Yoram Eshet-Alkalai

Bio: Yoram Eshet-Alkalai is an academic researcher from Open University of Israel. The author has contributed to research in topics: Digital literacy & Educational technology. The author has an hindex of 17, co-authored 50 publications receiving 1948 citations. Previous affiliations of Yoram Eshet-Alkalai include Open University.

Digital Literacy: A Conceptual Framework for Survival Skills in the Digital era

Abstract: Digital literacy involves more than the mere ability to use software or operate a digital device; it includes a large variety of complex cognitive, motor, sociological, and emotional skills, which users need in order to function effectively in digital environments. The tasks required in this context include, for example, “reading” instructions from graphical displays in user interfaces; using digital reproduction to create new, meaningful materials from existing ones; constructing knowledge from a nonlinear, hypertextual navigation; evaluating the quality and validity of information; and have a mature and realistic understanding of the “rules” that prevail in the cyberspace. This newly emerging concept of digital literacy may be used as a measure of the quality of learners’ work in digital environments, and provide scholars and developers with a more effective means of communication in designing better user-oriented environments. This article proposes a holistic, refined conceptual framework for digital literacy, which includes photo-visual literacy; reproduction literacy; branching literacy; information literacy; and socioemotional literacy.

Towards a Theory of Digital Literacy: Three Scenarios for the Next Steps

Abstract: This paper focuses on the discussion of the digital literacy skills that are considered necessary for effective and mindful learning in the emerging digital environments. To date, the discourse on this important subject has been practice-oriented, and lacks a sound integrative framework and theoretical foundation. This grave lacuna in the current discourse on learning in general, and on learning in the digital culture in particular, calls for a clear and theoretically-grounded view of the basic literacies required for effective learning in digital environments. Accordingly, this paper reviews an integrative framework for digital literacy recently suggested by Eshet-Alkalai (2004; 2005) as a starting point for the much-needed theorization. Two basic strategies – the conservative and the skeptical – are considered for this purpose. The first strategy relies on the basic assumption of the current discourse that "digital skills" are indeed nothing but skills. The second strategy, based on doubts concerning this assumption, leads to two different skeptical hypotheses. The first contends that the skill-oriented discourse can be reduced to the older discourses on learning styles and multiple intelligences; the second attempts to reduce it to the much more fundamental discourse on the clash between the modern book-based and the post modern digital cultures.

Thinking in the Digital Era: A Revised Model for Digital Literacy

Abstract: Introduction The proliferation of technologies during the digital era confronts individuals with situations that require the utilization of an ever-growing assortment of technical, cognitive, and sociological skills that are necessary in order to perform effectively in digital environments. These skills are termed in literature 'digital literacy' (Buckingham, 2003; Gilster, 1997; Hargittai, 2008; Lankshear & Knobel, 2008). As pointed out by Bawden (2001), digital literacy is more than just the technical ability to operate digital devices properly; it comprises a variety of skills that are utilized in executing tasks in digital environments, such as constructing knowledge during surfing the web, deciphering user interfaces, playing digital games, searching in databases, creating and sharing content on the web, chatting in chat rooms and communicating in social networks (Hargittai, 2008; Jones-Kavalier & Flannigan, 2006). In the modern era, digital literacy has become a "survival skill"--a key that helps users to work intuitively in executing complex digital tasks. In recent years, extensive efforts are made to describe and conceptualize the cognitive skills that users employ in digital environments (e.g., Hargittai, 2008; Marsh, 2005). Unfortunately, these efforts are usually local, focusing on a selected and limited variety of skills, mainly information-seeking skills (e.g., Bawden, 2008; Lankshear & Knobel, 2008; Zins, 2000), and, therefore, they do not cover the full scope of the term digital literacy. Eshet-Alkalai (2004) has established a holistic conceptual model for digital literacy, arguing that it covers most of the cognitive skills that users and scholars employ while working in digital environments and, therefore, providing researchers and designers of digital environments with a powerful framework and design guidelines. This framework was derived from the analysis of large volumes of empirical and qualitative data regarding the behavior of users in digital environments and was studied empirically by Eshet and Amichai-Hamburger (2004), who tested the performance of different groups of computer users with tasks that require the utilization of different digital skills. The publication of Eshet-Alkalai's model of digital literacy has led to an extensive debate within the community of instructional technology designers, researchers and educators, as to its validity and completeness. This debate (Aviram & Eshet, 2006) confirmed the validity and value of the model, but indicated that it lacked a sixth thinking skill: the Real-time thinking skill, which relates to the ability of users to perform effectively in advanced digital environments, mainly high-tech machines, multimedia games and multimedia training environments, that require the user to process simultaneously large volumes of stimuli which appear in real-time and at high-speed. The present paper presents an updated version of the holistic model of Eshet-Alkalai (2004). The real-time thinking skill is added to the model and its value in refining our understanding of how people interact with digital environments and communicate with others in the cyberspace, is discussed in light of the recent, knowledge on digital literacy. The digital thinking skills that are discussed in the paper are the photo-visual, reproduction, branching, information, socio-emotional and real-time thinking skills. It is argued that these six digital thinking skills exist in every learner, but their "volume" or "magnitude" depends on the situation and differ from person to person. In the following paragraphs, the revised holistic model for of digital literacy and its six thinking skills, are discussed in detail. Photo-visual Digital Skills The evolution of digital environments, from text-based, syntactic to graphic-based semantic environments (Nielsen, 1993; Shneiderman, 1998; Soffer & Eshet-Alkalai, 2009), requires users of modern digital environments to employ cognitive skills of "Using Vision to Think" (Mullet & Sano, 1995) in order to create an effective photo-visual communication with the environment. …

