Digital Literacy on Productivity - Research Paper Example

Digital Literacy on Productivity Introduction Technological changes and embracement by the current global community indicates that the digital literacy is a basic component to improve the lives of the entire population. Digital Literacy is defined as the knowledge and skills that entitles competent use of ICT for work, learning, leisure and communication. Digital literacy is also termed as the ability to find, evaluate, utilize, create and share important information via the internet or other digital technology. This knowledge ensures that the current population is able to use its ability to use computers in creativity, increase productivity and innovation while being able to interact on the internet. Over the past decade, the global community has embraced its use making it a necessity as success is becoming more dependent on an individual’s ability to use digital literacy. This research aims at tackling the impacts of digital literacy on productivity. This research, hence uses several literature reviews to identify the changes involved in productivity based on digital literacy identifying the major pros and cons. Secondary data are preferred in analyzing the trend the global economy is undertaken because of digital literacy. Thesis Statement The aim of this research is to identify the relationship of digital literacy and productivity by discussing the impacts of digital literacy on productivity. The growth of digital literacy has been rampant over the past decades. This increment is global and is witnessed in all types jobs, thus meaning that digital literacy is a key component in increasing productivity. By analyzing the statistics of changes in productivity as digital literacy increases, it will be clear to identify the impacts and relationship of the two. Significance of this research Compressive undertaking will answer the following questions that have raised major conflicts in the past. What are the impacts of digital literacy on productivity? Should governments prioritize digital literacy to improve their counties’ productivity and economy? How will this research contribute in improving past researches on modern digital literacy on productivity? The success of this research is based on the best and simplest way it will answer the above questions to ensure that it has accomplished its significance while being in line with the thesis statement. Background Several researches over the last two decades on the impacts of digital literacy on productivity shows that as people continue to increase their knowledge of digital technology, they learn how to ease their workload thus increases productivity. The continued use of digital technology proves that the youth are no longer participating in technical skills as the availability of information helps them become more innovative unlike in the past where most of the work was technical. A research in New Zealand indicates that more than 94% of the people use computers and all organizations and businesses have embraced the use of the internet and computers amongst other digital devices. This illustrates that there is a growing trend in the need of digital literacy to fit in today’s business world (World Economic Forum. 2012). Dobson and Willinsky (2009), state that digital literacy is the most important component that has enabled the globalization due to the internet providing a wide market for e-commerce. They also claim that digital literacy has created a competitive place where any economy can compete with the other. This idea is supported by the growth of Canada’s economy is mainly based on technological changes and the availability of digital literate citizens who participates in e-commerce among other online businesses. Gutierrez and Gamboa (2008), in their research noted that digital literacy is the key to increase in productivity since digital literacy ensures equality in the availability of information. They explain that digital divide should not be wide, as ICT is becoming a basic component to increase productivity due to the available information that is educational to increase their skills and the increased way of socializing entails improved productivity as people share the best strategies to partake different activities. In the New Zealand research, it is clear that the government has also embraced digital literacy as most of the government reports are found in e-government. This is similar to Canada as before 1990, Canada could not compete with other global economies, but since 1995, this has changed since the government has embraced the use of the internet to improve productivity. The Canadian government has laid strategies to ensure that the youths undertake lessons that ensure they are ready to become productive in the real world. This strategy ensures that the Canadians are digitally literate for better competitiveness (World Economic Forum. 2012). The growth of US economy is based more on digital literacy. The essence that the US government has invested more one digital literacy in the past decade than other countries in Europe portrays this argument. This illustrates the difference in the economic growth of US and Europe, where in the past the two were growing at the same rate, but currently Europe’s countries’ economic growth have stagnated whereas the US economy is growing rampantly (World Economic Forum. 2012). Dickinson, Bruce. (2007), in his research identifies that digital literacy ensures that people gain knowledge due to the availability of information and since knowledge is power, people who are digitally literate gather more information and are able to put the knowledge to practice thus ensuring an increase in productivity. Digital literacy has been criticized for the limited number of youth who are able to carry out jobs that require technical skills. The essence that internet amongst other tools of digital literacy does not advocate for technical skills makes it hard for the youths to be motivated to learn the skills. This trend is alarming because although technology is changing rampantly it is impossible to rely on technology without have various technical skills. The critics state that although digital literacy improves productivity in most of the jobs, it is responsible in reducing productivity in technical jobs. Methodology This research intends to use secondary data from trusted sources on the impact of digital literacy on productivity. The major data used in this research were performed in 2009, in Wales. The National Health Service in Wales, where a survey was carried out portrayed that staffs who completed basic ICT training were more confident in undertaking computer tasks and in other tasks they had improved even in the provision of care to the patients. The survey included 1617 staff across 22 health cares (World Economic Forum. 