New Definitions of Literacy

As policymakers and educators ponder what it means to be literate in a digitized society, an array of literacy definitions is emerging. Among them are the following examples:

• Information Literacy: The ability to access and use information, analyze content, work with ideas, synthesize thought, and communicate results.
  
  
• Digital Literacy: The ability to attain deeper understanding of content by using data-analysis tools and accelerated learning processes enabled by technology.
  
  
• New Literacy: The ability to solve genuine problems amidst a deluge of information and its transfer in the Digital Age.
  
  
• Computer Literacy: The ability to accurately and effectively use computer tools such as word processors, spreadsheets, databases, and presentation and graphic software.
  
  
• Computer-Technology Literacy: The ability to manipulate the hardware that is the understructure of technology systems.
  
  
• Critical Literacy: The ability to look at the meaning and purpose of written texts, visual applications, and spoken words to question the attitudes, values, and beliefs behind them. The goal is development of critical thinking to discern meaning from array of multimedia, visual imagery, virtual environments, as well as written text.
  
  
• Media Literacy: The ability to communicate competently in all media forms--print and electronic--as well as access, understand, analyze and evaluate the images, words, and sounds that comprise contemporary culture.

For additional information on 21st century skills that students will need to effectively function in today's world, refer to digital-age literacy.

  References