Changes over time in digital literacy.

Abstract: The current study is a follow-up on the 2002 empirical study by Eshet-Alkalai and Amichai-Hamburger, which investigated digital literacy skills among different age groups. This study explores changes through time in digital literacy among the same participants 5 years later, and their performance is compared to new matched control groups. Results indicate an improvement over time among all age groups, but especially for the adults, in the tasks that require proficiency and technical control in using technology (e.g., photovisual and branching literacy skills). On the other hand, results indicate a drop in the skills that require creative and critical thinking (e.g., information and reproduction literacy skills), especially for the younger participants. Results show two major patterns of change over time: (a) closing the gap between younger and older participants in the tasks that emphasize proficiency and technical control and (b) widening the gap between younger and older participants in tasks t...

Multimedia in Learning

Abstract: A wide variety of media can be used in learning, including distance learning, such as print, lectures, conference sections, tutors, pictures, video, sound, and computers. Any one instance of distance learning will make choices among these media, perhaps using several.

Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide

Abstract: Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide. Pippa Norris. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 303 pp. $60 hbk., $20 pbk. Forecasts that the Internet heralds a world of more democracy and less poverty seem as inflated as dot.com stocks. This rosy view has electronic voting, political chat rooms, and email access re-engaging apathetic publics in politics. Digital technologies redress economic disparities, and the benefits of the Internet percolate down to transform poor societies. Equally exaggerated is the gloom of naysayers. The Internet Age has done little to narrow the gap between rich and poor countries, the information haves and havenots, cyber-skeptics contend. Indeed, digital technologies could create new inequalities and reinforce the dominance of power elites. In her new book, Digital Divide, Pippa Norris, associate director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, steps into this fusillade of cyber-hyperbole, lowers the decibel with a well-written and thoughtful examination of Internet use and access in 179 countries and dissects the claims and counter-claims. Her research and findings place her on middle ground, somewhere between current reality and optimism. The Internet era seems to be changing "politics as usual" in a number of countries, expanding and loosening information about governments and politics, allowing the entrance of new political players, and fostering international movements on the environment, women's rights, and other issues across borders. The disappointment is that digital technologies are activating the already politically active and passing up the disengaged and uninterested. A major challenge to digital democracy is the gulf between the United States, Scandinavia, and other early Internet adopters and the rest of the world. That gap is now so wide that at the turn of the century, more than three-quarters of the online community lived in the developed world. Internet use tracks the path of economic and technological development. But that situation could begin to change, Norris says. The Internet is in its technological adolescence. Costs of access are falling. And governments can make a difference if policymakers take the initiative. We have the historical patterns of other communication technologies to study. Norris examines theories of technological diffusion and points out that the American response to the Internet is more akin to the rapid spread of televisions and VCRs than the slower adoption of telephones and radios. American dominance could recede as Internet access grows worldwide. Contrary to what officials of the Bush Administration contend, Norris finds that the digital divide between rich and poor within the United States remains substantial. Europe mirrors that trend. In the long run, the Internet could become more accessible to the excluded: lower income families, minorities, and women. …

Quantitative Analysis of Culture Using Millions of Digitized Books

Abstract: L'article, publie dans Science, sur une des premieres utilisations analytiques de Google Books, fondee sur les n-grammes (Google Ngrams) We constructed a corpus of digitized texts containing about 4% of all books ever printed. Analysis of this corpus enables us to investigate cultural trends quantitatively. We survey the vast terrain of "culturomics", focusing on linguistic and cultural phenomena that were reflected in the English language between 1800 and 2000. We show how this approach can ...