What is ‘digital literacy’?
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The European UnionThe European Union (EU) is an evolving meta-organisation of countries in an area which changes in size as new member countries are admitted. The European Commission (EC) represents the general interests of the EU and ‘is the driving force in proposing legislation (to Parliament and the Council) [and] administering and implementing EU policies’ (http://ec.europa.eu). As such, it can be expected that a wide range of initiatives and groups are funded by the EC given the different contexts within the EU. Despite much equivocation in terms relating directly to what researchers deem ‘new literacies’ the EC has funded a coherent body of work on the concept of ‘e-competencies’. This is, for the most part, linked directly to lifelong learning (a favourite of the EC), ensuring equality of access (especially for women) and boosting skills relating to employability and the economy. Almost everything related to the creation and consumption of digital media is included within discussion of ‘Media Literacy’. This latter term includes input from many stakeholder groups, especially the UK Office for Communications (Ofcom). Digital literacy is seen mainly as a basic skill within the European context, despite EU-funded work as part of the DigEuLit project (2004-6)9 including ‘innovation/creativity’ as the highest level of such a literacy: 
Figure 1 - Levels of Digital Literacy This research and synthesis, however, was carried out by academics operating within the wider international sphere of new literacies research. Europe’s Information Society Thematic Portal, on the other hand, talks of ‘ICTs affecting our lives every day’ meaning that:
(Europe's Information Society Thematic Portal, 2007) It is evident from the above definition that digital literacy and ICT literacy are considered to be one and the same thing. The text goes on to explain how digital literacy is part of the EC i2010 Strategy’s ‘emphasis on Inclusion, better public services and quality of life’ but that ‘this is not just about Inclusion - ICT-related skills are vital for the competitiveness and innovation capability of the European economy.’ For the EC, therefore, digital literacy is bound up with global economic competitiveness and closing what is often referred to as the ‘digital divide’. This treatment of digital literacy as an aid to social equality and economic competitiveness is exemplified in a blog post from 2010 by Neelie Kroes, Digital Agenda Commissioner: ‘I want to assure you that I take digital literacy seriously. Your background, current lack of skills and other factors like a disability should not be a permanent barrier to enjoying the benefits of the digital era. … The core is obviously integrating digital competences more effectively into our education and training systems - so that digital literacy is seen as a part of literacy in general.’ (Kroes 2010) This is the only post in which digital literacy is mentioned on the whole European Liberal Democrats blog and it is evident that, for Kroes, ‘digital literacy’ and ‘ICT literacy’ are one and the same thing. Kroes no doubt was informed by a 2008 ‘e-Inclusion Ministerial Conference & Expo’ in Vienna at which a ‘Digital Literacy European Commission Working Paper’ was presented along with ‘Recommendations from Digital Literacy High-Level Expert Group’ (EC 2008) This report considers digital literacy to be ‘the skills required to achieve digital competence, the confident and critical use of ICT for work, leisure, learning and communication’ (p.4) but equivocates by equating digital literacy to ‘internet skills’ and ‘using a computer’ in places. The EU’s low-level definition of digital literacy is backed up by the EC’s ‘Eurostat’ glossary which explains after giving the EC’s standard definition that: ‘Digital literacy is underpinned by basic technical use of computers and the Internet. To measure this, the Community Survey on ICT usage in households and by individuals asked if respondents had carried out six basic computer and six basic Internet activities. Those who had done 5 or 6 were classed as highly skilled, 3-4=medium; 1-2=low; those who had not carried out any of the activities, were considered as having no skills.’ (European Commission, no date) In the European context, therefore, digital literacy is a poor cousin to the more dominant cousin of media literacy. Whilst definitions of digital literacy almost always include elements of criticality and reflection, project reports tend to instead emphasise and stress ‘e-inclusion’. Discussions around media literacy, for reasons explained in the next section on the UK, are more co-ordinated and focus much more on the critical and reflective elements of new literacies. The EC defines media literacy in the following way: ‘Media literacy is the ability to access the media, to understand and to critically evaluate different aspects of the media and media contents and to create communications in a variety of contexts.’ (EC Media Literacy Portal, no date) Whilst this is again contextualised in terms of ‘active citizenship in today’s information society’ there is, importantly, mention of individuals creating something in the definition. Instead of media literacy, like digital literacy, being about accessing other people’s content it is, at least partly, about creativity. From 2000 to 2010 EC work towards both digital literacy and media literacy was framed by the Lisbon Strategy. This was almost universally recognised as a failure. In fact, progress was so poor by 2004 that a report stated that the ‘disappointing delivery is due to an overloaded agenda, poor coordination and conflicting priorities’ with a key issue being ‘the lack of determined political action’ (Kok 2004, p.6). As we will see in the UK section, this has meant that work around digital literacy has suffered, whilst organisations and pressure groups have taken up the banner of media literacy. The Lisbon Strategy i2010 was relaunched in 2005 with a package of policies called i2010 which was aimed at ‘harnessing the potential of ICT to drive innovation and productivity in Europe’. The increasingly target-driven strategies meant that ‘soft’ skills such as new literacies became less of a priority. From 2008 and the economic crisis onwards, this became even more apparent. However, a new 10-year strategy, Europe 202010, was launched in 2010. Focusing almost exclusively on sustainability and growth, it mentions digital literacy only once and even then only in relation to ‘increasing access’ (European Commission 2010). This, coupled with another failure to ensure binding agreements looks set to doom this strategy to the same fate as the Lisbon Strategy of 2000. Download 7.07 Mb. Share with your friends:
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