Digital Literacy Skills Framework

How can the Digital Literacy Skills Framework be used?

The Digital Literacy Skills Framework can be used to enhance the current ACSF, up to and including Level 3. It can be used for:

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  benchmarking an individual’s digital literacy skills
  
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  mapping core skill requirements in education and training
  
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  tailoring approaches to teaching and learning
  
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  describing core skills relevant to the workplace and employment
  
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  supporting the moderation and validation of digital literacy
  
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  informing decisions regarding funding and referrals.
  

Theoretical underpinnings

Digital ability is important for individuals and communities because, in the digital age, technology mediates our interactions with the world and each other. The development of the Digital Literacy Skills Framework reflects current theory and practice about the importance of digital literacy, which is now embedded in the social fabric of everyday life.
‘Digital inclusion is not just about computers, the internet or even technology. It is about using technology as a channel to improve skills, to enhance quality of life, to drive education and to promote economic well-being across all elements of society. Digital inclusion is really about social inclusion.’ (Australian Digital Inclusion Index, 2018)
For people with low literacy and numeracy levels, low income earners, many Indigenous learners and many learners from diverse backgrounds, ‘there is an ambient desire to be part of society. They can feel left out of society due to difficult living conditions (e.g. unstable jobs, or lack of basic resources). And so with the ubiquity of technology in their communities, it is important for them to feel like they belong.’ (Dezuanni et al, 2018).
Several national and international digital literacy frameworks were researched to inform the development of this Digital Literacy Skills Framework (see Bibliography). Additionally, the key underpinning approaches behind the ACSF © 2012 have also informed this resource. These include:

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  a socio-linguistic and socio-constructivist view of core skills as complex social practices embedded in context, and influenced by purpose, audience and contextualised expectations and conventions (see Ivanic et al 2006, Lonsdale & McCurry 2004, McKenna & Fitzpatrick 2005, Skillen et al 1998, Tout & Johnston 1995)
  
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  a socio-linguistic and socio-constructivist view of core skills as complex social practices embedded in context, and influenced by purpose, audience and contextualised expectations and conventions (see Ivanic et al 2006, Lonsdale & McCurry 2004, McKenna & Fitzpatrick 2005, Skillen et al 1998, Tout & Johnston 1995)
  
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  theories of adult learning, including a recognition that core skills are best learned within a context that the adult learner perceives to be relevant and important (see Brookfield 1995, Burns 1995, Casey et al 2006, Knowles 1980, Mackeracher 1996, Rogers 1996)
  
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  a view of learning, reading, writing, speaking, listening and numeracy as interactive, constructive processes of meaning-making in which individuals can be seen to assume four roles – code breaker, text participant, text user and text analyst (see Luke & Freebody 1990, Johnston 1994)
  
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  the components of task and text complexity and the variables that interact to determine the level of difficulty of information-processing tasks, including for mathematical tasks (see Kirsch & Mosenthal 1990, Kirsch 2001, Gal et al 2009)
  
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  a progression style approach to core skills development as a person expands their understanding of, and control over, the processes involved, including an increasing awareness of an author or speaker's purpose and intended audiences, and of an individual's own purposes (see OECD 2002)
  
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  a view that texts serve particular functions in a social context and that different texts have predictable language structures depending on their function
  
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  a recognition of the key role played by digital technology in the creation of many kinds of texts and tasks, and in facilitating access to, and navigation of, texts
  
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  a view that investment in human capital, economic and workforce outcomes through education and training opportunities directly support, and impact positively on, social capital outcomes for individuals and various target groups participating in core skills training and courses across Australia (see Barton 2002, Coulombe et al 2004, Hartley & Horne 2006).