The octopus's garden of digital literacy

The term digital literacy per se is brand new to me. As an engineer, researcher and teacher, the computer and the Internet have been an integral part of my professional life, and in the last decade also of my personal life. The computer was the tool to use to do the number crunching, to make presentations, write articles, make lecture slides and other teaching material, access the Internet to obtain information, read and send emails, read new from newsgroups, and occasionally "put" or get files via FTP. I wasn't one for writing opinions or jokes that were shared in various newsgroups, but I did read them. Yet I never bumped into the term digital literacy.

Although this digital technology has developed and become user-friendly, not much has changed in how I use it professionally. So, on the visitor–resident axis (David White, 2014), I'd place myself quite far down the visitor axis. Yes, without a doubt, professionally I've been a digital visitor all these years. I have left no social trace of myself on the Internet. Wait a minute; do conference and journal articles, technical reports, theses, or code snippets that are published online count as social trace? Aren't they—if I stretch the meaning of the word somewhat—blogs of sorts, but without the possibility of getting comments from readers on the same website as the published work resides? One does get comments and feedback on the formal papers one publishes, with a larger delay than with an online blog.

I got myself a Facebook account some years ago through which I've been in touch mainly with childhood friends who are now scattered around the world. Here I've been more of a resident. Until now, I haven't give much thought to how I use the Internet, except that I'm concerned about my privacy online; someone (read Big Data) tracks what I do and might (actually, they will) exploit this information, or some malicious person or group might steal my identity online wreaking havoc in my real, physical life. Other than bombarding people with advertisements and placing them in a filter bubbles (Sara Mörtsell, 2017), I presume even Big Data isn't quite sure what they're going to do with all that information, but I'm sure they'll think of lots of things in time. I'm not the only one with these concerns (Eva Henje Blom, 2017). Should I be afraid? Perhaps, but not to the point of avoiding the Internet. That would be like avoiding eating chocolate because of the harm it might cause to my health.

This, I guess, is where ONL comes in. In these past two weeks I've learnt a lot: I've acquainted myself with what digital literacy is (I've just scratched the surface). It turns out to be a garden of different skills, mindsets, attitudes, and knowledge (Europass: digital competences). I've begun thinking about what I do online as a private individual and in a professional context. And this is a start. This is just the beginning of my journey down digital boulevard. Working and collaborating online in my PBL group (group 8) has been eye-opening in many ways and, more importantly, fun. I've learnt to use new software that, by myself, I'd probably never had got to know, let alone use.

I'm excited. I'm less afraid of leaving a digital social footprint, and I think I'm better aware of the distinction between the data gathered by Big Data and digital social footprint. I want to explore this digital garden, use it to my advantage, and judiciously avoid the digital nettle.


References

David White (2014). Visitors and residents (part 1). Video clip. Accessesed on 6.3.2017.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPOG3iThmRI&feature=youtu.be

Sara Mörtsell (2017). Digital litercies. Webinar.

Eva Henje Blom (2017). My first blog - not convinced...  https://henjeblom.wordpress.com/2017/02/19/my-first-blog-not-convinced/

Europass: digital competences.  http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/resources/digital-competences