What does digital literacy mean in 2022? Over the last two years, many of us have been catapulted into a massive remote and hybrid working experiment. Even when going to work means little more than commuting to the living room, technology is continuing to transform work. A recent report by Coursera even suggests that no job will remain untouched by digitalisation.
Today marks the start of All Digital Weeks 2022 and this year, the focus is on enhancing digital skills and promoting digital inclusion and accessibility. At ICDL Europe that is key to our mission to “enable the proficient use of ICT that empowers individuals, organisations and society…”.
What is clear is that digital skills no longer mean just knowing how to write a document, create a spreadsheet, or use presentation tools. Those are all still important, but digital skills now encompass everything from information and media literacy, to cybersecurity, robotics, computing, and much more.
Disinformation and information literacy is one key area that we have been active on. Our Information Literacy module helps students develop critical thinking skills for working with the masses of information that they are confronted with when researching online. With a focus on skills for the classroom that help students achieve in their studies, the module also fosters skills that can help equip candidates to critically consume news and current affairs information shared on both social and conventional media.
In parallel, the massive interconnectedness of our world, from appliances at home, to smartphones and cloud-based ecosystems of software, have made basic skills for IT security critical for everyone. Our Cybersecurity module is now on version 2.0, covering skills that help people keep themselves, their data, and their employers’ data safe.
Sometimes it feels as if the distinction between online and offline is becoming so blurred as to be invisible. Digital literacy in 2022 and beyond will increasingly mean more than skills for specific software tools: we need to reimagine digital literacy to mean skills for life, study and work.
Find out more about All Digital Weeks at alldigitalweek.eu/events.
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