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I’ve been hearing the terms digital literacy and digital skills a lot since I joined university, but I never really realized there was any difference between them. This article demonstrated the difference between digital skills, which is the ability to use digital tools and integrate them into the work, projects or assignments, and digital literacy which is what permissions you need to use this tool such as copyright and citation. It appears that digital literacy is just as important as digital skills, if not even more important. Even though I couldn’t tell the difference till I read the article, I actually think I am digitally literate to a good extent, I am sure there are still many things I can learn in order to be able the make the best out of the digital skills I have, but I feel like most of the points mentioned in the article are things that I do know about or learnt recently in this course. 

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Taught Pathway: 

Module 1: Digital Images

In this module I learned about what a greyscale is and even how it is represented on a histogram or an RGB pixel value. Another thing I learnt is some editing fundamentals and tools. For example I learnt that having appropriate focus is an essential for a good quality photo and it’s not something that can be improved by editing, I also learned what an HDR is which is something I have heard about a lot but never understood. HDR is the abbreviation for High Dynamic Range, and it ensures that all the details of the picture are clear whether in the dark or bright parts of the picture. There are some things and techniques that I already knew about such as cropping and compressing images. Overall, I actually enjoyed this module a lot and I actually learnt some skills in editing digital images. 

Module 2: Online Identity

In this module I learnt about the very famous term which is a “Digital Footprint”. I could’ve already guessed what it was but I was never sure and never even read anything about it. I learnt how a digital footprint has both its advantages and disadvantages. Some of these advantages are the easy access to the same accounts, passwords and even credit card info instead of having to fill them in every time you use them, while the disadvantages were represented by the danger this info might pose on your digital identity by having your social media or even bank accounts hacked and the easy access to personal information that many websites may have about you without even realizing it, even if you logged in to any account temporarily from a device that you never used again. Of the terms I learnt were visitors and residents and the difference between both which basically represents your online engagement on a specific website or platform. Overall, I find this module very informative on an academic and personal level. It made me reflect on my own usage of online platforms and how my online identity is represented, and it made me even think about every time I agreed to terms or conditions of any website without checking them manually and making sure they pose no danger to my online identity. 

Reflection:

It took me some time to figure out what I was supposed to do in this assignment, but after understanding I really enjoyed doing it. I even think if I had more time I would have loved to do a couple of assignments from the tinkering pathway as well, cause I surprisingly found one assignment that was about creating a pinterest board of what I visualize as my dream life and that was actually something that I’ve been planning to do for a while. So other than everything I learnt, from the difference between digital literacy and digital skills, and the techniques of working with digital images or maintaining the online identity I want for myself, I also really enjoyed doing this assignment and I would love to explore even more beyond the modules I did.