What is digital literacy?

Scholar Renee Hobbs defines digital literacy as “the constellation of knowledge, skills, and competencies necessary for thriving in a technology-saturated culture.” (Hobbs, 2017). The Centre for Strategic & International Studies offers that digital literacy is “the ability to use digital technologies – both hardware and software – safely and appropriately.” (CSIS, 2022). These are just two of many feasible definitions of digital literacy, and more continue to emerge, as technology and innovation move forward at a breakneck pace.

Some scholars caution against the drive toward a globalized definition, citing concerns that localized definitions of digital literacy are most accurate and useful due to global variations in context, language, and technological infrastructure. (Pangrazio et al., 2020).

As you can see, digital literacy is a layered concept. For the purposes of these materials, let’s agree that digital literacy is the ability to navigate, understand, and utilize digital technologies effectively and responsibly.

Now that we’ve established a definition for digital literacy, let’s take a look at Information Literacy.

Several literacy models separate information literacy into various categories including navigation, selection, and utilization of online information. In 2016, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL 2016) adopted a framework for Information Literacy that is composed of six concepts:

1. Authority Is Constructed and Contextual
2. Information Creation as a Process
3. Information Has Value
4. Research as Inquiry
5. Scholarship as Conversation
6. Searching as Strategic Exploration

The goal in creating this framework was to standardize evolving literacies of our technological world that go beyond the fundamental literacies of the pre-Internet world. In other words, the Internet has its own rules and requires a unique set of skills to navigate and utilize it successfully.

Digital literacy and information literacy are sometimes used interchangeably, but digital literacy is a more overarching term that applies to a broad variety of technological innovations, including hardware and software. Information literacy is specifically directed toward material found on the Internet such as articles, blog posts, images, and social media feeds. To be information literate is to have the ability to research and use information that is reliable, relevant, and safe.

This Information Literacy toolkit provides resources to help you build your skills in gathering useful data to synthesize and create compelling learning experiences for your children that supplement their institutional learning. While it can be used by anyone, this toolkit is designed with parents in mind: homeschooling parents, expatriate parents, and any other parents who want to create educational content for their children.