool for the new forms of literacy.

The Policy Brief by UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education, “Social Media for Learning by Means of ICT” underlines this potential of social media to “engage students on immediate and contextual concerns, such as current events, social activities and prospective employment.

UNESCO MIL CLICKS - To think critically and click wisely

For this reason, UNESCO initiated a social media innovation on Media and Information Literacy, MIL CLICKS (Media and Information Literacy: Critical-thinking, Creativity, Literacy, Intercultural, Citizenship, Knowledge and Sustainability).

MIL CLICKS is a way for people to acquire MIL competencies in their normal, day-to-day use of the Internet and social media. To think critically and click wisely. This is an unstructured approach, non-formal way of learning, using organic methods in an online environment of play, connecting and socializing.  

MIL as a tool for sustainable development

In the global, sustainable context, MIL competencies are indispensable to the critical understanding and engagement in development of democratic participation, sustainable societies, building trust in media, good governance and peacebuilding. A recent UNESCO publication described the high relevance of MIL for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Citizen's engagement in open development in connection with the SDGs are mediated by media and information providers including those on the Internet, as well as by their level of media and information literacy. It is on this basis that UNESCO, as part of its comprehensive MIL programme, has set up a MOOC on MIL,” says Alton Grizzle, UNESCO Programme Specialist. 

UNESCO’s comprehensive MIL programme

UNESCO has been continuously developing MIL programme that has many aspects. MIL policies and strategies are needed and should be dovetailed with existing education, media, ICT, information, youth and culture policies.

The first step on this road from policy to action is to increase the number of MIL teachers and educators in formal and non-formal educational setting. This is why UNESCO has prepared a model Media and Information Literacy Curriculum for Teachers , which has been designed in an international context, through an all-inclusive, non-prescriptive approach and with adaptation in mind.

The mass media and information intermediaries can all assist in ensuring the permanence of MIL issues in the public. They can also highly contribute to all citizens in receiving information and media competencies. Guideline for Broadcasters on Promoting User-generated Content and Media and Information Literacy , prepared by UNESCO and the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association offers some insight in this direction.

UNESCO will be highlighting the need to build bridges between learning in the classroom and learning outside of the classroom through MIL at the Global MIL Week 2017 . Global MIL Week will be celebrated globally from 25 October to 5 November 2017 under the theme: “Media and Information Literacy in Critical Times: Re-imagining Ways of Learning and Information Environments”. The Global MIL Feature Conference will be held in Jamaica under the same theme from 24 to 27 October 2017, at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston, hosted by The University of the West Indies (UWI).

Alton Grizzle , Programme Specialist – Media Development and Society Section

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A systematic review on digital literacy

Hasan tinmaz.

1 AI & Big Data Department, Endicott College of International Studies, Woosong University, Daejeon, South Korea

Yoo-Taek Lee

2 Endicott College of International Studies, Woosong University, Daejeon, South Korea

Mina Fanea-Ivanovici

3 Department of Economics and Economic Policies, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania

Hasnan Baber

4 Abu Dhabi School of Management, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Associated Data

The authors present the articles used for the study in “ Appendix A ”.

The purpose of this study is to discover the main themes and categories of the research studies regarding digital literacy. To serve this purpose, the databases of WoS/Clarivate Analytics, Proquest Central, Emerald Management Journals, Jstor Business College Collections and Scopus/Elsevier were searched with four keyword-combinations and final forty-three articles were included in the dataset. The researchers applied a systematic literature review method to the dataset. The preliminary findings demonstrated that there is a growing prevalence of digital literacy articles starting from the year 2013. The dominant research methodology of the reviewed articles is qualitative. The four major themes revealed from the qualitative content analysis are: digital literacy, digital competencies, digital skills and digital thinking. Under each theme, the categories and their frequencies are analysed. Recommendations for further research and for real life implementations are generated.

Introduction

The extant literature on digital literacy, skills and competencies is rich in definitions and classifications, but there is still no consensus on the larger themes and subsumed themes categories. (Heitin, 2016 ). To exemplify, existing inventories of Internet skills suffer from ‘incompleteness and over-simplification, conceptual ambiguity’ (van Deursen et al., 2015 ), and Internet skills are only a part of digital skills. While there is already a plethora of research in this field, this research paper hereby aims to provide a general framework of digital areas and themes that can best describe digital (cap)abilities in the novel context of Industry 4.0 and the accelerated pandemic-triggered digitalisation. The areas and themes can represent the starting point for drafting a contemporary digital literacy framework.

Sousa and Rocha ( 2019 ) explained that there is a stake of digital skills for disruptive digital business, and they connect it to the latest developments, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud technology, big data, artificial intelligence, and robotics. The topic is even more important given the large disparities in digital literacy across regions (Tinmaz et al., 2022 ). More precisely, digital inequalities encompass skills, along with access, usage and self-perceptions. These inequalities need to be addressed, as they are credited with a ‘potential to shape life chances in multiple ways’ (Robinson et al., 2015 ), e.g., academic performance, labour market competitiveness, health, civic and political participation. Steps have been successfully taken to address physical access gaps, but skills gaps are still looming (Van Deursen & Van Dijk, 2010a ). Moreover, digital inequalities have grown larger due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and they influenced the very state of health of the most vulnerable categories of population or their employability in a time when digital skills are required (Baber et al., 2022 ; Beaunoyer, Dupéré & Guitton, 2020 ).

The systematic review the researchers propose is a useful updated instrument of classification and inventory for digital literacy. Considering the latest developments in the economy and in line with current digitalisation needs, digitally literate population may assist policymakers in various fields, e.g., education, administration, healthcare system, and managers of companies and other concerned organisations that need to stay competitive and to employ competitive workforce. Therefore, it is indispensably vital to comprehend the big picture of digital literacy related research.

Literature review

Since the advent of Digital Literacy, scholars have been concerned with identifying and classifying the various (cap)abilities related to its operation. Using the most cited academic papers in this stream of research, several classifications of digital-related literacies, competencies, and skills emerged.

Digital literacies

Digital literacy, which is one of the challenges of integration of technology in academic courses (Blau, Shamir-Inbal & Avdiel, 2020 ), has been defined in the current literature as the competencies and skills required for navigating a fragmented and complex information ecosystem (Eshet, 2004 ). A ‘Digital Literacy Framework’ was designed by Eshet-Alkalai ( 2012 ), comprising six categories: (a) photo-visual thinking (understanding and using visual information); (b) real-time thinking (simultaneously processing a variety of stimuli); (c) information thinking (evaluating and combining information from multiple digital sources); (d) branching thinking (navigating in non-linear hyper-media environments); (e) reproduction thinking (creating outcomes using technological tools by designing new content or remixing existing digital content); (f) social-emotional thinking (understanding and applying cyberspace rules). According to Heitin ( 2016 ), digital literacy groups the following clusters: (a) finding and consuming digital content; (b) creating digital content; (c) communicating or sharing digital content. Hence, the literature describes the digital literacy in many ways by associating a set of various technical and non-technical elements.

Digital competencies

The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp 2.1.), the most recent framework proposed by the European Union, which is currently under review and undergoing an updating process, contains five competency areas: (a) information and data literacy, (b) communication and collaboration, (c) digital content creation, (d) safety, and (e) problem solving (Carretero, Vuorikari & Punie, 2017 ). Digital competency had previously been described in a technical fashion by Ferrari ( 2012 ) as a set comprising information skills, communication skills, content creation skills, safety skills, and problem-solving skills, which later outlined the areas of competence in DigComp 2.1, too.

Digital skills

Ng ( 2012 ) pointed out the following three categories of digital skills: (a) technological (using technological tools); (b) cognitive (thinking critically when managing information); (c) social (communicating and socialising). A set of Internet skill was suggested by Van Deursen and Van Dijk ( 2009 , 2010b ), which contains: (a) operational skills (basic skills in using internet technology), (b) formal Internet skills (navigation and orientation skills); (c) information Internet skills (fulfilling information needs), and (d) strategic Internet skills (using the internet to reach goals). In 2014, the same authors added communication and content creation skills to the initial framework (van Dijk & van Deursen). Similarly, Helsper and Eynon ( 2013 ) put forward a set of four digital skills: technical, social, critical, and creative skills. Furthermore, van Deursen et al. ( 2015 ) built a set of items and factors to measure Internet skills: operational, information navigation, social, creative, mobile. More recent literature (vaan Laar et al., 2017 ) divides digital skills into seven core categories: technical, information management, communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving.

It is worth mentioning that the various methodologies used to classify digital literacy are overlapping or non-exhaustive, which confirms the conceptual ambiguity mentioned by van Deursen et al. ( 2015 ).

Digital thinking

Thinking skills (along with digital skills) have been acknowledged to be a significant element of digital literacy in the educational process context (Ferrari, 2012 ). In fact, critical thinking, creativity, and innovation are at the very core of DigComp. Information and Communication Technology as a support for thinking is a learning objective in any school curriculum. In the same vein, analytical thinking and interdisciplinary thinking, which help solve problems, are yet other concerns of educators in the Industry 4.0 (Ozkan-Ozen & Kazancoglu, 2021 ).

