Conclusion

In this chapter I have explained what I believe to be the eight essential elements of digital literacies. I have explained that all are important, but some may be privileged or more relevant in certain contexts. In addition, I’ve mentioned that the Cultural element should perhaps be considered first — if only to foreground the importance of context.

I’ve been asked many times for a diagram of the eight essential elements, something that will fit nicely on a PowerPoint slide. While I can do so — and have done on occasion — I feel that this perpetuates a problem I’ve seen time and time again in my research. People over-specify an answer to a question that differs massively according to the context. That is why you won’t see a definition of ‘digital literacy’ in this book. Such definitions should be emergent from the particular context in which you find yourself. The essential elements allow you to co- construct your own definition.

The first step when putting any of this into practice is to start a dialogue about what you mean by each of these eight elements. What does it mean, for example, to talk of a Critical element to digital literacies in a school that backs onto one of the most deprived housing estates in Europe? What does it mean in the context of a Russell Group university? What does it mean for parents raising young children?

Once a dialogue around contextualising the elements has started, it becomes easier to foreground some whilst backgrounding others. A definition of digital literacies could be forthcoming at the end of this process. This definition, of course, will be provisional, revisable and temporary as it relies upon contexts remaining the same — which they seldom do for long!

The advantage of an emergent approach to digital literacies is that stakeholders don’t see the process as being done to them. They feel part of it, as if digital literacies are something inclusive, something they have control over, and something continually changing. Which, of course, is absolutely correct.