Reading about digital literacy I cannot but reflect on how much of these aspects are taken for granted in much of the teaching I do myself. Being a lecturer in a remote university, much of the education is on distance, and we therefore rely quite heavily on ICT.

Although remote teaching has worked quite well (judging from students reflections), a lot of their digital literacy is taken for granted. Not just using an online platform (e.g., Canvas) for downloading and uploading assignments and to share relevant course material, but the virtual classrooms we have been using (e.g., Zoom) and their ability to find, interpret, and use material found on the wider internet. Who ever saw an online course with the prerequisite of having at least X university credits in “Digital Information: identification, disinformation and fake news”, for example.

As such, I think it becomes difficult to separate digital literacy as a professional/student trait as something different from ones person. That is to say, it is skill that can be learned and trained, just as finding and reading any other type of text (e.g., finding, reading, and understanding legal text, standards, or academic work).

I think this topic might be a good start for the ONL course, since here too we have a diverse group of participants, with different (digital) skills. It creates an environment where we don’t only see it from one side of the coin (e.g., that of the teacher trying to understand the student), but among teachers trying to understand our differences and similarities to reach some common goals in order to solve the task at hand.