Overview

In this chapter, students will be introduced to digital foundations of art, design, and digital media. Students must have not only digital literacy but also digital competence. In this unit of study, students will understand digital foundations, digital literacy, and digital competencies. They will learn how to use digital technology and digital tools to create digital art, design, and digital media to communicate a new idea effectively.  According to UNESCO, digital literacy involves the confident and critical use of a full range of digital technologies for information, communication, and basic problem-solving in all aspects of life. It is underpinned by basic skills in ICT: the use of computers to retrieve, assess, store, produce, present and exchange information, and to communicate and participate in collaborative networks via the Internet.

Digital Foundations

Digital Foundations are growing trends in art schools across the country providing new opportunities to merge digital tools with traditional techniques in art education according to Arnold P. Martin and Meg Mitchell (2012). The word “Foundation” is defined as a principle, an idea, or a fact that something is based on and that it grows from according to Oxford Learner’s Dictionary. Digital foundations of art, design, and convergent media consist of key elements and principles of visual design. Digital tools and technologies such as “3-D printers, laser cutters, easy-to-use design software, and desktop machine tools, along with freely available information about how to use, modify, and build upon these technologies” (Sweeny, 2018, p. 349 in Tiffany Holtje, 2019, p. 3-4) have become part of teaching and learning digital foundations. Moreover, these are the applications that students have most likely experimented with outside of the classroom in the form of photo editing applications and game software that encourages the 3-D design of buildings and other structures. Therefore, students would be interested in learning more about these technologies in schools. To learn digital foundations for art, design, and convergent media practice successfully, it is vital to acquire digital literacy and digital competencies.

Digital Literacy

Digital literacy is the basic skills or ability to use a computer confidently, safely, and effectively, including the ability to use contemporary software and digital tools or create, edit, and present images, audio, and video and use a web browser and internet search engines according to the Royal Society in UK (2012).  UNESCO-UNVOC (2018) also defines, digital literacy is the ability to access, manage, understand, integrate, communicate, evaluate, and create information safely and appropriately through digital technologies for employment, decent jobs, and entrepreneurship. It includes digital competencies that are variously referred to as computer literacy, ICT literacy, information literacy, and media literacy.

Digital Competence

Digital competence involves the ‘confident, critical and responsible use of, and engagement with, digital technologies for learning, at work, and for participation in society. Digital competence is defined as a combination of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. According to the Joint Research Center of the European Commission, the key components of digital competence in 5 areas.

1. Information and data literacy: To articulate information needs, and to locate and retrieve digital data, information, and content. To judge the relevance of the source and its content. To store, manage, and organize digital data, information, and content.
2. Communication and collaboration: To interact, communicate, and collaborate through digital technologies while being aware of cultural and generational diversity. To participate in society through public and private digital services and participatory citizenship. To manage one’s digital presence, identity, and reputation.
3. Digital content creation: To create and edit digital content. To improve and integrate information and content into an existing body of knowledge while understanding how copyright and licenses are to be applied. To know how to give understandable instructions for a computer system.
4. Safety: To protect devices, content, personal data, and privacy in digital environments. To protect physical and psychological health, and to be aware of digital technologies for social well-being and social inclusion. To be aware of the environmental impact of digital technologies and their use.
5. Problem solving: To identify needs and problems, and to resolve conceptual problems and problem situations in digital environments. To use digital tools to innovate processes and products. To keep up-to-date with the digital evolution (European Commission).

A digital literacy competence framework developed in 2013 by the Joint Research Center of the European Commission consists of 5 key areas and 21 competencies as shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Digital literacy competence framework

Source: Vuorikari, R., Kluzer, S. and Punie, Y. (2022)

References:

Eshet, Y. (2004). Digital literacy: A conceptual framework for survival skills in the digital era. Journal of educational multimedia and hypermedia, 13(1), 93-106.

Ferrari, A., & Punie, Y. (2013). DIGCOMP: A framework for developing and understanding digital competence in Europe.

Gillespie, T. (2003). The stories digital tools tell. In New Media (pp. 107-123). Routledge.

Haleem, A., Javaid, M., Qadri, M. A., & Suman, R. (2022). Understanding the role of digital technologies in education: A review. Sustainable operations and computers, 3, 275-285.

Nascimbeni, F. (2019). Digital literacy for children: exploring definitions and frameworks. UNICEF.

Vuorikari, R., Kluzer, S. and Punie, Y. (2022) DigComp 2.2: The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens – With new examples of knowledge, skills and attitudes, EUR 31006 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. ISBN 978-92-76-48883-5, doi:10.2760/490274, JRC128415.

Sharma, B. P. (2022). Digital tools in art education: From expanding creative horizons and facilitating collaboration to increasing access and resources for a diverse student population. Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing, 5(1), 55-65.

UNESCO. (n.d.). Digital Literacy.