Digital Competences

Digital competences are the main key when it comes to tackle “fake news”. But which competences are necessary and why do they need to be fostered in young people?

Being a citizen in todays hyperconnected era means to be constantly exposed to an outstanding volume of information, addressed to and customized for us through our personal devices. At the same time the citizen himself is the source of a continuous stream of data and information that contributes to the design and the proficiency of this digital habitat.

Therefore, digital competences are becoming more and more important to empower young people to raise their awareness and critical approach to online content.

The most important measure against the spreading of disinformation and fake news is to foster the ability to exercise critical thinking by combining competences and knowledge with values and attitudes.

The European Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp) lists five main areas of digital competences, which are

• Information and data literacy
• Communication and collaboration
• Digital content creation
• Safety
• Problem solving

The development of these competences on different proficiency levels is necessary in order

• to recognize (search, filter and evaluate digital content),
• to understand (analyse and dismantle digital disinformation) and
• to manage fake news (report and warn).

The Digital Resistance handbook offers effective teaching methods to integrate media and information literacy competences into different classroom activities, suitable for all subjects. These teaching approaches will help to foster digital competences in students, who will learn to step outside of their echo chambers of prejudices and start to think critically about the intent of disinformation.

References:

Digital Competence Framework for Citizens: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/digcomp-21-digital-competence-framework-citizens-eight-proficiency-levels-and-examples-use

Further information as well as pedagogical approaches could be found in Chapter 2 of the Digital Handbook.