Measuring Digital Literacy
Date: 28 April 2017
Time: 9:00 – 11:00
Venue: Video Conference Centres in Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria
Presenters:
Krish Chetty (HSRC), Nozibelie Gcora (HSRC), Urvashi Aneja (ORF),
Vidisha Mishra (ORF), LIU Qigun (CIFI), LI Wenwei (CIFI), CHEN Fang (CIFI)
Presentations are available for download below:
Members of the T20 Task Force on Digitalisation present their Policy Briefs sent to the T20 Advisory Committee on the Digital Divide. The digital divide is a manifestation of exclusion, poverty and inequality and continues to be exacerbated due to the effects of unemployment, poorly functioning digital skilling programmes and socio-cultural norms in some economies often depriving women equal access to digital services.
To promote digital transformation, equal emphasis needs to be allocated to digital skills development as is to infrastructure development. To ensure digital training programmes are adequately managed, a standardized data collection strategy is required to measure an internationally accepted definition of Digital Literacy. This measurement must be defined by a dynamic definition of Digital Literacy responsive to the fluid needs of the digital economy and requires the introduction of a G20 standard-setting body informing a nationally representative data collection strategy.
Furthermore, the adopted standards which inform the data collection process must be cognizant of the evolving demands of employers. Measuring Digital Literacy is crucial especially amongst developing and emerging economies, as digital skills provide the poor a catalyst to break out of the cycle of poverty and empower themselves. A three-pronged digital skills strategy is required for developing countries: (1) Identify the skills required for employment (2) develop a holistic digital skills upliftment strategy, and (3) address the social and cultural norms through which these skills and systems are mediated.
The HSRC seminar series is funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The views and opinions expressed therein as well as findings and statements of the seminar series do not necessarily represent the views of DST.
Kindly RSVP by 26 April 2017
Cape Town : HSRC, 12th Floor, Plein Park Building (Opposite Revenue Office), Plein Street, Cape Town. Contact Jean Witten, Tel (021) 4668004, Fax (021) 461 0299, or JWitten@hsrc.ac.za
Durban: First floor HSRC board room, 750 Mary Thipe Street, Ntuthuko Junction, Pods 5 and 6, Cato Manor, Contact Ridhwaan Khan, Tel (031) 242 5400, cell: 083 788 2786 or RKhan@hsrc.ac.za , or Hlengiwe Zulu at e-mail HZulu@hsrc.ac.za
Pretoria : HSRC Video Conference, 1st floor HSRC Library Human Sciences Research Council, 134 Pretorius Street, Pretoria. Arlene Grossberg, Tel: (012) 302 2811, e-mail: acgrossberg@hsrc.ac.za
Streaming Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qf0HanpeCo