However, we have recently witnessed a shift of focus from learning how to use information and communication technologies to using it while staying safe in the cyber-environment and being aware of alternative facts. Digital thinking would encompass identifying fake news, misinformation, and echo chambers (Sulzer, 2018 ). Not least important, concern about cybersecurity has grown especially in times of political, social or economic turmoil, such as the elections or the Covid-19 crisis (Sulzer, 2018 ; Puig, Blanco-Anaya & Perez-Maceira, 2021 ).

Ultimately, this systematic review paper focuses on the following major research questions as follows:

• Research question 1: What is the yearly distribution of digital literacy related papers?
• Research question 2: What are the research methods for digital literacy related papers?
• Research question 3: What are the main themes in digital literacy related papers?
• Research question 4: What are the concentrated categories (under revealed main themes) in digital literacy related papers?

This study employed the systematic review method where the authors scrutinized the existing literature around the major research question of digital literacy. As Uman ( 2011 ) pointed, in systematic literature review, the findings of the earlier research are examined for the identification of consistent and repetitive themes. The systematic review method differs from literature review with its well managed and highly organized qualitative scrutiny processes where researchers tend to cover less materials from fewer number of databases to write their literature review (Kowalczyk & Truluck, 2013 ; Robinson & Lowe, 2015 ).

Data collection

To address major research objectives, the following five important databases are selected due to their digital literacy focused research dominance: 1. WoS/Clarivate Analytics, 2. Proquest Central; 3. Emerald Management Journals; 4. Jstor Business College Collections; 5. Scopus/Elsevier.

The search was made in the second half of June 2021, in abstract and key words written in English language. We only kept research articles and book chapters (herein referred to as papers). Our purpose was to identify a set of digital literacy areas, or an inventory of such areas and topics. To serve that purpose, systematic review was utilized with the following synonym key words for the search: ‘digital literacy’, ‘digital skills’, ‘digital competence’ and ‘digital fluency’, to find the mainstream literature dealing with the topic. These key words were unfolded as a result of the consultation with the subject matter experts (two board members from Korean Digital Literacy Association and two professors from technology studies department). Below are the four key word combinations used in the search: “Digital literacy AND systematic review”, “Digital skills AND systematic review”, “Digital competence AND systematic review”, and “Digital fluency AND systematic review”.

A sequential systematic search was made in the five databases mentioned above. Thus, from one database to another, duplicate papers were manually excluded in a cascade manner to extract only unique results and to make the research smoother to conduct. At this stage, we kept 47 papers. Further exclusion criteria were applied. Thus, only full-text items written in English were selected, and in doing so, three papers were excluded (no full text available), and one other paper was excluded because it was not written in English, but in Spanish. Therefore, we investigated a total number of 43 papers, as shown in Table ​ Table1. 1 . “ Appendix A ” shows the list of these papers with full references.

Number of papers identified sequentially after applying all inclusion and exclusion criteria

Data analysis

The 43 papers selected after the application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, respectively, were reviewed the materials independently by two researchers who were from two different countries. The researchers identified all topics pertaining to digital literacy, as they appeared in the papers. Next, a third researcher independently analysed these findings by excluded duplicates A qualitative content analysis was manually performed by calculating the frequency of major themes in all papers, where the raw data was compared and contrasted (Fraenkel et al., 2012 ). All three reviewers independently list the words and how the context in which they appeared and then the three reviewers collectively decided for how it should be categorized. Lastly, it is vital to remind that literature review of this article was written after the identification of the themes appeared as a result of our qualitative analyses. Therefore, the authors decided to shape the literature review structure based on the themes.

As an answer to the first research question (the yearly distribution of digital literacy related papers), Fig.  1 demonstrates the yearly distribution of digital literacy related papers. It is seen that there is an increasing trend about the digital literacy papers.

Yearly distribution of digital literacy related papers

Research question number two (The research methods for digital literacy related papers) concentrates on what research methods are employed for these digital literacy related papers. As Fig.  2 shows, most of the papers were using the qualitative method. Not stated refers to book chapters.

Research methods used in the reviewed articles

When forty-three articles were analysed for the main themes as in research question number three (The main themes in digital literacy related papers), the overall findings were categorized around four major themes: (i) literacies, (ii) competencies, (iii) skills, and (iv) thinking. Under every major theme, the categories were listed and explained as in research question number four (The concentrated categories (under revealed main themes) in digital literacy related papers).

The authors utilized an overt categorization for the depiction of these major themes. For example, when the ‘creativity’ was labelled as a skill, the authors also categorized it under the ‘skills’ theme. Similarly, when ‘creativity’ was mentioned as a competency, the authors listed it under the ‘competencies’ theme. Therefore, it is possible to recognize the same finding under different major themes.

Major theme 1: literacies

Digital literacy being the major concern of this paper was observed to be blatantly mentioned in five papers out forty-three. One of these articles described digital literacy as the human proficiencies to live, learn and work in the current digital society. In addition to these five articles, two additional papers used the same term as ‘critical digital literacy’ by describing it as a person’s or a society’s accessibility and assessment level interaction with digital technologies to utilize and/or create information. Table ​ Table2 2 summarizes the major categories under ‘Literacies’ major theme.

Categories (more than one occurrence) under 'literacies' major theme

Computer literacy, media literacy and cultural literacy were the second most common literacy (n = 5). One of the article branches computer literacy as tool (detailing with software and hardware uses) and resource (focusing on information processing capacity of a computer) literacies. Cultural literacy was emphasized as a vital element for functioning in an intercultural team on a digital project.

Disciplinary literacy (n = 4) was referring to utilizing different computer programs (n = 2) or technical gadgets (n = 2) with a specific emphasis on required cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills to be able to work in any digital context (n = 3), serving for the using (n = 2), creating and applying (n = 2) digital literacy in real life.

Data literacy, technology literacy and multiliteracy were the third frequent categories (n = 3). The ‘multiliteracy’ was referring to the innate nature of digital technologies, which have been infused into many aspects of human lives.

Last but not least, Internet literacy, mobile literacy, web literacy, new literacy, personal literacy and research literacy were discussed in forty-three article findings. Web literacy was focusing on being able to connect with people on the web (n = 2), discover the web content (especially the navigation on a hyper-textual platform), and learn web related skills through practical web experiences. Personal literacy was highlighting digital identity management. Research literacy was not only concentrating on conducting scientific research ability but also finding available scholarship online.

Twenty-four other categories are unfolded from the results sections of forty-three articles. Table ​ Table3 3 presents the list of these other literacies where the authors sorted the categories in an ascending alphabetical order without any other sorting criterion. Primarily, search, tagging, filtering and attention literacies were mainly underlining their roles in information processing. Furthermore, social-structural literacy was indicated as the recognition of the social circumstances and generation of information. Another information-related literacy was pointed as publishing literacy, which is the ability to disseminate information via different digital channels.

Other mentioned categories (n = 1)

While above listed personal literacy was referring to digital identity management, network literacy was explained as someone’s social networking ability to manage the digital relationship with other people. Additionally, participatory literacy was defined as the necessary abilities to join an online team working on online content production.

Emerging technology literacy was stipulated as an essential ability to recognize and appreciate the most recent and innovative technologies in along with smart choices related to these technologies. Additionally, the critical literacy was added as an ability to make smart judgements on the cost benefit analysis of these recent technologies.

Last of all, basic, intermediate, and advanced digital assessment literacies were specified for educational institutions that are planning to integrate various digital tools to conduct instructional assessments in their bodies.

Major theme 2: competencies

The second major theme was revealed as competencies. The authors directly categorized the findings that are specified with the word of competency. Table ​ Table4 4 summarizes the entire category set for the competencies major theme.

Categories under 'competencies' major theme

The most common category was the ‘digital competence’ (n = 14) where one of the articles points to that category as ‘generic digital competence’ referring to someone’s creativity for multimedia development (video editing was emphasized). Under this broad category, the following sub-categories were associated:

• Problem solving (n = 10)
• Safety (n = 7)
• Information processing (n = 5)
• Content creation (n = 5)
• Communication (n = 2)
• Digital rights (n = 1)
• Digital emotional intelligence (n = 1)
• Digital teamwork (n = 1)
• Big data utilization (n = 1)
• Artificial Intelligence utilization (n = 1)
• Virtual leadership (n = 1)
• Self-disruption (in along with the pace of digitalization) (n = 1)

Like ‘digital competency’, five additional articles especially coined the term as ‘digital competence as a life skill’. Deeper analysis demonstrated the following points: social competences (n = 4), communication in mother tongue (n = 3) and foreign language (n = 2), entrepreneurship (n = 3), civic competence (n = 2), fundamental science (n = 1), technology (n = 1) and mathematics (n = 1) competences, learning to learn (n = 1) and self-initiative (n = 1).

Moreover, competencies were linked to workplace digital competencies in three articles and highlighted as significant for employability (n = 3) and ‘economic engagement’ (n = 3). Digital competencies were also detailed for leisure (n = 2) and communication (n = 2). Furthermore, two articles pointed digital competencies as an inter-cultural competency and one as a cross-cultural competency. Lastly, the ‘digital nativity’ (n = 1) was clarified as someone’s innate competency of being able to feel contented and satisfied with digital technologies.

