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We are surrounded by ambiguity and vagueness in everyday life. ‘Ambiguity’ is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary30 as the ‘capability of being understood in two or more ways’ whereas if something is ‘vague’ it is ‘couched in general or indefinite terms’ being ‘not definitely or precisely expressed’. The two terms, therefore, are very closely linked Empson (1930:2004), for example, does not draw a distinction between them, setting out seven types of ambiguity of which several could be argued to be examples of ‘vagueness’.
Empson’s seven types of ambiguity can be seen to form a continuum through which terms may pass. This continuum has three reasonably-distinct parts, from the most ambiguous to the least ambiguous: generative ambiguity, creative ambiguity and productive ambiguity. The use of the term ‘digital literacy’ has changed since it was popularised by Paul Gilster (1997) but, as we will see, it remains mid-way through this continuum of ambiguity. The term ‘digital native’, by way of contrast, is further along this continuum, despite it being a younger term.
The continuum of ambiguity is given in diagrammatic form below. Ambiguous terms suffer an imbalance in the denotative (surface-level) information and connotative (symbolic) information conveyed to individuals. As the usage of terms becomes less ambiguous they can be seen as moving towards the right of the overlap in the diagram:
Figure 5 - A simplified, overlapping version of the spectrum of ambiguities
In this chapter, therefore, I will explore how the terms ‘digital native’ and ‘digital literacy’ have evolved with definitions that put them, at different times, in one or more of these parts of the continuum of ambiguity.
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