Too often the subject of digital shifts is the proverbial elephant in the room. Everyone knows it’s there but no one wants to draw attention to it.
Digital shifts in attitudes an practice are integral to participation in an increasingly digital society yet there exists a diversity in approaches alongside confusion and misconceptions as to what the word digital means. in 21st century.
Digital ways of working are variously described as requiring skills, literacies and capabilities. One common definition in the HE sector goes like this:
Digital literacies are those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society.
Jisc have been using this for some time* Recently the term literacies has been replaced by capabilities. Digital capability looks beyond functional IT skills to describe a richer set of digital behaviours, practices and identities. Jisc suggests what it means to be digitally literate changes over time and across contexts, so digital literacies and capabilities are essentially a set of academic and professional situated practices supported by diverse and changing technologies. This definition can be used as a starting point to explore what it mean to be ‘digital’ within different contexts.
The ‘digital’ section of this blog focuses predominantly on what it means to be digital with regard to learning, teaching and research in UK higher education. Using a number of different lens. the word ‘digital’ can be applied to inclusion, research, T&L resources, pedagogies and practice.
* https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developing-digital-literacies
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