Major theme 3: skills

The third major observed theme was ‘skills’, which was dominantly gathered around information literacy skills (n = 19) and information and communication technologies skills (n = 18). Table ​ Table5 5 demonstrates the categories with more than one occurrence.

Categories under 'skills' major theme

Table ​ Table6 6 summarizes the sub-categories of the two most frequent categories of ‘skills’ major theme. The information literacy skills noticeably concentrate on the steps of information processing; evaluation (n = 6), utilization (n = 4), finding (n = 3), locating (n = 2) information. Moreover, the importance of trial/error process, being a lifelong learner, feeling a need for information and so forth were evidently listed under this sub-category. On the other hand, ICT skills were grouped around cognitive and affective domains. For instance, while technical skills in general and use of social media, coding, multimedia, chat or emailing in specific were reported in cognitive domain, attitude, intention, and belief towards ICT were mentioned as the elements of affective domain.

Sub-categories under ‘information literacy’ and ‘ICT’ skills

Communication skills (n = 9) were multi-dimensional for different societies, cultures, and globalized contexts, requiring linguistic skills. Collaboration skills (n = 9) are also recurrently cited with an explicit emphasis for virtual platforms.

‘Ethics for digital environment’ encapsulated ethical use of information (n = 4) and different technologies (n = 2), knowing digital laws (n = 2) and responsibilities (n = 2) in along with digital rights and obligations (n = 1), having digital awareness (n = 1), following digital etiquettes (n = 1), treating other people with respect (n = 1) including no cyber-bullying (n = 1) and no stealing or damaging other people (n = 1).

‘Digital fluency’ involved digital access (n = 2) by using different software and hardware (n = 2) in online platforms (n = 1) or communication tools (n = 1) or within programming environments (n = 1). Digital fluency also underlined following recent technological advancements (n = 1) and knowledge (n = 1) including digital health and wellness (n = 1) dimension.

‘Social intelligence’ related to understanding digital culture (n = 1), the concept of digital exclusion (n = 1) and digital divide (n = 3). ‘Research skills’ were detailed with searching academic information (n = 3) on databases such as Web of Science and Scopus (n = 2) and their citation, summarization, and quotation (n = 2).

‘Digital teaching’ was described as a skill (n = 2) in Table ​ Table4 4 whereas it was also labelled as a competence (n = 1) as shown in Table ​ Table3. 3 . Similarly, while learning to learn (n = 1) was coined under competencies in Table ​ Table3, 3 , digital learning (n = 2, Table ​ Table4) 4 ) and life-long learning (n = 1, Table ​ Table5) 5 ) were stated as learning related skills. Moreover, learning was used with the following three terms: learning readiness (n = 1), self-paced learning (n = 1) and learning flexibility (n = 1).

Table ​ Table7 7 shows other categories listed below the ‘skills’ major theme. The list covers not only the software such as GIS, text mining, mapping, or bibliometric analysis programs but also the conceptual skills such as the fourth industrial revolution and information management.

Categories (one-time occurrence) under 'skills' major theme

Major theme 4: thinking

The last identified major theme was the different types of ‘thinking’. As Table ​ Table8 8 shows, ‘critical thinking’ was the most frequent thinking category (n = 4). Except computational thinking, the other categories were not detailed.

Categories under ‘thinking’ major theme

Computational thinking (n = 3) was associated with the general logic of how a computer works and sub-categorized into the following steps; construction of the problem (n = 3), abstraction (n = 1), disintegration of the problem (n = 2), data collection, (n = 2), data analysis (n = 2), algorithmic design (n = 2), parallelization & iteration (n = 1), automation (n = 1), generalization (n = 1), and evaluation (n = 2).

A transversal analysis of digital literacy categories reveals the following fields of digital literacy application:

• Technological advancement (IT, ICT, Industry 4.0, IoT, text mining, GIS, bibliometric analysis, mapping data, technology, AI, big data)
• Networking (Internet, web, connectivity, network, safety)
• Information (media, news, communication)
• Creative-cultural industries (culture, publishing, film, TV, leisure, content creation)
• Academia (research, documentation, library)
• Citizenship (participation, society, social intelligence, awareness, politics, rights, legal use, ethics)
• Education (life skills, problem solving, teaching, learning, education, lifelong learning)
• Professional life (work, teamwork, collaboration, economy, commerce, leadership, decision making)
• Personal level (critical thinking, evaluation, analytical thinking, innovative thinking)

This systematic review on digital literacy concentrated on forty-three articles from the databases of WoS/Clarivate Analytics, Proquest Central, Emerald Management Journals, Jstor Business College Collections and Scopus/Elsevier. The initial results revealed that there is an increasing trend on digital literacy focused academic papers. Research work in digital literacy is critical in a context of disruptive digital business, and more recently, the pandemic-triggered accelerated digitalisation (Beaunoyer, Dupéré & Guitton, 2020 ; Sousa & Rocha 2019 ). Moreover, most of these papers were employing qualitative research methods. The raw data of these articles were analysed qualitatively using systematic literature review to reveal major themes and categories. Four major themes that appeared are: digital literacy, digital competencies, digital skills and thinking.

Whereas the mainstream literature describes digital literacy as a set of photo-visual, real-time, information, branching, reproduction and social-emotional thinking (Eshet-Alkalai, 2012 ) or as a set of precise specific operations, i.e., finding, consuming, creating, communicating and sharing digital content (Heitin, 2016 ), this study reveals that digital literacy revolves around and is in connection with the concepts of computer literacy, media literacy, cultural literacy or disciplinary literacy. In other words, the present systematic review indicates that digital literacy is far broader than specific tasks, englobing the entire sphere of computer operation and media use in a cultural context.

The digital competence yardstick, DigComp (Carretero, Vuorikari & Punie, 2017 ) suggests that the main digital competencies cover information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, digital content creation, safety, and problem solving. Similarly, the findings of this research place digital competencies in relation to problem solving, safety, information processing, content creation and communication. Therefore, the findings of the systematic literature review are, to a large extent, in line with the existing framework used in the European Union.

The investigation of the main keywords associated with digital skills has revealed that information literacy, ICT, communication, collaboration, digital content creation, research and decision-making skill are the most representative. In a structured way, the existing literature groups these skills in technological, cognitive, and social (Ng, 2012 ) or, more extensively, into operational, formal, information Internet, strategic, communication and content creation (van Dijk & van Deursen, 2014 ). In time, the literature has become richer in frameworks, and prolific authors have improved their results. As such, more recent research (vaan Laar et al., 2017 ) use the following categories: technical, information management, communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving.

Whereas digital thinking was observed to be mostly related with critical thinking and computational thinking, DigComp connects it with critical thinking, creativity, and innovation, on the one hand, and researchers highlight fake news, misinformation, cybersecurity, and echo chambers as exponents of digital thinking, on the other hand (Sulzer, 2018 ; Puig, Blanco-Anaya & Perez-Maceira, 2021 ).

This systematic review research study looks ahead to offer an initial step and guideline for the development of a more contemporary digital literacy framework including digital literacy major themes and factors. The researchers provide the following recommendations for both researchers and practitioners.

Recommendations for prospective research

By considering the major qualitative research trend, it seems apparent that more quantitative research-oriented studies are needed. Although it requires more effort and time, mixed method studies will help understand digital literacy holistically.

As digital literacy is an umbrella term for many different technologies, specific case studies need be designed, such as digital literacy for artificial intelligence or digital literacy for drones’ usage.

Digital literacy affects different areas of human lives, such as education, business, health, governance, and so forth. Therefore, different case studies could be carried out for each of these unique dimensions of our lives. For instance, it is worth investigating the role of digital literacy on lifelong learning in particular, and on education in general, as well as the digital upskilling effects on the labour market flexibility.

Further experimental studies on digital literacy are necessary to realize how certain variables (for instance, age, gender, socioeconomic status, cognitive abilities, etc.) affect this concept overtly or covertly. Moreover, the digital divide issue needs to be analysed through the lens of its main determinants.

New bibliometric analysis method can be implemented on digital literacy documents to reveal more information on how these works are related or centred on what major topic. This visual approach will assist to realize the big picture within the digital literacy framework.

Recommendations for practitioners

The digital literacy stakeholders, policymakers in education and managers in private organizations, need to be aware that there are many dimensions and variables regarding the implementation of digital literacy. In that case, stakeholders must comprehend their beneficiaries or the participants more deeply to increase the effect of digital literacy related activities. For example, critical thinking and problem-solving skills and abilities are mentioned to affect digital literacy. Hence, stakeholders have to initially understand whether the participants have enough entry level critical thinking and problem solving.

Development of digital literacy for different groups of people requires more energy, since each group might require a different set of skills, abilities, or competencies. Hence, different subject matter experts, such as technologists, instructional designers, content experts, should join the team.

It is indispensably vital to develop different digital frameworks for different technologies (basic or advanced) or different contexts (different levels of schooling or various industries).

These frameworks should be updated regularly as digital fields are evolving rapidly. Every year, committees should gather around to understand new technological trends and decide whether they should address the changes into their frameworks.

Understanding digital literacy in a thorough manner can enable decision makers to correctly implement and apply policies addressing the digital divide that is reflected onto various aspects of life, e.g., health, employment, education, especially in turbulent times such as the COVID-19 pandemic is.

