Digital literacy practices among youth populations: A review of the literature

Abstract

Digital literacy includes a range of abilities from basic computing skills to the creation of multimodal texts. This literature review examines eleven articles that track the digital literacy practices of youth populations or individualsbetween the ages of 12 and 17. It describes the practices of these individuals through three perspectives, including: studies centered on general youth populations, research discussing innovative programs targeting students from low income families, and articles tracking digital literacy competencies among young immigrant learners. Foremost, the articles highlight young people’s efforts to express themselves through their own online literacy. To this end it remains essential that educators correlate students’ digital literacy habits in their personal lives to instructional practices in school.