What is Digital Literacy? | Cultivating Digital Literacy

Summary

Digital literacy is an essential, evolving set of abilities for participating in a world where new technologies continually change how people learn, work, communicate, and create. It is more than technical know-how: it also strengthens other forms of literacy and supports students’ ability to act thoughtfully and independently.

The video’s central ideas include:

• Find and assess information: Locate, evaluate, interpret, and apply information encountered online and in digital media.
• Create as well as consume: Use digital tools to produce and share content—not merely view it—and communicate ideas meaningfully.
• Think critically about media: Deconstruct media and digital environments, distinguish reliable information from misinformation, and understand how digital content and experiences are created.
• Choose tools thoughtfully: Know when, why, and how to use particular technologies, applications, and formats effectively, creatively, and ethically.
• Communicate across modes: Work with written, visual, and auditory forms of communication, adapting skills to the context and audience.
• Collaborate and participate: Use digital tools to work with others and take part in education, careers, and civic life.

Digital literacy can help students express personal stories, engage more deeply with coursework, develop career prospects, and find their voices. Several contributors emphasize agency: students should be able to read and write both functionally and critically, and use technology to express themselves and shape what they create.

The video also notes that people use related terms, including digital literacy, digital fluency, media literacy, and information literacy. Although the terms may differ, the speakers describe substantial overlap in the skills and purposes they refer to. Some prefer to speak of “literacies” in the plural, because appropriate knowledge and practices depend on the technology, task, and setting.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Multiple unnamed education leaders and educators, whose names are not provided in the subtitles.
• Stuart Selber, referenced in connection with the idea of thinking about literacies in the plural; the subtitles do not establish that he is a featured speaker.
• USC Annenberg, cited in a discussion of critical media analysis and mindful content creation.
• University of Arizona, cited for its emphasis on multimodal education and communication across written, visual, and auditory channels.