Lastly, it is also essential to state the study limitations. This study is limited to the analysis of a certain number of papers, obtained from using the selected keywords and databases. Therefore, an extension can be made by adding other keywords and searching other databases.

See Table ​ Management9 9 .

List of papers (n = 43) included in the qualitative analysis—ordered alphabetically by title

Author contributions

The authors worked together on the manuscript equally. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

This research is funded by Woosong University Academic Research in 2022.

Availability of data and materials

Declarations.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Contributor Information

Hasan Tinmaz, Email: rk.ca.ttocidne@zamnith .

Yoo-Taek Lee, Email: rk.ca.usw@eelty .

Mina Fanea-Ivanovici, Email: [email protected] .

Hasnan Baber, Email: [email protected] .

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Underscoring the Importance of Digital Literacy in Education

Posted October 15, 2020 by UWA | Teaching News

Important Dates

There’s a palpable digital divide in the United States. A report from the Pew Research Center found that there are currently two camps when it comes to digital competency. According to the study, 52% of U.S. adults are relatively hesitant when using digital tools to access information.

These findings signal both a substantial problem and a significant opportunity: as more people are prepared to use technology productively as they enter adulthood, they will be better equipped to solve problems, think critically and enter new virtual spaces. When educators and school librarians highlight the significance of digital literacy in education for students of all ages, they build a new foundation for a generation of learners.

What is Digital Literacy in Education?

Digital literacy, on its face, can be an intimidating concept. Because technological advancements in the past 50 years have expanded into unexpected parts of daily human life, it’s hard to determine what specific digital tools or skills ultimately constitute a digital literacy.

Fortunately, scholars have dedicated their attention to the study in order to streamline the benefits of these digital features for educational purposes. Renee Hobbs, whose research centers on the significance of different literacies in learning and teaching English as a foreign language, offers a concise definition of digital literacy. In her chapter “Media Literacy Foundations” for The International Encyclopedia of Media Literacy , she defined digital literacy as “the technical, cognitive, and social competencies, knowledge, and skills needed to communicate effectively and to participate in the contemporary knowledge economy.”

Most technologies today are socially oriented, and when students are invited to engage with these technologies responsibly and productively, they are better prepared to solve problems critically.

Additionally, it can be helpful to look at digital learning gaps in order to understand digital literacy more effectively. The U.S. Department of Education released a report in 2018 that lays out the importance of digital literacy by pointing to a significant number of adults who are digital skill deficient. Specifically, researchers found that 16% of adults age 16–65 are not digitally literate. To help bridge this gap, the governmental agency pointed to three overarching understandings that constitute digital literacy:

• The ability to control “input and output devices,” like the keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, etc.
• The digital skill to navigate user interfaces on computers, like finding and moving files, organizing folders and using hyperlinks.
• The familiarity with how to communicate in digital spaces, which, for example, includes saving and sending files over email or other file-sharing mediums, opening texts, images, audio and data files and interacting in these communications responsibly.

In this regard, digital literacy and information literacy share several similarities. As students learn more about using digital tools to locate, access, share and employ new information through the internet or a digital archive, they will have to evaluate that information to prove its validity.

How Digital Literacy Promotes Student Learning

School librarians and teachers have found meaningful ways to introduce digital literacy in education. When students are better equipped to engage with and utilize digital tools, teachers can make the learning process more interactive and effective.

This sentiment has been extensively explored in the academic world. For example, a 2018 scholarly article in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy explored how digital literacy platforms prepare both students and teachers for an effective learning process. Centrally, the researchers of the article honed in on a 42-hour immersive experience that took place at the University of Rhode Island’s Summer Institute in Digital Literacy. The program is structured to prepare teachers, educators, curriculum designers and college faculty to facilitate digital literacy in digital media spaces.

Interested In The Making Of The Modern Librarian?

If you're interested in instructional media and school library services, check out our full Guide on, 'The Making Of The Modern Librarian: The Value Of School Libraries'.

The Library of the Future

The value of school libraries has increased dramatically as they adopt new technologies and accommodate new digital media resources. As libraries continue to house collections of books and administer information services to students, they are also finding novel ways to promote digital literacy in student learning.

And as libraries have begun to redefine as digital media centers, teachers across disciplines have begun to see the benefits of promoting digital literacy in their instruction. The scholarly article “Teaching Digital Literary Literacies in Secondary English Language Arts” highlights how educators can make literacies more engaging while promoting digital literacy. The librarians in the study rely on teaching reading with technology through a three-pronged approach:

• Digital Texts : To sum up the importance of expanded access to literary texts, the researchers stated that “Far from limiting themselves to dusty library shelves, current members of the literary community construct interpretive literary knowledge with many types of focal texts.” These digital texts act as an umbrella that encompasses a wide range of literary text types, including electronic literature, literary artifacts that have been digitally archived, video or audio performances, online dictionaries and online literary criticism.
• Digital Tools : As students are invited to consume literary texts in digital spaces, they must understand how to engage with these texts through appropriate digital tools. To this end, students can simultaneously develop digital skills as they refine their literary literacies when they can annotate literary texts using appropriate software, search for words using relevant search engines, and “investigate and visually represent patterns in texts.”
• Digital Spaces : Students can create commentary and consume other criticism on literary texts in digital spaces. Across an array of social media platforms, students are encouraged to “produce, read and review user-created literary” texts and analysis. From fanfiction and songs to graphics and performances, students can employ digital skills to embark on new learning endeavors in new digital environments.

Separately, an unexpected benefit of libraries featuring digital media center resources is the overall reduced ecological impact. When students have stronger digital skills, they consume less energy overall as they use digital tools in the library. As the scholarly article “How to Improve the Sustainability of Digital Libraries and Information Services” noted that appropriate user research, transaction log analysis, user modeling and better design and delivery of services could significantly reduce user interaction time , and consequently, the environmental costs.

In other words, when students can navigate digital spaces on computers, mobile devices and other technologies in more proficient ways, they will ultimately reduce their carbon footprint. Technology is growing more energy efficient, and when users master technology in school library media centers, schools will develop more environmentally conscious practices.

Digital media spaces have begun to utilize new technologies to prompt students to approach new problem-solving methods. Augmented reality (AR) is one such technology entering the library space to enhance student learning. A recent poster in the Association for Information Science and Technology clearly outlined the benefits of incorporating AR in information and digital literacy instruction. Researchers focused on an example of when school librarians used an AR app that students could access on their phones.

Moreover, the app helped students understand in real-time on their phones where specific digital resources could be accessed in the library. This is just one example of how school librarians are innovating the digital literacy learning process. When technology in school library media centers is incorporated in this capacity, students have a better opportunity to refine their digital literacy.

Learn More about Digital Literacy in Education

School librarians are uniquely positioned to help facilitate the learning of responsible digital literacy practices. One of the best ways to identify how best to envision this instruction is through an online Master of Education in Library Media from the University of West Alabama. In the flexible and fully online program, you’ll have the opportunity to learn first-hand how to administer a successful school library media program that focuses on digital literacy principles. Discover more about the program today.

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What is Digital Literacy, Its Importance, and Challenges?

Digital literacy is essentially the discovery, evaluation, creation and communication of information, but there is more to it. Many experts prefer to focus on specific technology and literacy skills and do not define the term. In today’s constantly evolving technological society, Digital literacy is critical for navigating and thriving. This article will explore what digital literacy is, its importance, and challenges.

What is Digital Literacy?

The American Library Association’s digital-literacy task force defines digital literacy as “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.”While Microsoft defines digital literacy as the ability to navigate our digital world using reading, writing, technical skills, and critical thinking, it uses technology – like smartphones, PCs, e-readers, and more – to find, evaluate, and communicate information.

Hiller Spires, a professor of literacy and technology at North Carolina State University, views digital literacy as having three buckets:

1) Finding and consuming digital content;

2) Creating digital content; and

3) Communicating or sharing it.

Digital literacy goes beyond technical knowledge. It refers to the knowledge, skills, and perspectives that enable an individual to be safe, secure, and empowered in an increasingly digital world. It extends to an individual’s digital activities, participation, interactions, socialising, searching, learning, and other online activities. Digital literacy is a growing part of new-age skills development and features in  UNICEF’s framework, which seeks to prepare children and adults for school, work and life.

However, what constitutes digital literacy varies depending on the age, geography, local culture, and context. For instance, for the younger generation, it doesn’t mean they are not supposed to be online, but it requires them to understand the digital world.

Let’s understand it better through this video:

What is Digital Literacy? | Cultivating Digital Literacy

Why is Digital Literacy Important?

We all know digital literacy is becoming increasingly important in today’s world as technology continues to play a central role in our daily lives, including our social interactions and education.

Identifying information accurately and validating it is crucial as the digital world is getting more and more cluttered. Digital literacy also encompasses using devices and software efficiently, protecting personal data, protecting yourself from online threats, etc., not just in personal but academic and professional lives as well.

Online Safety

People or groups with malicious intent continuously discover and develop new ways to exploit others; therefore, the risks associated with the internet world are constantly evolving. Although digital literacy skills may not wholly shield students from online safety challenges, they can help equip them with crucial knowledge, awareness, tools, processes, and resources to safeguard their privacy and safety while being online.

