The problem with the term digital literacy is that it specifies the technology, whereas the knowledge that we wish to teach and analyze extend beyond this to use. Also, to call something digital literacy opens up the whole problem that digital machines, as Universal Turing machines, can instantiate a massive number of different machines and is therefore potentially extremely broad. Of course, more and more of our media are digital in some way today so this is another reason to shy away from digital literacy as a term otherwise it could also cover TV, Radio and programming!

Given this potential breadth in the term digital literacy why not just narrow your concerns to that which you describe which is Social Media? However, as Jonathan comments, it is desirable to avoid just the teaching of skills. Contextualization and critique should be part of any teaching of these media. This is exactly what we do teaching Media Studies, and we do so by getting the students to use the tools whilst thinking about their use, context and history.

I’m not sure I agree with Sue that “there is nothing new in digital”. Although new media remediate previous ways of communicating that does not mean that Skype = Campfire Conversations. The medium does change the nature of communication, so even of it is not the message (as Mcluhan argued) it does change the nature of the message. This is why the study of social media is needed.

In short I believe what you are proposing falls under the broad heading of media/communication studies. Media Studies teaches us a lot about how different mediums have different affordances and dangers and our current practice should be informed by and develop this. What you seem to be describing is a subset of Media Studies, focused on social media, but which needs to be informed by the broader discipline.

You say: “Asking academia to do it, or the usual set of skills agencies to get involved also fills me with fear. Why? Because with social media, there is a lot to be lost in translation and the people at the centre of pass on social media skills should be the people who actually have them, not people who’ve watched others use the tools and think that they thus know how they work. ”

I totally agree. This may sound a bit ageing hippy, but you have to live these technologies to understand them. Anything else is like assuming that observant car passengers will at some point have learned enough to be competent drivers. One attains a high level of transliteracy from being a *conscious user* of many literacies, not a watcher.

We’re also working on the connections between amplification and transliteracy. Our new project Amplified Leicester http://www.amplifiedleicester.com aims to use diversity as a driver for amplification and innovation, and our NLab work, very much a university project with HEIF funding, also addresses issues of business, social media, transliteracy and amplification. (You gave a talk for us at NLab a few years ago) http://www.nlabnetworks.com

I’m sorry if this post reads like an ad for everything we’re doing, but sometimes it’s important to flag it up.

NB I have tried, and to date failed, to interest Ofcom in transliteracy. I think they are stuck on the notion of digital literacy, but in my view that is missing a trick. The issue is not about making the digital different, but about showing how it is just another aspect of what humans already do when they communicate, innovate and interact.

I know what you mean about the Digital Literacy term, but it’s the best we’ve got. I can understand your reservations about government and academia, but on the latter you only need to look to places like DMU’s Institute of Creative Technologies, along with the work Sue Thomas is doing on Transliteracy to see how the right attitude can get the academics doing great, practical stuff with local business and the third sector. I also think Sally is right to raise schools and local authorities. Just like the general business landscape there are great examples of use of social media tools in both, but plenty of ignorance or a vacuum that needs filling.

Your list of recommendations looks good, but as you say, this stuff is expereriential. The digital natives and the enterprise 2.0 evangelists lived and breath the stuff in their personal life before they applied it in their organization. My first recommendation to a manager considering deploying social media is to get some first hand experience of the consumer tools as part of their learning process. We would get quicker adoption if there were many more practical uses of social media that the general population rubbed up against day to day. Beyond the consumer stuff, local authorities at all levels should be socializing the systems they use to interact with the public. The same should be happening across the school system, for parent/teacher communication as well, not just the learning process.

As you know, one of the keys to adoption is answering the question “what’s in it for me”, so that needs to be part of the approach for skills transfer.

Oh I know of one thing that would make a huge difference - not within the 3rd sector but the ripple effects out to the 3rd sector would be huge.

Schools and local authorities need to be able to access and use social media. The firewall blocks need to go. Otherwise they’re in real danger of being left behind and having a very expensive catch up job to do. But re 3rd sector knock-on - such a major proportion of 3rd sector organisations work with schools and local authorities. Schools and local authorities need them desperately because of the services and expertise they offer. I can’t quite think how this all loops together but I know it does. And I think it’s somehow connected to this line of thinking http://fort.tumblr.com/post/131191535/a-business-case-for-public-engagement in that the 3rd sector are some of the best organisations and working with and exploring collaboratively, rather than working top down and didactically / paternally etc.

By enabling 3rd sector orgs to continue to improve and really excel in their collaborative co-constructed approach which partner areas like schools respect them for, both sides of the party need to be able to speak this same new language.

Am not really sure how much help that is but hopefully it gives you something to think about and maybe you’ll put your finger on the cohesion I’m struggling with just now!

By the way - was fellow Tuttle consultant at BC last week but didn’t get a chance to say hello. So “Hello”

My report for Carnegie is on the use of social media in civil society, and I’ve been chronicling as much of it as I can here:

http://strange.corante.com/category/carnegie