ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on the meaning of digital literacy in the context of professional Learning in education and social work. The relationship between emerging digital technologies and the evolution of new literacies has been widely studied (Knobel & Lankshear, 2014; Greenhow & Lewin, 2016; Jenkins, 2016) as has their impact on a range of professions. Two areas that are less explored are how digital literacies influence and disrupt service professions including social work and education and how professional Learning facilitates the integration of new digital technology into the workplace. I propose that understanding the literacies of new digital formats, while required for effective use, does not provide insight into the implications of these technologies for the professions. Yet professional Learning in education and in social work too often emphasises how to use the technologies at the expense of a deeper exploration of concepts and the potential to alter practice in positive but also in deeply troubling ways. The chapter explores these questions by distinguishing between operational, cultural and critical literacy (Brabazon, 2007; Krutka et al., 2020). In doing so it provides some reflections on how a deeper critical understanding of digital technology might be incorporated into professional Learning programs and the challenges such an approach presents.
The chapter opens with a discussion on why the ability to decode digital literacies is valuable to those working in the service professions. It argues that while professions that value face-to-face communication such as social work and education have their own specialised and inclusive literacies, to not engage with these evolving literacies is to risk being cut out of conversations that have significant socio-political and ethical implications. Over the last decade, technology has increasingly enabled sophisticated use of learning metrics with too little focus on an individual’s agency (Halverson & Smith, 2009) and with the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence systems such as facial recognition this trend is set to expand in ways that are likely intrusive in both fields. For example, the first facial recognition software, SAFR developed by RealNetworks was recently trialled in a Seattle school (Lerman, 2018). The assumptions of this ‘safety’ solution are couched in conceptual language that is often obscure to those directly affected and which raise complex social and ethical questions.
I contend that the benefits of reflective practice in these ethically challenging times are more critical than ever. Yet this requires the on-going ability of practitioners to be able to identify and to have a timely and sophisticated conceptual grounding in how particular emerging technologies could be operationalised within their field of practice and how they can respond and argue on professional and ethical grounds. I also focus on the need for professional Learning to prepare and support practitioners throughout their career to interpret and critically reflect on the literacies that accompany new technologies as they emerge.
