If you understand the picture above (all credits to folks at XKCD) then you must have had some experience with computers, and specifically being asked by other people to help. You show some aptitude to work with computers and electronics, and use communicate what you know, via electronically or verbally.
Digital literacy is as simple as that. A person is simply familiar with words and terms used to refer to tools used in the digital era and is good enough not just by knowing, but able to use and interact with the tools. Just as there is spoken language, there is the language used for the digital world, lingos simple as internet, e-mail, and googling (which is now found in several major dictionaries) to terms like usenet, GITHUB, and IRC which are used in the more technical circles, and its own slangs and jokes, such as the infamous rickroll. Like how a person does not need to know all of the words in english to know english, you don't have to know everything about computers to be digitally literate. Rather you must be able to understand enough to be able to understand more when necessary and communicate it to others.
I really like this definition as well as the picture to prove the point. It is simple, yet effectively proves a good point that digital lieracy is simply understanding the "language" of technology. The digital world does have its own language and once that language is undestood, one has the ability to navigate themself through the digital world.
ReplyDeleteI like how Harrison put emphasis on language and communication, because I think that there is a distinction between people who use a computer and people who are digitally literate. Anyone can use a computer if he or she wants as computers are built to be rather intuitive--but it is the ability to communicate with others and understand the lingo of online dialogue that makes someone digitally literate.
ReplyDeleteIt is very clever how you used a picture to show the basic meaning of digital literacy. I like how you centered your definition around familiarity and how a common understanding of something allows one to be able to communicate with others about this field.
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