Charting Digital Literacy: A Framework for Information Technology and Digital Skills Education in the Community College

Abstract

The understanding of information technologies and past efforts to assess, improve, and correlate technology skills with student success have sometimes been limited by a lack of an interdisciplinary approach or consideration of the unique needs of community college student and staff populations. This study identifies core literacy areas of digital technologies by synthesizing a comprehensive review of the digital and technology literacies literature within the education, policy, technology studies, media studies, and communications disciplines. To guide further research of technology education within the community college, a framework to assess digital literacy skills within the community college environment is proposed and discussed.The understanding of information technologies and past efforts to assess, improve, and correlate technology skills with student success have sometimes been limited by a lack of an interdisciplinary approach or consideration of the unique needs of community college student and staff populations. This study identifies core literacy areas of digital technologies by synthesizing a comprehensive review of the digital and technology literacies literature within the education, policy, technology studies, media studies, and communications disciplines. To guide further research of technology education within the community college, a framework to assess digital literacy skills within the community college environment is proposed and discussed.

Keywords: digital literacy, community college, technology education, information technology, ITC, STEM