Welcome to the eight-week Digital Literacy Challenge Series!

Let’s start by asking, What the heck is digital literacy?

According to the B.C. Post-Secondary Digital Literacy Framework (p. 3), “Digital literacy is a person’s knowledge, skills, and abilities for using digital tools ethically, effectively, and within a variety of contexts in order to access, interpret, and evaluate information, as well as to create, construct new knowledge, and communicate with others.”

The definition of digital literacy is complex, and in fact there are lots of different definitions. While digital literacy is new territory for everyone, for educators it can feel especially overwhelming. We’re just at the beginning of this learning journey to collectively embrace digital literacy in our work as educators.

For a moment, let’s consider “literacy” on its own. We’ve been teaching our children and students how to read and write for centuries. We know there are big differences between simply teaching a student to read a book out loud and teaching a student to research and write a critical reflection paper on a book.

Similar logic applies when we add in the “digital” element. Today, our collective physical spaces are tightly intertwined with digital spaces. As educators it is essential to ensure that we and our students are able to navigate across all spaces. Our students may be using the technology every day (i.e., like being able to read a book out loud), but that is far from being digitally literate (i.e., like being able to write a critical reflection paper).

This simplified interpretation has a caveat, though: when it comes to digital literacy, we also have to consider access to digital tools, the cost of digital tools, the differences across modalities (e.g., tablet versus computer versus phone), how each platform offers different interpretations, and so on. As you can see, the deeper we get into digital literacy, the more complex and potentially overwhelming it becomes. The important thing to keep in mind is that a wide variety of competencies work together to make a digitally literate person.

The intention of this challenge series is to distill the topic of digital literacy into bite-sized pieces — specifically eight bites corresponding to each of the eight competencies in the B.C. Post-Secondary Digital Literacy Framework, so you can successfully start your journey to becoming a digital literacy educator.

Over the next eight weeks, for each of the eight competencies, we will provide a weekly overview and a simple challenge, and we’ll discuss:

  • What digital literacy means under each competency
  • The importance of each competency
  • How each competency affects our work as educators
  • How we can incorporate each competency into our work as educators

Icebreaker Activity

Let’s kick off this challenge series with an icebreaker! Share with us in the discussion below your responses to this question:

What emotions come up for you when you think about digital literacy? Please provide your responses using one or two simple words, like fear, excitement, frustration, or anxiety.

45 Responses

    • Hi Paula, you do not need to leave a reply to any of the challenges or prompts if you do not feel comfortable! Feel free to take these challenges as a personal reflection and only engage in the comments if you want to.

  • Curiosity. I had the thought recently that the smart phone has become part of many individuals’ “body,” meaning that one feels an attachment that is noticeable when the phone is left behind, and a reliance on the phone for many routine actions (e.g., navigation, communication, scheduling). I am wondering how long it will be before this becomes even more integral to the human experience, what that might look like, and the possible implications of increasing implant technologies (we have pacemakers, will we see brain add-ins?). So maybe, trepidation too?

    • Very well put Steven. We have many students who try and do all their ‘homework’ on Mobile devices due to cost but thankfully our LMS’s APP is quite good.

  • I find that I feel a lot of anxiety when I think about digital literacy because as much as I want to encourage communication students to experiment with different platforms, it’s hard to account for the all of the different affordances and ethical concerns (privacy, free speech, data collection, surveillance, bias, etc.) associated with each of these platforms. Likewise, I find it challenging to update and maintain my own digital literacies as an instructor, like I have to keep on step ahead of social and academic conversations.

  • trepidation (that I have enough), and confidence (that it’s important)

  • I feel the pressure of being inadequate so I am excited to embark on this journey of learning

  • Hi all,

    I feel excitement that we are actually talking about this and not in isolation. Like reading we need to make sure we are clear on what the levels of literacy are and how best to support this. This is definitely not a once and done conversation similar to reading, reflect on what they journey was like.

    I’ve been instructing in technology courses for over 25 years and in my opinion, the easier to use computers and more prevalent they become in our society, the less people understand or question. As I tell my students a computer or app is only good if you understand how to use it, like a hammer, if you don’t know how to hold it or which end you hit with, it becomes less effective.

    • Hi Karyn,

      Well put. Computers and Apps (and technology in general) is only as effective as the user and how well they are trained on these tools. As you are a technology instructor you probably know this, but I am an Instructional Designer and work with faculty and TAs who are new to the world of using different educational technologies tools not just because it is expected, but mainly how to use them to provide effective, accessible courses both online and in the classroom.

  • For me the emotions are excitement overlaid with patience and calm guidance. Also, frustration at the misuse and misunderstanding of the term ‘digital natives.’
    Many learners born over the past 5+ have been tagged with this term, yet the only native aspect of their digital experience is the fact that they are born into a world that is more digital than it has ever been. They have phones, other devices, and are accustomed to a world of quick, instant access. However, this term does not mean they understand what it means to be digitally literate, or how to use their devices for things other than social access via FB, Tiktok and Insta. With the arrival of AI to the fingertips of everyone, it will be imperative to support the learning, ethics and understanding of the digital environment, etc.

  • Excitement for the content and learning, but dread for trying to find time to do it! This is my busiest month of the year. But I’m happy to have the opportunity.

  • Frustration.
    I started my personal DL journey in my bookseller/news stand side gig twenty years ago. Once the Windows 98 system stopped crashing every couple hours.
    Now I work mostly with academics that have avoided “technology”, and thus “literacy”, their entire careers.
    And I received my first BCcampus Digital Literacy Challenge email today, despite taking the FLO MicroCourse: Intro to DL Framework last Spring.
    “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” – Frederick Douglass

  • Hi there!

    I choose to be part of the digital learning challenge because I want to catch up what is out there so excited for this Open Education opportunity!

    I feel appreciation for the benefits I received from attending my digital (learning) skills so gratitude to have this via Advisor, Learning and Teaching

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