DIGITAL LITERACY

The concept of digital literacy, as the term is now generally used, was introduced by Paul Gilster, in his 1997 book of the same name. The term itself had been used during the previous decade, though with a more restricted meaning – the ability to deal with hypertextual information. Gilster's idea was much broader, and did not involve the enumeration of lists of particular skills, competences or attitudes defining what it is to be digitally literate. Rather, he explained the concept quite generally, as an ability to understand and to use information from a variety of digital sources, and regarded it simply as literacy in the digital age. It is therefore the current form of the traditional idea of literacy per se; the ability to read, write and otherwise deal with information using the technologies and formats of the time. In an 'information society' and a 'knowledge economy', it is plainly an essential life skill. This generic expression of the idea, although it has irritated some commentators, is one of the strengths of Gilster’s concept, allowing it to be applied without concern for the sometimes restrictive ‘competence lists’ which have afflicted some other descriptions of the literacies of information.

Disponível em: <http://www.scitopics.com/Digital_Literacy.html>. Acesso em: 19 ago. 2011. (Adaptado).

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