Digital Responsibility

Digital literacy skills also encompass digital responsibility, which involves ethical consumption and communication of information online. As technology dependence increases, students face various challenges, such as plagiarism, cyberbullying, verifying sources of information, and behaving responsibly while interacting with others. Digital literacy equips students with the necessary skills to navigate through these challenges effectively, enabling them to become responsible digital citizens.

Digital Educational Progress

The increased use of technology in education has made digital literacy skills more essential than ever. Over the past decade, computers, tablets, and the internet have become prominent even in K-12 education. Since it offers a structured way of getting familiar with the digital world, students with digital literacy skills become comfortable and confident in navigating online learning platforms. In contrast, those who lack this skill may struggle. Furthermore, since most standardised assessments are now administered online, it is crucial that students have the confidence to stay focused and not get distracted by technology.

Social Opportunities

Today, social interactions are happening online, and it is growing day by day. Earlier, friendships and familial connections relied on slow and traditional ways of communication like letters, but technological evolution has eliminated these obstacles, providing a vast socialising world. On the positive side, social media facilitates the ability to connect with individuals beyond one’s immediate geographical boundaries. However, it exposes people, particularly youngsters, to precarious social situations. With digital literacy, students can learn to be safe online and engage with others safely, safeguarding their personal information and keeping themselves and others safe from online threats, crime, and scams.

Digital Equity

Bridging the digital divide, especially for working professionals, is another advantage of digital literacy. Despite technology’s proliferation in homes and educational institutions, many students and young working professionals lack digital literacy skills and online etiquette. Digital literacy education is the need of the hour for students and professionals to empower them with better skills and prepare them for today’s career opportunities.

Lifelong Skills

Digital literacy can support the development of strong life skills in several ways. It can enhance communication skills by providing individuals with the ability to express themselves effectively online and teach them about collaboration with others using digital tools. Digital literacy can also improve critical thinking skills by enabling individuals to evaluate the credibility and reliability of online information. It can support the development of problem-solving skills and creativity by providing individuals with the ability to navigate digital technology tools, troubleshoot technical issues and use digital tools to create and share multimedia content.

Why is Digital Literacy Important for Learning? | Cultivating Digital Literacy

Digital Literacy Skills to Succeed in Learning and Beyond | Yimin Yang | TEDxYouth@GrandviewHeights

In this video, Yimin Yang, a 13-year-old student at Southland Elementary, talks about digital media. He also highlights the risks and challenges of the digital world and how important it is for kids and teens to understand these risks and challenges while accessing the internet so they may be able to become responsible digital citizens.

What are the Challenges of Digital Literacy?

There are several challenges that students and educators may need help with while developing or teaching digital literacy, such as lack of awareness about the ethical use of the internet, lack of guidance, difficulty in navigating the overwhelming amount of information available online, and more. Let’s dive deep into these challenges:

Here are some of the challenges associated with digital literacy:

Lack of Access to and Knowledge of Technology

One of the most challenging aspects of digital literacy is the requirement for a certain level of technical expertise and understanding. Not everyone has access to cutting-edge technology and tools or has been properly trained to use them, which can result in a digital divide in which certain people lag in digital skills and knowledge. This can have severe consequences for access to school, employment, and social and civic participation.

Trouble in Finding the Right Resource

Another barrier to digital literacy is the lack of capability to find the right resource from the billions that are available online. With so much information at your fingertips, it can be difficult to identify which sources are genuine and trustworthy. Critical thinking and analytical skills are needed to evaluate the quality of material found online and discern between facts and opinions, biases, disinformation and propaganda. This necessitates a critical approach with experience, awareness and knowledge.

Lack of Guidance

Concerns about privacy and security are amplified when we talk about digital literacy. Many people are unaware of the potential dangers of the internet and lack supervision from a digital expert. With a lack of information about digital literacy, trainers and practitioners, it is a topic that needs greater attention than we think.

Lack of Awareness & Interest in Digital Technology

Another challenge is the lack of awareness and interest in digital technology among certain sections of the population, particularly older adults and women. Nearly half of the world’s population is still not online. While Asia has the highest number of people without access, Africa tops the world in the percentage of the population without connection at 88 per cent. Furthermore, in digitally connected countries, male internet users outnumber their female counterparts in every region of the world. This ‘digital divide’ does not just signify those who have access to the internet and those who do not. The gap also encompasses several other discrepancies, including the quality of digital infrastructure in rural communities, the speed of connectivity in remote areas, and the training and skills required to navigate such technology.

Lack of Emphasis on Digital Literacy in Education

There is a lack of emphasis on making individuals digitally literate. Despite the growing importance of digital skills in the job market, many schools and colleges worldwide do not offer adequate training in digital literacy. This results in a lack of digital skills among young people, which can hinder their employment prospects in the future.

You may also read Embedding Digital Literacy in the Classroom.

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Today’s Two Important Skills: Digital Literacy and Critical Thinking

• First Online: 15 March 2023

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Aysu, S. (2023). Today’s Two Important Skills: Digital Literacy and Critical Thinking. In: Köksal, D., Ulum, Ö.G., Genç, G. (eds) Undividing Digital Divide. SpringerBriefs in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25006-4_4

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• October 26, 2022

What Is Digital Literacy And Why Is It Important?

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Ever since the innovation of computers and the internet, literacy has gained new meanings as opposed to the traditional one of being able to read, write and comprehend written text. These last few decades, we’ve been introduced to literacy concepts such as computer literacy, media literacy, information literacy, and digital literacy. Although these concepts overlap, digital literacy takes elements from each of them and sums them into a broad concept.

Because of the overflowing abundance of media and information in the digital world, digital literacy has become more than necessary. It ensures users protect their privacy, critically analyze digital data and information, ethically use digital platforms, and communicate with others eloquently. 

If you’re interested in learning more about digital literacy, why it is important, and what skills you need to boost your digital literacy, read on.

Paraphrasing the American Library Association (ALA), digital literacy is the ability to use technologies to find, evaluate, create and communicate information. Furthermore, ALA defines a digitally literate person as one who:

• Possesses technical and cognitive skills to process information in various formats,
• Can use different technologies effectively, 
• Utilizes digital features to collaborate with others and participate actively in civic society and improve communities. 

But also optimizes digital literacy skills and abilities to:

• Curate data and media,
• Consume safe and credible online information,
• Create relevant content,
• Create forums of like-minded people for various subjects.

As a mental exercise, think about how many devices or digital platforms you use daily and if you can still live a fulfilling life off the grid. For most of the population, independence from technology is a thing of the past. Technology has become a permanent addition to our daily lives in the last few decades. With devices offering countless features and accessibility to everyone and making their lives easier, we can say that the world has developed into a digital world. 

Therefore it is crucial to be digitally literate, as it allows users to operate digital platforms to find, produce and share media to their specific needs or preferences.

What Are the Principles of Digital Literacy?

Digital literacy learning and development is based on four main principles, such as:

• Comprehension: This principle applies to the ability to understand digital content.
• Interdependence: A key component of developing digital literacy is understanding how all media forms are interconnected and how users can consume content more easily.
• Social Factors: Age, education, gender, income, and household type help understand how particular media is perceived or what content is more successful. So, it’s no wonder these factors play a huge role in creating an organic ecosystem of creating, sharing, and storing media or content and long-term success.
• Curation: This principle allows users to find, organize and save digital content to their preferences.

Why Digital Literacy Is More Than Reading Online

Although being able to find and read content online displays a level of digital literacy, it’s not that much different from reading print. Digital literacy encompasses a vast collection of skills that help users utilize digital tools to the fullest through finding, creating, sharing, and evaluating information. But also create a unique experience for all users. 

Digital Literacy Skills And Their Importance

Digital literacy skills have become necessary for navigating the ever-digitalizing world. Some of these skills are:

• General computer skills: These skills are the first step to being able to apply digital media for everyday use.
• Researching: Being able to find relevant information in a vast amount of media is a crucial skill in operating different digital platforms.
• Adapting to technological innovations: New technological advancements are presented daily, which is why being able to adapt to changes is an integral part of working with digital platforms.
• Collaborating well with others on different digital platforms: Since a large portion of work and education is being performed digitally, it’s important to be able to navigate various digital media that help collaborate with others.
• A level of understanding of terms and familiarity with common digital media: This skill allows users to utilize the digital feature to their full potential. 

Nonetheless, these skills can be collected into three main piles:

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• Finding-and-consuming skills: Knowing how to find reliable information and utilizing sources for consumption.
• Creating digital content: This includes uploading original content or ideas on digital platforms (Instagram, YouTube, etc.).
• Communicating or sharing digital media: Utilizing digital tools to connect with others and attract consumers with your content.

How to Develop Digital Literacy Skills

Developing your abilities to learn, share, and organize media using digital technology opens a whole new world for you. Some handy tips that’ll help you develop and boost digital literacy skills are:

• Try experimenting with digital tools;
• Keep up-to-date with new technological advancements;
• Focus on the technologies and digital platforms that benefit you most;
• Adopt the mindset of life-long learning,
• Take online courses about different digital technologies and how to use them;
• Ask for help when using new technologies.

When developing digital literacy skills, it’s important to focus on some competency areas:

• General knowledge;
• Legal practices;
• Seamless integration;
• Knowledge of appropriate digital technologies;
• Processing information;
• Balanced attitude, etc.

