Digital literacy practices among youth populations : A review of the literature By

Digital literacy includes a range of abilities from basic computing skills to the creation of multimodal texts. This literature review examines eleven articles that track the digital literacy practices of youth populations or individuals between the ages of 12 and 17. It describes the practices of these individuals through three perspectives, including: studies centered on general youth populations, research discussing innovative programs targeting students from low income families, and articles tracking digital literacy competencies among young immigrant learners. Foremost, the articles highlight young people’s efforts to express themselves through their own online literacy. To this end it remains essential that educators correlate students’ digital literacy habits in their personal lives to instructional practices in school. Introduction The definition of digital literacy includes a range of abilities from basic computing skills to the creation of multimodal texts. The New London Group suggests multimodal highlights meaning through the interconnection of linguistic, visual, audio, gestural and spatial elements. This literature review examines eleven articles that track the digital literacy practices of youth populations or individuals between the ages of 12 and 17. In 2007 the digital literacy competencies of these young people remain especially important as educators struggle to engage students as well as provide instruction relevant to their future academic and work environments. Jones (2007) maintained that college students view cell phones, instant messaging and the Internet as “extensions of themselves” (p. 207). The articles discussed below highlight young people’s efforts to express themselves through their online literacies or skills that allow them to create textual content using a variety of technology tools. To this end, it remains essential that educators correlate students’ digital literacy habits in their personal lives to instructional practices in school. Methodology The author queried numerous databases including Academic Search Premier, ERIC, ProQuest, Google Scholar, and Science Direct using the terms “digital, online, or multimodal literacy” with “youth, adolescents, teenagers, students, or young people. ” Bibliographies of relevant articles also served as a source of content for the review. The author highlighted material available in English and published within the last five years that focused on digital literacy practices among youth populations. The final sample of eleven articles was analyzed for common themes and these provided the structure for the review. Literature Review This literature review examines digital literacy from three perspectives including studies centered on general youth populations, research describing innovative programs targeting students from lowincome families, and articles tracking digital literacy competencies among young immigrant learners. Taken together these three approaches provide an illustration of digital literacy practices among youth worldwide. Digital literacy practices among youth The following research looks at general digital literacy practices among youth. These studies consisted of largely qualitative case studies sponsored by educational institutions between 2003 and 2007. Chandler-Olcott and Mahar (2003) focused on two adolescent girls’ efforts to use information and communication technologies in their digital literacy practices outside of educational environments. According to the authors, the girls demonstrated their multiliteracies through their participation in online discussion groups as well as their creation of websites, fanfictions, and fan art, utilizing technology-mediated design. Data analysis occurred within a pedagogical framework, and included situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice. The organization of the results through these four components of a pedagogical framework illustrated the girls’ opportunities within their communities of Ba, Tally, and Tsikalas (2002), authors of one of the articles in the review, offered one of the most comprehensive definitions of digital literacy. They described digital literacy as a “set of habits through which youngsters use information technologies for learning, work, and fun” (p. 3 (11)). According to the authors, these habits encompassed individuals’ troubleshooting abilities, purposes for connecting, skills in using popular technology tools, as well as communication literacy, and web literacy. Education Libraries: Childrens Resources, Volume 31, No. 1, Spring 2008 38 practice and especially the disconnect between the schools’ instructional practices and the girls’ need for support in their digital literacies. For example, Chandler-Olcott and Mahar described the mentorship and pedagogy of Rhiannon, one of the adolescent girls in the research study. They noted that the school failed to provide support for her in website design efforts. On the other hand, they reported both girls received overt instruction through online communities that also provided them opportunities for mentorship as well as richer social lives. According to the authors, the girls’ “online communities of practice” offered them “certain kinds of acceptance and friendships” (p. 379). Still, Chandler-Olcott and Mahar insisted the girls’ WebTV and mailing list activities did not interfere with their face to face relationships but rather increased their own sense of identity especially as “designers and as users of technological tools” (p. 380). The article listed several implications of the research results. Foremost, Chandler-Olcott and Mahar maintained literacy teachers should provide opportunities for multimedia composition that supported students’ interests. To this end, the authors indicated “classrooms that embed such tool use within social learning communities” may increase students’ interest in school curricula (p. 381). According to the article, activities that allow students to construct online texts in classrooms and receive feedback from teachers and peers facilitate a potential shift toward a “learnercentered paradigm” (p. 381). The authors especially highlight the role of multimedia and multimodal technology in offering opportunities for students to serve as mentors as well as benefit from mentorship. In addition, they suggested teachers could help link students’ interests to the appropriate online communities as well as offer feedback and critique. Lastly, the researchers supported larger scale research on adolescents’ technology mediated literacy practices with variation in participants regarding ethnic, race and language categories. Eshet-Alkali and Amichai-Hamburger (2004) compared digital literacy competencies among different age groups utilizing a terminology framework that included five competencies. They described photovisual literacy as the ability to read instructions from graphic interfaces, reproduction literacy as the creation of new products through digital texts, branching literacy as the construction of knowledge from nonlineal hyper-textual navigation, information literacy as the ability to assess the quality of information retrieved, and social-emotional literacy as the possessing online communication skills. Their research focused on competencies of twenty high school students with an average age of 16.9 years in comparison with twenty adults and twenty college students. Participants completed computer-based assignments that measured their skill in the five digital competencies. The results highlighted the photo-visual and branching literacy abilities of the high school and college students compared to other study participants. However, the authors noted youth performed poorly with information and reproductive literacy tasks. In conclusion, Eshet-Alkali and Amichai-Hamburger suggested digital literacy skills vary among age groups. The authors maintained the young people’s performance with photo-visual literacy suggest their advanced skills in utilizing user interfaces and interpreting graphical displays. On the other hand, the article indicated the low level of text reproductive literacy efforts among young participants underscored the need for instruction in cognitive rather than technical digital skills. Likewise the researchers argued the youth’s poor performance on tasks measuring information literacy highlighted the availability of programs that enhance students’ “critical thinking and promote information literacy” (p. 426). According to the authors, the students’ lack of information literacy skills illustrated their “weakness as educated consumers of information” and potential for being “easily manipulated” (p. 426). Lastly, Eshet-Alkali and Amichai-Hamburger advocated additional research on socio-emotional literacy skills due to the newness of this “rapidly–evolving” concept (p. 427). Lewis and Fabos (2005) examined the impact of Instant Messaging (IM) on the social identities of seven youth ranging in age between 14 and 17 years old. The researchers selected participants with home Internet access and who were “avid and dexterous IM users” (p. 477). The methodology of the study centered on qualitative interviews that included three categories of questions on instant messaging such as: general appeal and procedural matters, peer and parent issues, and style or word choice. An analysis of the data illustrated the students’ abilities to use language in complex ways. The youth paid careful attention to word choice and spelling and also interweaved multiple messages within the context of larger stories. In addition, Lewis and Fabos discovered instant messaging reflected young people’s social networks revealing personal status and connections with others. The researchers also described the youths’ abilities to manipulate the surveillance features of instant messaging to weld power as well as change Education Libraries: Childrens Resources, Volume 3