Opinion paragraph

Digital literacy

In the past, people gave the term literacy "literacy", but this term is now more widespread and developing in line with the demands of the technology that accompany it. In the past, people were called illiterate if they had not yet reached the reading and writing stage. But now the term "millennial illiteracy" is a condition of technological illiteracy (clueless) or minus digital literacy.

Literacy or 'literature' in Latin terms, 'letter' in English describes literacy as the basis of human knowledge that continues to grow. While digital comes from the word 'digitus', which in Greek means fingers.

An important element of digital literacy relates to what abilities must be mastered in the use of information and communication technology.

 

According to Steve Wheeler (2012) in his article entitled Digital Literacies For Engagement In Emerging Online Cultures, he identifies nine important elements in the world of digital literacy such as social networking, transliteracy, maintaining privacy, managing identity, creating content, organizing and sharing content, reusing / repurposing content, filtering and selecting content, and self broadcasting.

The presence of social networking sites is one example in social networking or online social life. Transliteracy is defined as the ability to take advantage of all different platforms, especially to create content, collect, share and communicate through various social media, discussion groups, smartphones and various available online services. The important thing in digital literacy is about maintaining privacy or maintaining privacy in the online world. Managing digital identity is concerned with how to use the right identity in various social networks and other platforms. Creating content or related to skills on how to create content on various online applications and platforms. Organizing and sharing content is organizing and sharing information content to make it easier to spread. Reusing / repurposing content can be defined as how to make content from various types of information available to produce new content that can be reused for various needs. Filtering and Selecting Content is the ability to search, filter and select information appropriately according to the desired needs. Self broadcasting aims to share interesting or personal ideas and multimedia content, for example through blogs and forums.

If Steve Wheeler divides the nine important elements of digital literacy, according to Beetham, Littlejohn and McGill (2009) quoted by Sarah Davies (2015), that there are seven important elements related to digital literacy, namely information literacy, digital scholarship, learning skills, ICT literacy, career and identy management, communication and collaboration and media literacy.

Information literacy involves the ability to find, interpret, evaluate, manage, and share information. Digital scholarship includes active participation in academic activities, for example in research practice. Learning skills include learning effectively all technologies that have complete features for both formal and informal teaching and learning activities. ICT literacy, or information and communication technology literacy, focuses on how to adopt, adapt and use digital devices for both applications and services. Career and identy management about how to manage online identities. As for communication and collaboration, it includes active participation in digital networks for learning and research. Media literacy or media literacy includes critical reading and creative skills for academic and professional communication in various media.

According to McLuhan in Littlejohn (2009) states that the emergence of instant information originated from the availability of the internet. The revolution in the field of electronic media occurred as a result of changes in information media that are usually obtained from broadcasts into the form of electronic media networks. New media research has begun to emerge about globalization and media convergence, the internet has become an alternative media in presenting information without any technical constraints from the broadcast model. McLuhan also added that in the new media era, internet studies and cyberstudies have also developed which shift the attention of the audience to digital media which marks the development of new information and communication technology.

To interact in today's world requires an understanding of digital literacy, which is as important as understanding other sciences. Because the millennial generation who grew up with unrestricted access to technology have a style of thinking that is not the same as the digital literacy generation, a new challenge in the previous 75 media literacy. Everyone must have the responsibility for the use of technology to interact or communicate in their daily lives. Content in the media that contains fake news, deceives, contains hate speech and even radicalism can disrupt the existing digital ecosystem by creating understanding from each individual user. The ability to find reliable sources of information is crucial in the midst of today's digital technology acceleration. The key word is to return to quality education, the right curriculum in schools as well as comprehensive education that all components of the nation must do for a better Indonesia.