2012). The improvement in productivity was resulted from training and the access of information from the internet that improved their productivity. This improvement in productivity is similar to that recorded by workers in Toyota Tsusho Africa (Pty) Ltd. The staffs have different educational backgrounds and different literacy levels and ICT skills. In 2008, the company initiated a policy to ensure that all the staffs had an ICDL start certificate. This move began with the company choosing 400 staff and training them. The 400 staffs improved their productivity in comparison to other staffs in the company. This is due to the availability of information from digital literacy that enables one to be more skilled and innovative. The Riga Declaration urged EU Member States to develop initiatives to address ICT skills gaps to allow all citizens to benefit from ICT in their daily lives. The declaration noted, “57% of individuals living in the EU did not regularly use the Internet in 2005. 10% of persons over 65 used the internet, against 68% of those aged 16-24; only 24% of persons with low education used the Internet, against 73% of those with high education; only 32% of unemployed persons used the Internet against 54% of employed persons” (European Commission. 2006) Discussion of the Analyzed data The different data used in this research provide a wide range of proving that digital literacy is key in the improvement of productivity. The data concerning NHS in Wales and the staffs in Toyota Tsusho Company are analyzed whereas the data from Riga Declaration is not. This discussion focuses mainly on the Riga Declaration data, but its conclusion is based on all three secondary data. The 10% of persons over 65 using the internet portrays the use of digital literacy for social purposes and gaining information regarding current affairs, as people above the age of 65 are retired thus not productive. This number is smaller than the 68% of persons between the age of 16 and 24 who have embraced digital literacy. People in this age group are learning to use digital literacy for productive purposes to ensure that they fit into the current world where digital illiteracy would limit their competitiveness in the job market. This is evident, for people with higher education tend to use digital technology to increase their digital literacy more than the lower educated. This statistic clearly reveals that high-educated persons know the essence of embracing digital literacy in improving their innovation and creativity to become more productivity in the job market. Employment also plays a huge role in the need to increase digital literacy since highly productive employees tend to become highly successful and most companies and organizations have adopted the modern culture of ensuring that their employees are digitally literate to improve their productivity. This is evident as portrayed by the NHS staffs in Wales and the move of the Toyota Tsusho Company in engaging their staffs in programs to improve their digital literacy in order to gain from the improved productivity. Conclusion of the Research Digital literacy being a broad topic is difficult to tackle it all at one thus this research chose to tackle the impact of digital literacy on productivity. The research thus uses past research as its literature review. The literature review has brought some understanding on the importance of digital literacy in productivity. The researchers have used different ways to illustrate their understanding on improvement of productivity due to embracement of digital literacy. This research has largely benefited from the past researches. It is clear to note that digital literacy increases the sources of information that is important for its users to learn new ways to accomplish their objective when handling any type of task. This information is very useful as new employees who may be young and inexperienced gain the needed knowledge that makes them confident when tackling difficult and delicate tasks in their organization. The essence that different organizations are investing their resources to train their staffs on digital literacy proves beyond doubt that digital literacy improves productivity. The rampant changes in technology create changes in dreams of the youth thus they are no longer willing to undertake technical courses, but the critics are wrong at pointing fingers at digital literacy as the course of the dying art of technicians. This is simply because most of the technical work in many organizations and businesses are being replaced by machines which ease the task thus the youths are embracing digital literacy to ensure they are able to operate the modern machines. It is true to state that digital literacy is no longer a luxury instead; it is a necessity to survive in the modern world. This is simply because of technological changes that aim at digitalizing everything thus a person who is digital illiterate will find it hard to fit in the modern society where everything is digitalized. Recommendations Since digital literacy is very significant in the productivity of the current population, it is the high time for governments to ensure that they help minimize the digital divide gap to ensure more productivity from their citizens in order to compete in the global market. Schools and other learning institution should adopt new strategies to incorporate digital literacy to ensure that the youths are digitally literate for them to fit in the real world. References Dickinson, Bruce. (2007). The $100 Laptop and the Digital Divide. Technovelopment Tools Using Emerging Technologies in Hands-On Local Development. Retrieved March 14, 2015, from http://www.igloo.org/brockdickinson/the100la/ Dobson and Willinsky’s (2009) chapter “Digital Literacy.”  This is a submitted draft version of a chapter for The Cambridge Handbook on Literacy European Commission. (2006). Ministerial Declaration. Retrieved 3 March 2015, from http://www.digital-literacy.eu/_root/media/24833_declaration_riga%5B1%5D.pdf Gutierrez R., L. H., Gamboa N., L. F., (2008, June). Digital Divide among Low Income People in Colombia, Mexico and Peru. Paper presented at the ITS Biennial Conference, Montreal, Canada.  Retrieved March 14, 2015 from Dialogo Regional sobre Sociedad de la Infomacion (DIRSI) web site: http://www.dirsi.net/espanol/files/ITS/Digital_Divide_LG.pdf World Economic Forum. (2012). Global competitiveness index 2012 – 2013: Canada.  Retrieved from http://reports.weforum.org/global-competitiveness Read More