Digital Literacy In The Twenty-First Century

Abstract

This study focuses on the most recent major form of literacy - digital literacy - and investigates how the concept has evolved over three decades of unprecedentedly rapid technological development: 1990-2020. While digital technologies and their impacts have received much academic and media attention, this is the first full-length, interdisciplinary study of the rise of digital literacy alongside the exponential rise of digital technologies over that period. This study was conducted just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, an event which triggered a worldwide escalation in the use of digital technologies and demonstrated more clearly than ever before the universal importance of digital literacy. It addresses a gap by focussing on digital literacy's history, changing forms, challenges, and the policies and debates it has triggered. By examining digital literacy's history within the broader context of the history of previous forms of literacy, the thesis also points to future directions. Each significant past technological change has placed new demands on literacy. New literacies have been needed to provide skills, and to understand social and political dimensions of the new capabilities. In existing studies digital literacy has tended to be discussed within specific disciplinary fields, especially education, communication and cultural studies, and library and information studies. By taking a broader approach, this thesis contributes new understanding of digital literacy in the context of its history, its changing nature, and its value now and for the future. Engaging with commentary from multiple perspectives over time, the thesis examines how digital literacy, like literacy before it, has continually adapted to and accommodated changing information and communication technologies.

Literacy is a form of social power intimately linked with development of new technologies in any era. However, its contemporary forms are arguably more complex. Contradictions have appeared, including reversals of power structures, even as the emphasis on democratic, universal, or open access has produced a levelling in power distribution through education and opportunity regardless of class, ethnicity, or location. A key aspect is the shift in influence toward multinational corporations, as people increasingly give away their data privacy and rights to participate in the knowledge economy. The priority to narrow digital divides for individual and collective empowerment has been accompanied by increasing attention to safeguarding personal information.

Digital literacy is topical in terms of moves to align and benchmark national educational curricula worldwide. Yet this thesis argues that efforts to set global standards run counter to locally situated and culturally dependent drivers for digital literacy, and that recognising this diversity is important. In this context the thesis draws upon the educational philosophy of bildung, which offers a potential set of principles to frame digital literacy and guide human/digital engagement. The thesis argues that discussions of digital literacy must continue to turn outward to larger social questions of how citizens can be active participants in an information environment that empowers at the same time as it increasingly controls them, but also inwards to the individual human life. Show more