ILPC 2027

In these times of the Internet, Social Media and mobile devices, there is a general agreement that the technological developments in terms of digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the workplace have raised the need for some special, maybe new competencies and skills of the working people. However, there is less agreement on how these capabilities and requirements can be conceptualized. The issue of digital literacies in the workplace is being raised in different disciplines which operate with different concepts and terms like information literacy in the Information and Library Studies, ICT-skills in Informatics, media literacy in Media and Communications, ICT-related competence in Educational Sciences, or digital competence in Workplace Learning (WPL). To some extent, these approaches differ, yet to another extent the different notions of which literacies are required in a digital work environment overlap. “The mix of disciplines and stakeholder interests is perhaps generating more heat than light at present.” (Livingstone 2004, 4). Hence, it is not my intention to analyse and compare the different conceptualizations. This has been done successfully in several literature reviews and analyses (e.g. Buckingham 2007, Gallardo-Echenique et al. 2015). Rather, the paper at hand suggests a model which draws upon empirical evidence concerning the effects of a digital working environment and hence suits the individual challenges and practices of the workers themselves. Against the background of rapidly changing technology and work practices and a broad range of professions and occupations dealing with digital media, a dynamic model of digital literacies for the workplace is called for. Rather than addressing certain skills and abilities, which may differ in different contexts, the focus should be set on cross-section competencies and awareness. The latter, in fact, is not a competence, but a mixture of attitude, knowledge, reflection and personal experiences that together correspond to a holistic approach to digital literacy. In a second step, the paper will raise the question of how these literacies can be acquired and which ways of learning can help to develop them. Here, the discipline of workplace learning (WPL) is relevant. As for the discourse of WPL and ICT, research concentrates largely on digital media as instruments for learning, but not as its subject. As an answer to this desideratum, a concept for developing literacies for digitally supported work will be designed that is based on theoretical concepts of WPL and that involves different approaches from professional learning settings like training measures/programmes as well as self-directed and informal learning. On a theoretical level, the paper contributes to bridging the disciplines concerned with digital literacies and professional learning and to providing a broad view on the topic of digital literacy development in the workplace. On a practical level, the concept developed in the paper may serve as a set of recommendations for companies’ efforts to support the literacy development of their employees. As for further research, this concept has the potential to be tested empirically in different work areas and to be developed further.

References

Buckingham, David (2009): The future of media literacy in the digital age: some challenges for policy and practice, in: medienimpulse-online, 2, 1-10

Gallardo-Echenique, Eliana E./Oliveira, Janaina Minelli de/Marqués-Molias, Luis/Esteve-Mon, Francesc (2015): Digital Competence in the Knowledge Society, in: MERLOT. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 11, 1, 1-16

Livingstone, Sonia (2004): Media Literacy and the Challenge of New Information and Communication Technologies, in: The Communication Review, 7, 1, 3-14