Digital Literacy Skills Essential to Closing Broadband Gap #knightcomm

The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy sites the Broadband Adoption and Use in America (pdf) report released by the Federal Communications Commission in Digital Literacy Skills Essential to Closing Broadband Gap when emphasising the importance and need for digital literacy

The survey findings reinforce the growing body of research that finds digital literacy skills are critical to bridging the gap between those who are able to fully participate in the information age and those who live as second-class citizens in informed communities

How do we close this gap? The Knight Commission recommends support and funding for public libraries.

Enhancing the information capacity and digital literacy skills of individuals isn’t limited to traditional educational institutions, however. The Commission recognized that digital skills are skills to be acquired and honed over a lifetime, and that other community institutions, organizations and individual citizens have a role to play. Along these lines, the Commission has recommended that  communities fund and support public libraries and other community institutions as centers of digital and media training, especially for adults (recommendation #7).

Links

• Digital Literacy Skills Essential to Closing Broadband Gap
• Broadband Adoption and Use in America (pdf)
• Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age