It’s my pleasure to announce that my book “Digital Literacy and Inclusion: Stories, Platforms, Communities” (published by Springer Nature Group, 2024) is officially out! You can find the details and order at this link.
I am delighted to announce the publication of my new book (edited collection) Digital Literacy and Inclusion: Stories, Platforms, Communities; is out this year. I am grateful to the amazing team at Springer for their help, and equally I am grateful to the contributors to this book for the kind and inspiring collaboration.
Here is a direct link to the Digital Literacy and Inclusion: Stories, Platforms, Communities.
In the following, I will present a few words about the book and chapter summaries.
What is this book about? This book presents a carefully curated selection of case studies, theories, research, and best practices based on digital literacy as a prerequisite for effective digital inclusion. More than a dozen experts provide deep insights into stories, research reports, and geographical studies of digital literacy and inclusion models, all from a multi-disciplinary perspective that includes engineering, social sciences, and education. Digital Literacy and Inclusion also highlights a showcase of real-world digital literacy initiatives adopted by communities of practice around the globe.
Contributors explore myriad aspects and modalities of digital literacy: digital skills related to creativity, urban data literacy, digital citizenship skills, digital literacy in education, connectivity literacy, online safety skills, problem-solving and critical-thinking digital skills, data literacy skills, mobile digital literacy, algorithmic digital skills, digital health skills, etc. They share the principles and techniques behind successful initiatives and examine the dynamics and structures that enable communities to achieve digital literacy efficiently and sustainably. Their practical solutions, propositions, and findings provide theoretically grounded and evidence-based facts that inform interventions intended to ensure that all citizens have and can enhance their digital literacy while meaningfully and responsibly participating in the digital economy and society.
Who should read this book? The ideas and histories in this book will appeal to scholars and researchers in the social sciences, engineering, education, sustainable digital technologies, and transformation. They will also be of interest to practitioners in industry, policy, and government.
Book chapters summary
Over the past four years of the various global socio-political disruptions, we have seen that the situation magnified digital divides and highlighted the need for digital inclusion. In the opening chapter Rethinking Digital Literacy, I talk about this need and propose a reimagined and revised digital literacy definition that encompasses capabilities and skills essential for creating value and for helping us become independent critical thinkers, contributors and creators, and resilient digital citizens.
Digital literacy and digital inclusion are explored in three main sections: theoretical implications, digital literacy textures through the filter of education, and convergent practices that showcase the digital literacy initiatives applied through communities of practice around the globe.
Digital Literacy Theory Implications
The first section of the book sets up the context and the theoretical understanding related to digital literacy, digital inclusion, and digital citizenship. The complexity and depth of societal development entangled with digital technologies challenge the prevailing conceptualizations of digital literacy. Johanna Ylipulli and Minna Vigren, in the chapter From Skilled Users to Critical Citizens? Imagining and future-making as part of digital citizenship explores how the notion of digital citizenship could be complemented and expanded to include an ability to imagine alternative future trajectories. They provide theoretical insights supported by examples from their recent empirical studies while focusing on experiences and perspectives of individuals’ understanding of how people perceive their technological agency – or the lack of it. Authors draw from approaches provided by design-oriented thinking, especially speculative design and Participatory Design (PD), to broaden the discussions linked to digital literacy and digital citizenship towards understanding active, participatory future-making as a means to increase technological agency and awareness. They underline that it is not just the individual’s responsibility to become a ‘proper citizen’ in the digital society, but also the society is accountable for arranging adequate conditions in which critical, transformative and resilient digital citizenship can flourish.
In Sensing the city: A Creative Data Literacy Perspective, Anne Weibert and Maximilian Krüger explore from a digital citizenship perspective the need for literacy that can navigate the manifold kinds of data surrounding us in everyday city life. Focusing on experiences from a series of workshops in a midsize city in Germany, this chapter argues for the inclusion of making and crafting as alternate methods for urban data literacy. They show that these can be a means to bring unseen city life dimensions to the fore and to include youth and those whose access to the digital sphere is challenged in the discourse on data and its implications for everyday city life. The tactile and artistic approach to data, coming out from these workshops and its meaning in the city, enables their discussion across communities and adds to the data basis used to legitimize urban design choices and foster a broader degree of participation.
