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Three terms are integral to the report:
Digital technologies
These include the diverse digital technologies available to young people such as
computers, the internet, mobile phones, video games and DVDs. At the time of the
survey, CD players and mp3 players/iPods were auditory media. But this is changing,
with mp3 players incorporating higher resolution screens to accommodate the visual
media associated with music and podcasts.
Digital literacy practices
Digital literacy practices are culturally and socially shaped ways of using, producing
and understanding information in multiple formats from a range of sources when it is
presented, often via the screens of digital technologies. Core digital literacy practices
include internet searching, hypertextual navigation, content evaluation and knowledge
assembly.
Cultural forms
Cultural forms are a general way used by the culture to represent human experience in
the world. Cultural forms define the space in which social and cultural practices are
enacted and constitute part of the means by which societies transmit communications
and through which communications can be understood. Examples in the context of the
internet include news, comedy and social networking websites.
The intersection between the three key terms
Although there is considerable knowledge about young people’s literacy practices
when they use digital technologies, there is still much to learn about the complex
connections between these practices and cultural forms. A central goal of the study
was to enhance knowledge about the relationship between cultural forms and literacy
practices in the context of the use of digital technologies.
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