Digital Literacy is the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills. (ALA, 2011)
Information, Media and Technology skills
In the 21st century, we live in a technology and media-suffused environment, marked by: 1) access to an abundance of information, 2) rapid changes in technology tools, and 3) the ability to collaborate and make individual contributions on an unprecedented scale. To be effective in the 21st century, citizens and workers must be able to exhibit a range of functional and critical thinking skills related to information, media and technology.
Information Literacy: Students are able to access and evaluate information effectively and use and manage that information purposefully for the issue or problem at hand. They exhibit awareness and application of knowledge on the ethical/legal issues surrounding the use of information.
Media Literacy: Understanding how, why, and for what purposes, media messages are constructed, and how individuals interpret messages differently. Students create media utilizing the most appropriate media creation tools, characteristics and conventions in diverse, multi-cultural environments. Information,
Communications, and Technology Literacy: Students use digital technologies to manage, integrate, evaluate and create information, and to apply technology effectively, using it as a tool to research, organize, evaluate and communicate.
~21st Century Skills, 2011
Framework image, by Charles Fadel [CC BY 3.0, from Wikimedia Commons