With the accelerated use of digital media platforms, cyber threats such as phishing, identity theft, and data privacy breaches (among others) are simultaneously emerging. The need for strategic and regulatory direction regarding online safety and cybersecurity preparedness is crucial. Particularly, one of the most common forms of social engineering attacks in digital environments is broadly referred to as “phishing”. In the chapter Scanning for scams: Local, supra-national and global events as salient contexts for online fraud, Kristjan Kikerpill uses the mazephishing framework to explain how digital literacy instruction can benefit from observing how salient social circumstances create a fertile ground for disseminating online scams. The mazephishing framework comprises three primary components: the social context from which specific scam messages obtain their salience, the media or channels used to circulate the scam messages, and the influencing techniques employed in the actual scam messages. This framework provides digital and media literacy instructors with a valuable tool and set of principles for analyzing how events occurring on different scales are used to exploit scam recipients’ vulnerabilities.
We move across the continent to Southeast Asia (SEA), where digital growth is evident in the region. Despite incorporating technologies in the development of smart cities, we still face a stark digital divide and digital exclusion suffered by digital (semi-)illiterate, less-educated and economically underprivileged individuals and communities. Jason Hung, in the chapter How Southeast Asian countries can better arrange and deliver internet policies to defy the digital divide provides a systematic overview and analysis of how countries digitally harness and maximise the benefits from online platforms. He discusses how the digital divide, marginalization and exclusion as processes continue to be ingrained in the SEA region, urging a need for intra- and inter-countries’ inclusive responses to e-development. The author raises concerns over digital transformation and explores how different SEA stakeholders can respond to these risks.
Digital Literacy Textures and Education
The second section of the book reveals textures and stories related to digital literacy and education.
Kerry Russo and Nicholas Emtage, in the Digital divide and Higher education, researched how the pivot to online learning during COVID-19 has broadened the digital divide in the Australian higher education sector. Many students from disadvantaged backgrounds entering university were grappling with the necessary digital skills required to participate in a digital learning setting. Conceptualising the growing inequalities arising from a widening digital divide, this chapter investigates the impacts of a digital divide on the university student experience. Using a quantitative approach, the chapter analyzes the digital divide in Australian higher education. Empirical data is examined to determine a link between the students’ self-reported digital skills, prior digital experience and preparedness for university study with access to digital resources, demographic factors and geographic location.
Critical thinking skills are one of the crucial digital skills in today’s information age. We face the pervasiveness of misinformation and disinformation on social media. Equally important, digital critical thinking skills are relevant in social processes of collaboration and engagement in education and workforce dynamics. In Students’ use of social media and critical thinking: The mediating effect of engagement, Abbas, González-Cacho, Radovanović, Ali, and Rincón, empirically explore the mediating role of students’ social media engagement and their ability to think critically. To achieve the aim of the study, the authors designed an online survey with questions related to the use of social media, engagement and critical thinking through the deployment of digital literacy skills. Results from the data analysis support all proposed hypotheses and affirm that engagement is partially mediated between the use of social media and the critical thinking skills of undergraduate students.
The next chapter deploys digital ethnography to analyze the relationship between the digital skills and algorithmic practices enacted by young users and teenagers on TikTok, a popular short-form video hosting platform. In Tales of visibility in TikTok: The algorithmic imaginary and digital skills in young users, Zurovac, Artieri, and Donato, research TikTok’s algorithmic awareness and practices. The online ethnographic method enabled the authors to understand in-depth how young users (a) learn about the algorithm and (b) develop or employ digital skills which enable them to (c) perform leverage tactics in response to the platform’s logic. These dimensions were then qualitatively assessed to understand how peculiar digital skills (social interaction skills, content creation skills, and ethical behaviour online) are employed in relation to the algorithmic imagery. The discussion takes place, within the chapter, through the analysis of 3 case studies: #traumatok, Breonna Taylor trend, and teenagers’ practices on LIVE streaming.
