Digital Literacy

Digital literacy, which is the comprehension of technological discourse, as well as the ability to utilize digital information, is an essential skill to have in today’s technologically enhanced society. This ability is not purely exclusive to the younger generation, but it must be something that anyone can understand, whether they are young or old, white or black, Asian or American; digital literacy should have no boundaries. Someone in India can easily communicate with someone in China with programs such as Skype or AIM, and a twenty four year old medical student in America can access the same information as a thirty nine year old doctor in Australia. With our ever-changing and modernizing world, there is a greater need for a digitally literate population, which can easily and readily access any information that is available to them from various forms of digital media. Because of the internet, any sort of information, big or small, can be disseminated out to the masses in forms of blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Wikipedia, and more. The internet is a digital frontier that must be explored and conquered, but the only way to utilize it to its fullest potential and meet up with the challenges of the twenty-first century is to become digitally literate.

Nowadays, schools are becoming more wired with utilities such as smart boards and online wikis in order to aid with the students’ learning experience. Because of this, there is a greater need for both students and teachers to become digitally literate. It is up to the teacher to learn how to utilize the technology (smart boards and wikis), but it is up to the student to learn how to access the information. However, classrooms are not the only environment in which digital literacy is a crucial skill. Even typical working class adults can find the internet to contain a heap of information. Want to hear the latest news, but you have no access to a TV or radio? Just go on www.cnn.com, and all the information will be right at your fingertips. As long as one knows how to navigate around the site and understand how to use all the tabs, hyperlinks, and videos, then it is no different than watching the news on TV. Have a medical question, but you have no time to visit a doctor? Simply use Google, Wikipedia, or WebMD, and a myriad of information will appear about what the problem is, and how to alleviate it. Want to write a letter to an old friend, but you have no pen or paper around? Just write an email. It’s as simple as that, as long as one is digitally literate. As digital media begins to take precedence over our lives, digital literacy will no longer be an option; rather, it will be a necessity.