Digital Literacy

TLDR

ICT and the internet have accelerated progress in banking, transportation, economics, and especially education, creating new opportunities that require individuals to acquire diverse digital skills. This paper reviews the growing importance of ICT, its diverse uses, and its influence on daily life. It summarizes the emerging concept of digital literacy, its role in achieving sustainable development goals, its impact on education, and related research. The study proposes three new digital literacy models: a four‑gear model, a flexible learning model, and a model illustrating ICT’s effect on learning.

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICT) along with the internet have fueled advancements and growth in banking, transportation, economics, and most of all in education in the 21st century. The 21st century citizens are provided with new opportunities that have been created with the advancement of ICT. Hence, individuals need a wide range of abilities, competencies, and skills to adapt to the technological era. This paper provides a literature review of the growing importance of ICT, its wide array of usage, and its influence on various facets of people's daily lives. In addition, the emerging concept of digital literacy through ICT developments, contribution of digital literacy towards the achievement of sustainable development goals, contribution of ICT towards the development of various sectors particularly the education sector, and the work done in this area of digital literacy are summarised. The paper concludes with three new models of digital literacy: four gear model, model for flexible learning, and a model showing the impact of ICT on the learning process.