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The Bottom Line

Digital literacy has become crucial in functioning critically and effectively in the now-digital world, which is why we should encourage teaching and learning digital skills for all ages. The lifelong skills you will develop mean that you will use digital platforms thoughtfully and responsibly, will be able to apply skills across different media and applications and be able to manage your digital footprint in a positive manner.

So, we can conclude that digital literacy does not only benefit individuals but societies as well, as digital literacy skills help countries’ development in economy and security. 

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• Open access
• Published: 08 June 2022

A systematic review on digital literacy

• Hasan Tinmaz   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4310-0848 1 ,
• Yoo-Taek Lee   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1913-9059 2 ,
• Mina Fanea-Ivanovici   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2921-2990 3 &
• Hasnan Baber   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8951-3501 4  

Smart Learning Environments volume  9 , Article number:  21 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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The purpose of this study is to discover the main themes and categories of the research studies regarding digital literacy. To serve this purpose, the databases of WoS/Clarivate Analytics, Proquest Central, Emerald Management Journals, Jstor Business College Collections and Scopus/Elsevier were searched with four keyword-combinations and final forty-three articles were included in the dataset. The researchers applied a systematic literature review method to the dataset. The preliminary findings demonstrated that there is a growing prevalence of digital literacy articles starting from the year 2013. The dominant research methodology of the reviewed articles is qualitative. The four major themes revealed from the qualitative content analysis are: digital literacy, digital competencies, digital skills and digital thinking. Under each theme, the categories and their frequencies are analysed. Recommendations for further research and for real life implementations are generated.

Introduction

The extant literature on digital literacy, skills and competencies is rich in definitions and classifications, but there is still no consensus on the larger themes and subsumed themes categories. (Heitin, 2016 ). To exemplify, existing inventories of Internet skills suffer from ‘incompleteness and over-simplification, conceptual ambiguity’ (van Deursen et al., 2015 ), and Internet skills are only a part of digital skills. While there is already a plethora of research in this field, this research paper hereby aims to provide a general framework of digital areas and themes that can best describe digital (cap)abilities in the novel context of Industry 4.0 and the accelerated pandemic-triggered digitalisation. The areas and themes can represent the starting point for drafting a contemporary digital literacy framework.

Sousa and Rocha ( 2019 ) explained that there is a stake of digital skills for disruptive digital business, and they connect it to the latest developments, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud technology, big data, artificial intelligence, and robotics. The topic is even more important given the large disparities in digital literacy across regions (Tinmaz et al., 2022 ). More precisely, digital inequalities encompass skills, along with access, usage and self-perceptions. These inequalities need to be addressed, as they are credited with a ‘potential to shape life chances in multiple ways’ (Robinson et al., 2015 ), e.g., academic performance, labour market competitiveness, health, civic and political participation. Steps have been successfully taken to address physical access gaps, but skills gaps are still looming (Van Deursen & Van Dijk, 2010a ). Moreover, digital inequalities have grown larger due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and they influenced the very state of health of the most vulnerable categories of population or their employability in a time when digital skills are required (Baber et al., 2022 ; Beaunoyer, Dupéré & Guitton, 2020 ).

The systematic review the researchers propose is a useful updated instrument of classification and inventory for digital literacy. Considering the latest developments in the economy and in line with current digitalisation needs, digitally literate population may assist policymakers in various fields, e.g., education, administration, healthcare system, and managers of companies and other concerned organisations that need to stay competitive and to employ competitive workforce. Therefore, it is indispensably vital to comprehend the big picture of digital literacy related research.

Literature review

Since the advent of Digital Literacy, scholars have been concerned with identifying and classifying the various (cap)abilities related to its operation. Using the most cited academic papers in this stream of research, several classifications of digital-related literacies, competencies, and skills emerged.

Digital literacies

Digital literacy, which is one of the challenges of integration of technology in academic courses (Blau, Shamir-Inbal & Avdiel, 2020 ), has been defined in the current literature as the competencies and skills required for navigating a fragmented and complex information ecosystem (Eshet, 2004 ). A ‘Digital Literacy Framework’ was designed by Eshet-Alkalai ( 2012 ), comprising six categories: (a) photo-visual thinking (understanding and using visual information); (b) real-time thinking (simultaneously processing a variety of stimuli); (c) information thinking (evaluating and combining information from multiple digital sources); (d) branching thinking (navigating in non-linear hyper-media environments); (e) reproduction thinking (creating outcomes using technological tools by designing new content or remixing existing digital content); (f) social-emotional thinking (understanding and applying cyberspace rules). According to Heitin ( 2016 ), digital literacy groups the following clusters: (a) finding and consuming digital content; (b) creating digital content; (c) communicating or sharing digital content. Hence, the literature describes the digital literacy in many ways by associating a set of various technical and non-technical elements.

• Digital competencies

The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp 2.1.), the most recent framework proposed by the European Union, which is currently under review and undergoing an updating process, contains five competency areas: (a) information and data literacy, (b) communication and collaboration, (c) digital content creation, (d) safety, and (e) problem solving (Carretero, Vuorikari & Punie, 2017 ). Digital competency had previously been described in a technical fashion by Ferrari ( 2012 ) as a set comprising information skills, communication skills, content creation skills, safety skills, and problem-solving skills, which later outlined the areas of competence in DigComp 2.1, too.

• Digital skills

Ng ( 2012 ) pointed out the following three categories of digital skills: (a) technological (using technological tools); (b) cognitive (thinking critically when managing information); (c) social (communicating and socialising). A set of Internet skill was suggested by Van Deursen and Van Dijk ( 2009 , 2010b ), which contains: (a) operational skills (basic skills in using internet technology), (b) formal Internet skills (navigation and orientation skills); (c) information Internet skills (fulfilling information needs), and (d) strategic Internet skills (using the internet to reach goals). In 2014, the same authors added communication and content creation skills to the initial framework (van Dijk & van Deursen). Similarly, Helsper and Eynon ( 2013 ) put forward a set of four digital skills: technical, social, critical, and creative skills. Furthermore, van Deursen et al. ( 2015 ) built a set of items and factors to measure Internet skills: operational, information navigation, social, creative, mobile. More recent literature (vaan Laar et al., 2017 ) divides digital skills into seven core categories: technical, information management, communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving.

It is worth mentioning that the various methodologies used to classify digital literacy are overlapping or non-exhaustive, which confirms the conceptual ambiguity mentioned by van Deursen et al. ( 2015 ).

• Digital thinking

Thinking skills (along with digital skills) have been acknowledged to be a significant element of digital literacy in the educational process context (Ferrari, 2012 ). In fact, critical thinking, creativity, and innovation are at the very core of DigComp. Information and Communication Technology as a support for thinking is a learning objective in any school curriculum. In the same vein, analytical thinking and interdisciplinary thinking, which help solve problems, are yet other concerns of educators in the Industry 4.0 (Ozkan-Ozen & Kazancoglu, 2021 ).

However, we have recently witnessed a shift of focus from learning how to use information and communication technologies to using it while staying safe in the cyber-environment and being aware of alternative facts. Digital thinking would encompass identifying fake news, misinformation, and echo chambers (Sulzer, 2018 ). Not least important, concern about cybersecurity has grown especially in times of political, social or economic turmoil, such as the elections or the Covid-19 crisis (Sulzer, 2018 ; Puig, Blanco-Anaya & Perez-Maceira, 2021 ).

Ultimately, this systematic review paper focuses on the following major research questions as follows:

Research question 1: What is the yearly distribution of digital literacy related papers?

Research question 2: What are the research methods for digital literacy related papers?

Research question 3: What are the main themes in digital literacy related papers?

Research question 4: What are the concentrated categories (under revealed main themes) in digital literacy related papers?

This study employed the systematic review method where the authors scrutinized the existing literature around the major research question of digital literacy. As Uman ( 2011 ) pointed, in systematic literature review, the findings of the earlier research are examined for the identification of consistent and repetitive themes. The systematic review method differs from literature review with its well managed and highly organized qualitative scrutiny processes where researchers tend to cover less materials from fewer number of databases to write their literature review (Kowalczyk & Truluck, 2013 ; Robinson & Lowe, 2015 ).

Data collection

To address major research objectives, the following five important databases are selected due to their digital literacy focused research dominance: 1. WoS/Clarivate Analytics, 2. Proquest Central; 3. Emerald Management Journals; 4. Jstor Business College Collections; 5. Scopus/Elsevier.

The search was made in the second half of June 2021, in abstract and key words written in English language. We only kept research articles and book chapters (herein referred to as papers). Our purpose was to identify a set of digital literacy areas, or an inventory of such areas and topics. To serve that purpose, systematic review was utilized with the following synonym key words for the search: ‘digital literacy’, ‘digital skills’, ‘digital competence’ and ‘digital fluency’, to find the mainstream literature dealing with the topic. These key words were unfolded as a result of the consultation with the subject matter experts (two board members from Korean Digital Literacy Association and two professors from technology studies department). Below are the four key word combinations used in the search: “Digital literacy AND systematic review”, “Digital skills AND systematic review”, “Digital competence AND systematic review”, and “Digital fluency AND systematic review”.

