the effect of digital literacy

What is it about?

The latest evaluation indicators of digital literacy are applied to college students to evaluate their level of digital literacy. Evaluation areas applied in this study are roughly classified into technical literacy, bit literacy, and virtual community literacy, and each of these has five sub-groups. This paper attempts to analyze the level of effect of these categories and sub-groups on information use behavior. This study used a survey, as did much of the previous research. College students from five different colleges were targeted, with 221 surveys out of 250 returned, a return rate of 88.4%. As to results, bit literacy influences information use behavior most, followed by virtual community literacy and technical literacy in that order. Bit literacy is related to the ability to use information including information search, information discernment, editing information, processing information, and utilizing information, and these items appear to have influenced information use behavior most. Examination of these detailed items shows that the ability to process information has the most significant effect on information use behavior followed by information discernment, information editing, community analysis, document editing, and use of tools and ability to create cyber culture in that order. The literacy indicators with the lowest effect on information use behavior were the ability to communicate, form self-identity, information search, and form relationships in that order

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Why is it important?

The advent of the information age and rapidly expanding digital media will irrevocably change the way users interact with information. Information use behavior has changed dramatically with the emergence of computers, the internet, and smart phones. Thus, even the terms we use to refer to the concept of literacy have changed as information communication technology evolved. Now and in the past, various terms have been used to discuss this concept, including computer literacy, ICT literacy, information literacy, e-literacy, network literacy, and media literacy. However, when viewing current literature on the subject, "digital literacy" appears to be the new focus of the information literacy discussion. It is natural that the concept of literacy should change as information communication technology develops, and previous studies have shown that names and evaluation standards have all gradually evolved to keep pace. For instance, a recent checklist of digital literacy even evaluates the capacity for fostering cyber culture (Hanyang University 2013), an indicator that has never appeared in any evaluation criteria before. The changing nature of this topic raises the question of whether or not digital literacy affects information use behavior. Some past studies have analyzed differences in information use behavior based on research area and institution, while others have studied varying research paths and preferred data format. However, no study has analyzed the effect of digital literacy on information use behavior. This topic necessitates navigating certain obstacles, such as the amount of time it takes to develop digital literacy indicators and the difficulty in evaluating the literacy of a particular group. In this paper, the latest evaluation indicators of digital literacy are applied to college students to evaluate their level of digital literacy. Evaluation areas applied in this study are roughly classified into technical literacy, research literacy, and virtual community literacy, and each of these has five sub-groups. This paper attempts to analyze the level of effect of these categories and sub-groups on information use behavior.

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