Recently I have attended FIL Interlend 2011 Delivering the Future: Looking Back and Looking Forward conference in Durham. Now after some time has passed and thought have settled I thought of sharing some interesting ideas that came up during the conference. One of very interesting presentations was given by Debbi Boden, Director of Library Services, Glasgow Caledonian. The talk concentrated on the general aspect of digital literacy and its measurement. The inevitable fact of non existing measurement was voiced and questions raised, how this measure could be introduced. Speaker touched on web relation to current economic climate and importance of online activity. Although there is no empirical evidence to support the theory that intenet helps to prosper – general evidence are apparent in current news. Although digital literacy is highly developed in HE sector it must be accounted that there is still 25% households in the UK that do not have Internet connection. Around 97% people educated to a degree level accessed the internet in comparison to 45% of those without a formal qualification. The boundary of who is digitally literate is very blurred and assumption must not be made.
Speaker suggested that there should be a higher focus on the digital footprint that users leave after themselves. Social networking is very useful, however Google search engine allows everyone, who wants to check information available about us which might have greater of lesser impact on our lives. This is what information specialists/library workers should be concentrating. Not ECDL skills improvement. Most current users are very capable of using software, however the digital footprint that is left behind is not being considered and more focus should be placed on it. Speaker recommended to read Digital Britain report, as well as check information on CLIP Information Literacy group