A sequential systematic search was made in the five databases mentioned above. Thus, from one database to another, duplicate papers were manually excluded in a cascade manner to extract only unique results and to make the research smoother to conduct. At this stage, we kept 47 papers. Further exclusion criteria were applied. Thus, only full-text items written in English were selected, and in doing so, three papers were excluded (no full text available), and one other paper was excluded because it was not written in English, but in Spanish. Therefore, we investigated a total number of 43 papers, as shown in Table 1 . “ Appendix A ” shows the list of these papers with full references.

Data analysis

The 43 papers selected after the application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, respectively, were reviewed the materials independently by two researchers who were from two different countries. The researchers identified all topics pertaining to digital literacy, as they appeared in the papers. Next, a third researcher independently analysed these findings by excluded duplicates A qualitative content analysis was manually performed by calculating the frequency of major themes in all papers, where the raw data was compared and contrasted (Fraenkel et al., 2012 ). All three reviewers independently list the words and how the context in which they appeared and then the three reviewers collectively decided for how it should be categorized. Lastly, it is vital to remind that literature review of this article was written after the identification of the themes appeared as a result of our qualitative analyses. Therefore, the authors decided to shape the literature review structure based on the themes.

As an answer to the first research question (the yearly distribution of digital literacy related papers), Fig.  1 demonstrates the yearly distribution of digital literacy related papers. It is seen that there is an increasing trend about the digital literacy papers.

Yearly distribution of digital literacy related papers

Research question number two (The research methods for digital literacy related papers) concentrates on what research methods are employed for these digital literacy related papers. As Fig.  2 shows, most of the papers were using the qualitative method. Not stated refers to book chapters.

Research methods used in the reviewed articles

When forty-three articles were analysed for the main themes as in research question number three (The main themes in digital literacy related papers), the overall findings were categorized around four major themes: (i) literacies, (ii) competencies, (iii) skills, and (iv) thinking. Under every major theme, the categories were listed and explained as in research question number four (The concentrated categories (under revealed main themes) in digital literacy related papers).

The authors utilized an overt categorization for the depiction of these major themes. For example, when the ‘creativity’ was labelled as a skill, the authors also categorized it under the ‘skills’ theme. Similarly, when ‘creativity’ was mentioned as a competency, the authors listed it under the ‘competencies’ theme. Therefore, it is possible to recognize the same finding under different major themes.

Major theme 1: literacies

Digital literacy being the major concern of this paper was observed to be blatantly mentioned in five papers out forty-three. One of these articles described digital literacy as the human proficiencies to live, learn and work in the current digital society. In addition to these five articles, two additional papers used the same term as ‘critical digital literacy’ by describing it as a person’s or a society’s accessibility and assessment level interaction with digital technologies to utilize and/or create information. Table 2 summarizes the major categories under ‘Literacies’ major theme.

Computer literacy, media literacy and cultural literacy were the second most common literacy (n = 5). One of the article branches computer literacy as tool (detailing with software and hardware uses) and resource (focusing on information processing capacity of a computer) literacies. Cultural literacy was emphasized as a vital element for functioning in an intercultural team on a digital project.

Disciplinary literacy (n = 4) was referring to utilizing different computer programs (n = 2) or technical gadgets (n = 2) with a specific emphasis on required cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills to be able to work in any digital context (n = 3), serving for the using (n = 2), creating and applying (n = 2) digital literacy in real life.

Data literacy, technology literacy and multiliteracy were the third frequent categories (n = 3). The ‘multiliteracy’ was referring to the innate nature of digital technologies, which have been infused into many aspects of human lives.

Last but not least, Internet literacy, mobile literacy, web literacy, new literacy, personal literacy and research literacy were discussed in forty-three article findings. Web literacy was focusing on being able to connect with people on the web (n = 2), discover the web content (especially the navigation on a hyper-textual platform), and learn web related skills through practical web experiences. Personal literacy was highlighting digital identity management. Research literacy was not only concentrating on conducting scientific research ability but also finding available scholarship online.

Twenty-four other categories are unfolded from the results sections of forty-three articles. Table 3 presents the list of these other literacies where the authors sorted the categories in an ascending alphabetical order without any other sorting criterion. Primarily, search, tagging, filtering and attention literacies were mainly underlining their roles in information processing. Furthermore, social-structural literacy was indicated as the recognition of the social circumstances and generation of information. Another information-related literacy was pointed as publishing literacy, which is the ability to disseminate information via different digital channels.

While above listed personal literacy was referring to digital identity management, network literacy was explained as someone’s social networking ability to manage the digital relationship with other people. Additionally, participatory literacy was defined as the necessary abilities to join an online team working on online content production.

Emerging technology literacy was stipulated as an essential ability to recognize and appreciate the most recent and innovative technologies in along with smart choices related to these technologies. Additionally, the critical literacy was added as an ability to make smart judgements on the cost benefit analysis of these recent technologies.

Last of all, basic, intermediate, and advanced digital assessment literacies were specified for educational institutions that are planning to integrate various digital tools to conduct instructional assessments in their bodies.

Major theme 2: competencies

The second major theme was revealed as competencies. The authors directly categorized the findings that are specified with the word of competency. Table 4 summarizes the entire category set for the competencies major theme.

The most common category was the ‘digital competence’ (n = 14) where one of the articles points to that category as ‘generic digital competence’ referring to someone’s creativity for multimedia development (video editing was emphasized). Under this broad category, the following sub-categories were associated:

Problem solving (n = 10)

Safety (n = 7)

Information processing (n = 5)

Content creation (n = 5)

Communication (n = 2)

Digital rights (n = 1)

Digital emotional intelligence (n = 1)

Digital teamwork (n = 1)

Big data utilization (n = 1)

Artificial Intelligence utilization (n = 1)

Virtual leadership (n = 1)

Self-disruption (in along with the pace of digitalization) (n = 1)

Like ‘digital competency’, five additional articles especially coined the term as ‘digital competence as a life skill’. Deeper analysis demonstrated the following points: social competences (n = 4), communication in mother tongue (n = 3) and foreign language (n = 2), entrepreneurship (n = 3), civic competence (n = 2), fundamental science (n = 1), technology (n = 1) and mathematics (n = 1) competences, learning to learn (n = 1) and self-initiative (n = 1).

Moreover, competencies were linked to workplace digital competencies in three articles and highlighted as significant for employability (n = 3) and ‘economic engagement’ (n = 3). Digital competencies were also detailed for leisure (n = 2) and communication (n = 2). Furthermore, two articles pointed digital competencies as an inter-cultural competency and one as a cross-cultural competency. Lastly, the ‘digital nativity’ (n = 1) was clarified as someone’s innate competency of being able to feel contented and satisfied with digital technologies.

Major theme 3: skills

The third major observed theme was ‘skills’, which was dominantly gathered around information literacy skills (n = 19) and information and communication technologies skills (n = 18). Table 5 demonstrates the categories with more than one occurrence.

Table 6 summarizes the sub-categories of the two most frequent categories of ‘skills’ major theme. The information literacy skills noticeably concentrate on the steps of information processing; evaluation (n = 6), utilization (n = 4), finding (n = 3), locating (n = 2) information. Moreover, the importance of trial/error process, being a lifelong learner, feeling a need for information and so forth were evidently listed under this sub-category. On the other hand, ICT skills were grouped around cognitive and affective domains. For instance, while technical skills in general and use of social media, coding, multimedia, chat or emailing in specific were reported in cognitive domain, attitude, intention, and belief towards ICT were mentioned as the elements of affective domain.

Communication skills (n = 9) were multi-dimensional for different societies, cultures, and globalized contexts, requiring linguistic skills. Collaboration skills (n = 9) are also recurrently cited with an explicit emphasis for virtual platforms.

‘Ethics for digital environment’ encapsulated ethical use of information (n = 4) and different technologies (n = 2), knowing digital laws (n = 2) and responsibilities (n = 2) in along with digital rights and obligations (n = 1), having digital awareness (n = 1), following digital etiquettes (n = 1), treating other people with respect (n = 1) including no cyber-bullying (n = 1) and no stealing or damaging other people (n = 1).

‘Digital fluency’ involved digital access (n = 2) by using different software and hardware (n = 2) in online platforms (n = 1) or communication tools (n = 1) or within programming environments (n = 1). Digital fluency also underlined following recent technological advancements (n = 1) and knowledge (n = 1) including digital health and wellness (n = 1) dimension.

‘Social intelligence’ related to understanding digital culture (n = 1), the concept of digital exclusion (n = 1) and digital divide (n = 3). ‘Research skills’ were detailed with searching academic information (n = 3) on databases such as Web of Science and Scopus (n = 2) and their citation, summarization, and quotation (n = 2).

‘Digital teaching’ was described as a skill (n = 2) in Table 4 whereas it was also labelled as a competence (n = 1) as shown in Table 3 . Similarly, while learning to learn (n = 1) was coined under competencies in Table 3 , digital learning (n = 2, Table 4 ) and life-long learning (n = 1, Table 5 ) were stated as learning related skills. Moreover, learning was used with the following three terms: learning readiness (n = 1), self-paced learning (n = 1) and learning flexibility (n = 1).

Table 7 shows other categories listed below the ‘skills’ major theme. The list covers not only the software such as GIS, text mining, mapping, or bibliometric analysis programs but also the conceptual skills such as the fourth industrial revolution and information management.

