A few years ago, it used to be referred to as
“digital illiteracy”. Now the expression has become a single word, a neologism,
a portmanteau widely known to as illectronism — illiteracy in electronics, or
the inability to deal with digital tools of all kinds. It is almost as
crippling as pure language illiteracy. Other terms pertaining new expressions
include digital fluency and digital divide.
اضافة اعلان
There is hardly a field, an activity that does not
involve some sort of digital tools one way or another, be it for pleasure, for
work, to study, to communicate with others, or to take care of your health. It
is a daily and constant need.
Speaking of Digital Literacy in 2022, avast.com, the
website of one of the leading anti-virus software applications, wrote: “Long
before the World Health Organization declared an international health crisis in
2020, our lives were moving increasingly online.” But the past couple of years,
precisely because of the pandemic, have accelerated the phenomenon.
And yet, illectronism is a hard reality, as surely
as illiteracy, which has not been eradicated until today. For all of us who are
lucky enough to possess the necessary tools (equipment, software, wifi, etc.),
along with the ability to make the best out of them, it is hard to imagine that
there is still a proportion of the population that does not possess any of
these tools or skills.
For example, according to a US Department of
Education report issued in 2018, 16 percent of working-age adults are not
digitally literate. Still mentioning the American population, in 2020,
nationalskillscoalition.org reported that 33 percent were advanced, 35 percent
proficient, 18 percent limited and 13 percent were totally digitally
illiterate. And this is in the US, the country of high-tech! In India, the rate
of illectronism is estimated by definida.com to stand at 25 to 30 percent.
Edutopia.org considers that the best performing
countries in digital literacy are South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Japan,
Hong Kong, Iceland, Sweden, and Belgium.
There are two different causes to illectronism. One
is the physical unavailability of the digital tools, equipment, software, or
networking, the other is the mental or intellectual inability to deal with them
sufficiently well, at various degrees, even when they are available.
It is up to governments to address the first cause;
that would involve several different courses of action, such as reducing
poverty, improving living standards, and enhancing networks and
infrastructures. Understandably, this can vary tremendously from one country to
another.
Addressing the second is at least as difficult, if
not more, than the first. It does not only entail the introduction of digital
literacy as a teaching subject as early and as widely as possible in school
curricula, it would also entail educating the senior segment of the population
that did not have the chance to study the subject when of school age and finds
itself overwhelmed now.
Until circa 2000, it was generally accepted that
some people are not and will never be tech savvy. Whatever they needed to do
with computers or networks would be done for them by someone else, a
tech-oriented professional, friend, or relative. Today, this is becoming almost
impossible to accept, for, everybody has to interact with digital tools.
Incidentally, some cellphone functionalities are still a nightmare for some
over-60 people who are otherwise educated and have very decent IQ level.
The fact is that dealing with intricate software
menus, online applications, data storage, data backup, proper filing, and
sorting of contents, with most of the designs changing all the time, from
machine to machine and from version to version, shortcuts and icons moving in
all direction on screens, and — last but not least — having all this sometime
imperfectly designed or implemented with bugs, requires skills and mental
flexibility and adaptability that do not come easy to the average citizen.
And yet, we all need these skills, regardless of our
age, education, or background. Talking about online activity, Joseph Ajami, a
scholar who hails from Lebanon, puts it rather unequivocally: “These days, if
you’re not online, you don’t exist.”
Tech 24, a technology TV program on the France 24
channel, recently reported that the notion of algorithm, a basic, essential
element of computer programming that affects virtually all digital systems,
their usage, and their understanding, will be the subject of a special
education program, and will be taught along with basic reading skills to very
young school children.
An interesting initiative that significantly
contributes to reducing illectronism is the ICDL Foundation. The acronym stands
for International Computer Driving License. The foundation introduces itself as
a “Global Social Enterprise dedicated to raising digital competence standards
in the Workforce, Education, and Society”. The concept was initially launched
in 1995 as ECDL (European Computer Driving License). It evolved to ICDL in
1997.
The term “driving license” is aptly chosen. Just
like you need a driving license to drive your car, without the need to be a car
specialist or mechanic, the ICDL program trains you to “drive” the various
digital tools one needs to handle today, without necessarily becoming an IT
specialist.
Global and increasing awareness, updated school
curricula, and ICDL are some of the measures and actions that may contribute to
reducing illectronism. How fast and to what extent this will succeed remains to
be seen.
Jean-Claude Elias is a computer engineer and a classically
trained pianist and guitarist. He has been regularly writing IT articles,
reviewing music albums, and covering concerts for more than 30 years.
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