Your Digital Confidence Profile
I believe that the results of my digital profile actually represent how I see myself. I believe that I am pretty comfortable with my skills concerning research, creation, learning and wellbeing and completely confident with my skills concerning collaboration and communication, which I am most proud of. The areas I’m interested in developing throughout this course are definitely those concerning creation and innovation as well as teaching and learning as I would like to pass on my knowledge in creative ways.
Introduction to Digital Literacies
Defining digital literacy
Wikipedia’s definition of digital literacy is the following: ” an individual’s ability to produce clear information through writing and other forms of communication on various digital platforms.” I believe that Wikipedia’s definition of Digital literacy is a good description of the concept as it shows the different needed for digital literacy; dimensions such as grammar skills, computer skills, writing skills, and typing skills on platforms, such as social media sites and blog sites, etc.
When I scan the #digilit hashtag on Twitter, I found a valuable link defining digital literacy. posted by Lee Araoz, helped define the importance of digital citizenship – an important element of digital literacy. It shows how part of digital literacy is using the internet effectively to engage in society/ politics.
After conducting a Google search for “digital skills”, I found 2 definitions that I believe are very important. The first one concerns Social Media skills: “The ability to understand and utilize social media effectively is a core skill every professional should have. […]Social media has permeated the fabric of our society, and become the primary source of communication and information flow between content creators and consumers.” I find this skill to be very important as I use social media every single day of my life to communicate with people from all over the world and I have always seen its effect on its users and its power. Furthermore, another definition of digital skills that I found to be very interesting is the following: “digital skills are any skills related to being digitally literate. Anything from the ability to find out your high-score on Minesweeper to coding a website counts as a digital skill.” I find this to be very interesting as a long list of digital skills exists and having as many of them is very important as they are now needed in the modern workplace.
Furthermore, I conduct a Google search for Digital Fluency. A definition that i found to be very interesting is the following: “In a digital context for learning, fluency involves using technologies “readily and strategically to learn, to work, and to play, and the infusion of technology in teaching and learning to improve outcomes for all students”1 I find this definition to be very interesting as it shows how digital fluency necessitates flexibility, accuracy, efficiency, and appropriateness.
I believe that the differences between digital literacies, digital fluency and digital skills lies in the fact that digital skills focus on what and how, while digital literacy focuses on why, when, who, and for whom. Fluency on the other hand is an advanced level of literacy and skills.
What is digital literacy? published by POMO is a reliable source as POMO is an award winning multi-disciplinary design practice, it produces strategy-driven design solutions across digital, print and urban environments. I would rate the academic quality of the definitions I found as high, as the sites I used were mostly educational and done by professionals.
The major difference between digital skills and literacies as I mentioned above how digital skills concern the how and literacies concern the what and the why. For example, downloading a picture from the internet is a skill but knowing which picture to use concerns literacies. I didn’t realise that literacy occurs on a spectrum, that takes time, practice, and continuing feedback much like the acquisition of other skill sets. For me, digital literacy is set of skills needed for complete contribution in a knowledge society. It involves knowledge, manners and skills concerning the efficient usage of digital devices such as smartphones and computers for reasons of communication, collaboration, expression and activism.
Digital skills versus literacies
Thanks Maha, I didn’t realise that digital skills and literacies are interwoven, that both are needed for fluency; this is as well my take home message from Maha’s video.
An Introduction to Digital Images
In this lesson, I learned how images and photos can be represented digitally, and discover a range of techniques to enhance pictures. I learned about the terms ‘pixels’ and ‘image histograms’, brightness and contrast as well as the meaning of HDR (something I see on my phone all the time and never understood).
Managing your online identity & reputation
I learned about the importance of care, ethical and pro-social behaviour; as well as he importance of recognizing inappropriate behaviour online and knowing what steps to take, such as stalking.
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