Major theme 4: thinking

The last identified major theme was the different types of ‘thinking’. As Table 8 shows, ‘critical thinking’ was the most frequent thinking category (n = 4). Except computational thinking, the other categories were not detailed.

Computational thinking (n = 3) was associated with the general logic of how a computer works and sub-categorized into the following steps; construction of the problem (n = 3), abstraction (n = 1), disintegration of the problem (n = 2), data collection, (n = 2), data analysis (n = 2), algorithmic design (n = 2), parallelization & iteration (n = 1), automation (n = 1), generalization (n = 1), and evaluation (n = 2).

A transversal analysis of digital literacy categories reveals the following fields of digital literacy application:

Technological advancement (IT, ICT, Industry 4.0, IoT, text mining, GIS, bibliometric analysis, mapping data, technology, AI, big data)

Networking (Internet, web, connectivity, network, safety)

Information (media, news, communication)

Creative-cultural industries (culture, publishing, film, TV, leisure, content creation)

Academia (research, documentation, library)

Citizenship (participation, society, social intelligence, awareness, politics, rights, legal use, ethics)

Education (life skills, problem solving, teaching, learning, education, lifelong learning)

Professional life (work, teamwork, collaboration, economy, commerce, leadership, decision making)

Personal level (critical thinking, evaluation, analytical thinking, innovative thinking)

This systematic review on digital literacy concentrated on forty-three articles from the databases of WoS/Clarivate Analytics, Proquest Central, Emerald Management Journals, Jstor Business College Collections and Scopus/Elsevier. The initial results revealed that there is an increasing trend on digital literacy focused academic papers. Research work in digital literacy is critical in a context of disruptive digital business, and more recently, the pandemic-triggered accelerated digitalisation (Beaunoyer, Dupéré & Guitton, 2020 ; Sousa & Rocha 2019 ). Moreover, most of these papers were employing qualitative research methods. The raw data of these articles were analysed qualitatively using systematic literature review to reveal major themes and categories. Four major themes that appeared are: digital literacy, digital competencies, digital skills and thinking.

Whereas the mainstream literature describes digital literacy as a set of photo-visual, real-time, information, branching, reproduction and social-emotional thinking (Eshet-Alkalai, 2012 ) or as a set of precise specific operations, i.e., finding, consuming, creating, communicating and sharing digital content (Heitin, 2016 ), this study reveals that digital literacy revolves around and is in connection with the concepts of computer literacy, media literacy, cultural literacy or disciplinary literacy. In other words, the present systematic review indicates that digital literacy is far broader than specific tasks, englobing the entire sphere of computer operation and media use in a cultural context.

The digital competence yardstick, DigComp (Carretero, Vuorikari & Punie, 2017 ) suggests that the main digital competencies cover information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, digital content creation, safety, and problem solving. Similarly, the findings of this research place digital competencies in relation to problem solving, safety, information processing, content creation and communication. Therefore, the findings of the systematic literature review are, to a large extent, in line with the existing framework used in the European Union.

The investigation of the main keywords associated with digital skills has revealed that information literacy, ICT, communication, collaboration, digital content creation, research and decision-making skill are the most representative. In a structured way, the existing literature groups these skills in technological, cognitive, and social (Ng, 2012 ) or, more extensively, into operational, formal, information Internet, strategic, communication and content creation (van Dijk & van Deursen, 2014 ). In time, the literature has become richer in frameworks, and prolific authors have improved their results. As such, more recent research (vaan Laar et al., 2017 ) use the following categories: technical, information management, communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving.

Whereas digital thinking was observed to be mostly related with critical thinking and computational thinking, DigComp connects it with critical thinking, creativity, and innovation, on the one hand, and researchers highlight fake news, misinformation, cybersecurity, and echo chambers as exponents of digital thinking, on the other hand (Sulzer, 2018 ; Puig, Blanco-Anaya & Perez-Maceira, 2021 ).

This systematic review research study looks ahead to offer an initial step and guideline for the development of a more contemporary digital literacy framework including digital literacy major themes and factors. The researchers provide the following recommendations for both researchers and practitioners.

Recommendations for prospective research

By considering the major qualitative research trend, it seems apparent that more quantitative research-oriented studies are needed. Although it requires more effort and time, mixed method studies will help understand digital literacy holistically.

As digital literacy is an umbrella term for many different technologies, specific case studies need be designed, such as digital literacy for artificial intelligence or digital literacy for drones’ usage.

Digital literacy affects different areas of human lives, such as education, business, health, governance, and so forth. Therefore, different case studies could be carried out for each of these unique dimensions of our lives. For instance, it is worth investigating the role of digital literacy on lifelong learning in particular, and on education in general, as well as the digital upskilling effects on the labour market flexibility.

Further experimental studies on digital literacy are necessary to realize how certain variables (for instance, age, gender, socioeconomic status, cognitive abilities, etc.) affect this concept overtly or covertly. Moreover, the digital divide issue needs to be analysed through the lens of its main determinants.

New bibliometric analysis method can be implemented on digital literacy documents to reveal more information on how these works are related or centred on what major topic. This visual approach will assist to realize the big picture within the digital literacy framework.

Recommendations for practitioners

The digital literacy stakeholders, policymakers in education and managers in private organizations, need to be aware that there are many dimensions and variables regarding the implementation of digital literacy. In that case, stakeholders must comprehend their beneficiaries or the participants more deeply to increase the effect of digital literacy related activities. For example, critical thinking and problem-solving skills and abilities are mentioned to affect digital literacy. Hence, stakeholders have to initially understand whether the participants have enough entry level critical thinking and problem solving.

Development of digital literacy for different groups of people requires more energy, since each group might require a different set of skills, abilities, or competencies. Hence, different subject matter experts, such as technologists, instructional designers, content experts, should join the team.

It is indispensably vital to develop different digital frameworks for different technologies (basic or advanced) or different contexts (different levels of schooling or various industries).

These frameworks should be updated regularly as digital fields are evolving rapidly. Every year, committees should gather around to understand new technological trends and decide whether they should address the changes into their frameworks.

Understanding digital literacy in a thorough manner can enable decision makers to correctly implement and apply policies addressing the digital divide that is reflected onto various aspects of life, e.g., health, employment, education, especially in turbulent times such as the COVID-19 pandemic is.

Lastly, it is also essential to state the study limitations. This study is limited to the analysis of a certain number of papers, obtained from using the selected keywords and databases. Therefore, an extension can be made by adding other keywords and searching other databases.

Availability of data and materials

The authors present the articles used for the study in “ Appendix A ”.

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Tinmaz, H., Lee, YT., Fanea-Ivanovici, M. et al. A systematic review on digital literacy. Smart Learn. Environ. 9 , 21 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-022-00204-y

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A Digital Academy against Climate Change Disinformation featuring trustworthy and fact-checked information and resources on climate change and media literacy.

• Markou, Spyridoula
• Doulgerakis, Adam
• Triantafillou, Anna
• Acierno, Arianna
• Buonocore, Mauro
• Reder, Alfredo

This paper reports on the design and development of a Digital Academy against Climate Change Disinformation providing citizens with trustworthy information and resources on climate change, as well as fact-checked information from credible sources. The objective of the Digital Academy is to enable citizens to browse through: a) trustworthy information, such as articles and scientific publications; b) fact-checks that debunk climate change disinformation; c) relevant resources, such as media literacy material; and d) reports on the state of disinformation around climate change.The Digital Academy against Climate Change Disinformation is part of the AGORA project's digital tools, delivered through the AGORA project's Digital Agora living digital environment that enables stakeholders, scientists, experts, media and citizens to network and communicate, to find peers and other communities from other geographical or societal contexts to share challenges and needs, facilitating multidisciplinary, integrated approaches to societal transformation. Aspiring to play a crucial role in the collective efforts to tackle climate-related disinformation and drive societal transformation, the Digital Academy aims to enhance individual skills, foster collaboration, and provide credible sources for empowering local communities in addressing the climate crisis. The material (modules and resources) that is made available through the Digital Academy is structured in three main sections, namely (i) Climate Change, (ii) Media Literacy, and (iii) Resources. The Climate Change section includes modules, focusing on climate change, climate communication, and climate disinformation, and aims to equip users with a comprehensive understanding of climate-related challenges. Additionally, the Digital Academy actively counters climate change disinformation by providing debunks and reliable information. Recognizing the importance of media literacy in the digital age, the Media Literacy section includes modules on critical thinking, digital literacy, fact-checking, and verification, aspiring to empower users to navigate the digital landscape with confidence. The Resources section encompasses climate fact checks, reports on climate change and adaptation, and a wealth of tools and approaches. Case studies and stories within this section share experiences, highlighting enablers, barriers, and lessons learned from ongoing implementations.In summary, the Digital Agora stands as a comprehensive platform, promoting informed decision-making, climate resilience, and media literacy. Through its diverse modules and extensive library of resources, the Digital Agora aims to create a resilient community equipped to address the challenges of climate change and disinformation.Acknowledgement: The presented work is part of the AGORA Project and it is funded by the European Union through the European Union's Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Actions under grant agreement No 101093921. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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• DOI: 10.19109/psikis.v10i1.19067
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