I’ve just had a quick read of the Developing Digital Literacies briefing paper that accompanies the upcoming JISC funding call on the subject. Driven by government initiatives, in particular the “’Networked Nation’ manifesto in July 2010, with an aim of getting every working person in the UK online by 2015” the call is planned to meet the JISC vision for digital literacies which includes:
Digitally literate graduates;
Researchers, research students and their supervisors;
Learning and teaching professionals;
Digitally literate organisation.

JISC broadly defines digital literacy as “those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society.”

The briefing paper is very thorough and references a vast amount of work that has already been done. It is by no means a new area starting from scratch, although it has been discussed with many different terms, including IT literacy, social inclusion etc. It looks like a really interesting area of work and one that could genuinely shape the future of education provision and the impact that this has upon the wider society. If we get this right, we may even crack the ‘digital divide’, but it has to be approached carefully and with empathy and caution; some do have a genuine dislike/fear/apathy/distrust/lack of desire to be ‘upskilled’ in IT capabilities, and to wade in with a big stick will not help that. It needs to be understood and recognised. That said, I am not suggesting a ‘pandering to luddites’ approach, and those less keen need to be persuaded of the benefits of the wonderful world of technology. It should be a really interesting programme and best of luck to those that work on it, I look forward to seeing how it progresses.