Digital Skills and Readiness

Digital skills are competencies needed by individuals to navigate the internet. These include finding, evaluating, using, sharing and creating content using a computer. The American Library Association (ALA) defines digital literacy as “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.”

Digital skills are essential to function in today’s digital world, which prioritizes the internet as the platform for sharing information, distributing resources, education, quality of life services and civic participation. In fact, almost every career requires some basic digital skills. Including:

• Effective online information research
• Using email
• Navigating the internet safely
• Word processing, and creating and managing electronic documents 
• Using video conferencing and collaborative tools
• Basic device management like creating folders, connecting to the internet, installing software updates and keeping your device safe
• Using common tools and online applications for activities such as e-commerce, banking, telehealth, etc.

• Driveyourlearning.org
• GCFGlobal.org
• Google Digital Garage
• Digital Learn – Free courses to learn anything about computers
• Digital Literacy Curriculum for K-12
• Free Applied Digital Skills – Google for Education
• Live, Virtual Classes for Seniors