1.2: Introduction to Digital Literacies
Upon successful completion of this subunit you will be able to:
- Conduct a search of definitions for digital literacy on the web
- Explain the differences between digital skills and digital literacies
- Share links to credible resources you find on the topic on bookmarks.oeru.org (our resource bank for the course)
- Share your personal reflections on why digital literacy matters to you via the discussion forum.
- Publish your personal definition of digital literacy and depict your personal learning network (PLN) online.
- The OERu hosts its own social network using Mastodon for course specific activities and a backchannel for the Learning in a Digital Age community. A backchannel is a networked conversation that runs alongside the primary course conversations. You will need to know how to use the course hashtag in your toots for course related posts.As a reminder, Saylor's LiDA100 course combines all four of the OERu micro-courses. Therefore, this Saylor course will use four hashtags for the backchannel: #lida101 for unit 1 conversations; #lida102 for unit 2; #lida103 for unit 3; and #lida104 for unit 4.
- In this subunit you are invited to prepare your own initial definition of digital literacy. We will do this by:
- Conducting an initial search of definitions for digital literacy on the web
- Considering the difference between digital skills and digital literacy
- Sharing credible links your find on the topic on bookmarks.oeru.org (our resource repository for this course)
- Sharing personal reflections on why digital literacy matters to you via the course forum.
Apart from starting to unpack the meaning of digital literacy, you will also demonstrate your digital skills in social bookmarking, using online forums and earning badges on discourse.saylor.org.
In this section, we will review an article on the difference between digital skills and digital literacies using Hypothes.is – an online social annotation technology.
Learning in a digital age is facilitated and enabled by resources learners can access on the Internet. This involves the ability to search, evaluate and select resources to support your learning. A key feature of a PLE is the ability to share useful and valuable information with your peers.
In this section, you will complete your first resource bank activity where you are invited to search for additional resources to help you refine and develop your own definition of digital literacies and to reflect on how this differs from definitions for digital skills. The resource bank activity builds on your initial search on the previous page by inviting you to share links to valuable resources you source on the Internet. The resource bank provides the technology to share these resources with our LiDA learning community.
The OERu resource bank hosted at bookmarks.oeru.org is an open source social bookmarking application which enables users to share and annotate links to resources they find on the web. It uses a tag system to group resources according to different topics. The tag system helps users to locate links to resources on the site using the same tag.
A key component of digital literacy and networked learning relates to the ability to engage meaningfully in online learning communities.
The learning activity which follows will provide you with the opportunity to familiarise yourself with the open discussion technology platform we use Saylor Academy and at OERu to support community learning discussions.
Digital literacies for academic learning involves more than Facebook, Snapchat or Twitter and the associated technical skills in using these technologies.
As you explore the concept, you will find online resources which confuse digital skills with digital literacies. The activities which follow aim to provide an initial introduction to the wide range of digital literacies associated with academic learning. We will explore the concept of digital literacies in greater depth as we progress with the course. When exploring these online resources, we encourage you to differentiate between skills and literacies and to develop a critical disposition. Digital literacies involve issues, norms, and habits of mind surrounding technologies used for a particular purpose. However, these literacies are closely related to technical proficiency in using a range of digital applications.
Challenge summary
Summary: Publish a blog post including your personal definition of digital literacies and complete the digital visitor / digital resident personal learning network (PLN) mapping exercise 
2 hours 
Note: This challenge will overlap with Task 2 of the Unit 1 Assessment Optional: Continue to participate in the LiDA photo challenge.
