Digital Literacy in Elementary and Secondary Education

Digital literacy as an educational concept began in the mid-20th century with the rise of media studies and the work of Marshall McLuhan, who predicted in the 1960s that technology would forever alter the idea of literacy. The phrase digital literacy became more prominent in the 1990s in reference to the skills and knowledge required to read and write in digital environments. Early attempts to define the concept differentiated between conceptual and operational forms: that is, the psychological processes required to consume and evaluate media versus the technical skills required to produce media. After the introduction of Title II, Part D of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, educators and industry alike sought to standardize technology skills and to identify methods to teach ...