Digital Literacy and Communities of Practice
The third section of the book brings the convergent practices and hands-on approach to the inclusion of digital literacy in the communities of practice. It opens with two chapters related to digital inclusion initiatives in the rural and agricultural sectors, first in Global South, (Sri Lanka, Trinidad), and second, in rural and remote areas in Australia. The agriculture sector in the Global South is undergoing profound changes because of digital transformation. In Digital Literacy and Agricultural Extension in the Global South, Gow, Dissanayake, Chowdhury, and Ramjattan introduce and explain how an interactionist view on digital literacy can contribute to this objective when combined with a capabilities-centric approach to human development. An interactionist approach to digital literacy is important to consider with communities of practice to facilitate new practices involving unfamiliar ICTs. They provide a conceptual framework that connects the literature on agriculture innovation systems with an interactionist view of digital literacy from organizational studies.
In Connectivity literacy for digital inclusion in rural Australia, Marshall, Hay, Dale, Babacan, and Dezuanni, undertook a qualitative study in the State of Queensland in Australia that aimed to investigate underlying factors of low levels of digital inclusion in rural households and communities. The authors uncovered a set of essential skills for digital inclusion that did not fit neatly into the three-pillared framework they took into the study. They used qualitative methods (ethnographic interviews, focus groups, and participant observation) to give a voice to members of one of Australia’s least digitally included populations. While the authors gathered insights into farmers’ challenges associated with access, affordability, and digital ability, they also observed how people needed to acquire connectivity literacy (a concept originating from industry but not yet investigated by scholars) to achieve digital inclusion. The chapter sheds light on the complexities of connecting to telecommunications services in rural Australia. It described connectivity literacy as principally about setting up local hardware and networks, responding to technical outages when they occur, and navigating a complex consumer environment to ascertain the best connectivity options.
Latin America presents a combination of low scores in international education rankings combined with a constant increase in the adoption of digital technologies for communication (International Telecommunication Union, 2021; GSMA, 2021). At the same time, countries from the region share a history of popular education as a model for teaching and learning media and communication. In the chapter Community networks as sustainable infrastructure for digital skills, Raquel Rennó and Juliana Novaes conducted a qualitative study on community digital literacy projects and telecommunication providers in rural areas of Latin America. The authors carried out three case studies in remote and rural areas in Brazil and Mexico, trying to find out lessons that could be learned from those initiatives. The analysis of the collective case studies showed that locally developed Internet service providers (ISPs), such as community networks, are more familiar with the community’s context and interests and can produce practical educational tools and content. All three case studies have a predominance of onsite training and provide a bottom-up approach to digital skills learning in spaces where megaprojects from national and international commercial agreements have disrupted the environment and social tissue of local communities.
n Digital inclusion interventions for digital skills education: Evaluating the outcomes in semi-urban communities in South Africa, authors Katunga, Keating, Craffert, and Van Audenhove, present the findings of a quantitative survey study that sought to contribute to the practice of assessing the outcomes of digital skills training interventions. The chapter provides insight into meaningful benefits derived by beneficiaries of a mobile (digital) literacy training course; salient factors contributing to such outcomes; and the application of methodological approaches and processes to evaluate the outcome of digital skills interventions in URC. The authors used a quantitative research approach, applying survey methodology to assess the outcomes of the Mobile Literacy training intervention. It is envisaged that the evidence-based insight emerging from this study allows for a more nuanced understanding of meaningful outcomes that may transpire from digital inclusion interventions. It also informs and encourages the effective practice of digital skills and the assessment of interventions aimed at improving them, particularly in URC.
And finally, the unavoidable topic of the past couple of years of the global disruption and COVID-19 that have affected public health the most. Harnessing the use of digital technologies, digital health literacy (DHL) became an indispensable tool for the health workforce, including frontline workers, to provide primary health services during COVID-19. Having a digitally literate health workforce is an essential element for the success of establishing a health ecosystem. Ritu Srivastava and Sushant Sonar, in Digital health literacy – a prerequisite competency for the health workforce to improve health indicators in times of COVID, analyze the case study of Uttar Pradesh, with a population size of 200 million. Uttar Pradesh became the first state in India to develop an integrated and unified COVID-19 mobile platform. It ensured that every citizen of the state is tracked, tested and treated across the continuum of care – bringing together all COVID health facilities, laboratories, state, district and field staff onto a common platform. The chapter shows how digital health literacy has been imparted to 200,000 health officials and frontline workers across the state’s 75 districts and 59163 village councils. The authors measured the complete spectrum of DHL 2.0 skills from searching, selecting, appraising, and applying online health information and healthcare services provided at different healthcare facilities.
You can get the book directly via Springer https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-30808-6