Exploration of Digital Literacy

Paul Gilster once defined digital literacy in his book as the understanding and the usage of information in the current digital age. Which demands the ability to find, understand and analyze information through the practical digital skills of using software applications and technologies.

Before starting to research about this topic in details, I took a basic test to explain my own strengths and weaknesses regarding my digital skills. Which is when  I found out that I lack in certain parts, such as in some tools and technology, teach and learn, and communicate and collaborate.

Researching this topic have been enlightening to me because I have never been aware of such term and never thought that computer and digital skills as a separate from digital literacy. As it mentions in many educational websites, digital literacy is the modern way of being literate, where just being able to read and write is not enough. Since now everything is becoming digital, being digitally literate is very important to the individual’s own knowledge, personal life, education, and career.

While trying to understand and research those definitions, I came upon many websites and articles that either define the term or talks about the importance of digital literacy in our age and for the modern workplace.  There are three different levels of digital literacy, which are digital skills, digital literacy, and digital fluency. As I mentioned before, digital literacy is about the ability to use technological tools for a particular purpose, while maintaining proper judgment and awareness of what we are reading, writing, why and to whom. Digital skills, on the other hand, is the step before this, which is the basic and practical skills of knowing how to use these technological tools, making them any skills that are required to be digitally literate. Lastly, digital fluency is the skills that go beyond digital literacy, which include mastering the digital tools to analyze and find and create information on a whole new level.

I am glad that I had this opportunity to research this topic and becoming aware of its importance and how it shaping the individuals and societies. Being Egyptian in this age of technology is an interesting. Before, I didn’t think that this digital age and technological skills affected our society in a big scale, seeing that most of the Egyptian population are from the poorer society. But after I came upon the proper definition, I realized that many Egyptian’s have used digital literacy skills in many ways in redefining themselves, their careers and the Egyptian political path. Saying that the Egyptian revolution initially started through the use of social media tools. which made me come to the realization that the Egyptian educational system still lacks the proper tools and motive to teach children through digital tools which would help them nurture their understanding and comprehension alongside the evolving technological age; while currently, they still only teach the basic information on how to use the computer. On the other hand, personally,

Before,  I have used many of those tools for the sole purpose of an educational assignment, or for personal reasons through communication and social media. However, now I can learn beyond the limit of my education courses by finding, comprehending, and learning new information through the basic tools I have acquired of online communication, research, etc. Moreover, there are more skills that are needed to be 100% digitally literate, which include: Critical thinking and evaluation, E-safety, cultural and social understanding, collaboration, curate information, proficient communication, creativity, and practical and functional skills.

to improve my skills and knowledge about certain topics in digital skills, I have taken two online stations that provide a quick tutorial and badges when succeeding learning about a specific topic. I chose digital images and design thinking, which I have earned the badges for. The reason I chose digital images is that of my personal interest in photography and digital design, which this small course provided me the technical information I can use. as for the second one, Design Thinking, I chose it to understand its difference with scientific thinking, which is a course I have taken last year. This course provided me creative ideas and technical skills that will help me solve problems and challenges in a creative way.