Digital
literacy (DL) has become a buzzword in the field of education over the last
twenty years. Since its inception in mainstream thought through the work of
Gilster (1997), where he put forward the notion of ‘literacy for the digital
age’, various competing definitions have emerged (Bawden 2008). Yet perhaps
because of the broadness of these varying notions of digital literacy, the
concept has remained for many teachers both vague and challenging. Anecdotal
evidence suggests that many teachers feel that digital content should form a
key part of their teaching but they are uncertain as to exactly how this
digital content can best be incorporated into their teaching and even exactly
what digital literacy means.

This
article examines the perceptions of language centre teachers as to what they
believe digital literacy to be, and explores the current practices of language
centre teachers in terms of their use of digital media. It also investigates to
what extent digital literacy has infiltrated curricula design and the
pedagogical approaches adopted by teachers. In all these areas the Jisc Digital
Literacy Statements[1]
from the teacher and curricula design perspectives were used as guiding
frameworks.  This research was carried
out as part of the Finelc 2digi project to assist in the development of the
digital literacy of language centre teachers in Finland by use of a structured
questionnaire distributed to all language centres in Finland. In this way a
picture of current practice was obtained, leading to informed digital literacy
strategy suggestions based on present and potential practices. The insights
gained from this research will hopefully have implications for both future
teaching and curricula design.

[1] https://www.jisc.ac.uk/full-guide/developing-digital-literacies