For the final summative product, I will provide a detailed blog post that covers the three main questions I covered in assignment one and provide a deeper dive into each question. The three questions I covered in EDCI 136 are…

  1. What is digital literacy and why is it important? 
  2. How does digital literacy impact mental health positively? 
  3. What are the negative mental health consequences? 
  1. What is digital literacy and why is it important?

Digital literacy is defined as the ability to access, manage and understand information received online in a safe and educated manner. In an world that is moving towards technology as a central tool for communication, education and many other facets, it’s important to understand the risks of navigating an online world. For example, when accessing information online, it’s important to be able to evaluate the credibility of the digital information effectively to ensure the information you are accessing is true and not mixed with misinformation. By learning digital literacy skills it can help prevent you against the risks associated with communicating and learning online. This blog post section will cover the tools that can help you become digitally literate through the SIFT method, the Inquiry Process, and the effects of artificial intellegence.

Misinformation and Disinformation

One of the biggest risks associated with online learning is the influence of misinformation and disinformation. Mis/dis-information is a prominent issue with verification on the internet relating to the spreading and publication of false information. There is a growing concern with mis/dis-information through social media and the influence it can gave to spread false information to mass amounts of citizens. Misinformation refers to incorrect information that is not intended to be wrong, essentially, it’s information that is mistakenly incorrect. Disinformation is false information that is intentionally wrong and intended to manipulate and guide people/organizations in the wrong direction.

In our EDCI 136 class, Mike Caulfield spoke on misinformation and disinformation and the SIFT Method. The SIFT method by Caulfield is an evaluation method designed to analyze and educate yourself against mis/dis-information. The acronym SIFT, stands for Stop, Investigate the source, Find better Coverage and Trace claims/quotes/media to the original context.

Viastat, April 14th, 2025: https://www.viasat.com/news/latest-news/

Inquiry Process

The Inquiry is another method to help someone become digitally literate by knowing the importance of asking questions relating to the source you are reading. Jeff Hopkins spoke to our EDCI 136 class about the openness of students and the errors that students can make by lacking asking questions and inquiring about subjects on a deeper level. Although most of his lecture related to learning alternate topics while studying in university, his application of gaining knowledge in places where you may lack and the importance of inquiring about subjects on a deeper level can relate directly to digital literacy. For example, if you are reading about a topic that you had no prior information, it’s essential to know how to ask deeper probing questions to understand the topic and the sources of the information you are gathering.

Artificial intelligence and digital literacy

AI has created a greater demand for digital literacy skills in a positive light as well, as AI can provide tools helpful for students and professionals alike. For example, Lucas Wright spoke on generative A.I. which includes tools such as ChatGPT and it’s influence on day-to-day work. Wright showed the example of a custom GPT where you can upload different documents and customize the commands to the bot. One example showed was the email responder, in which the bot will summarize and respond to emails.

However, AI can also have negative effects that demand a better understanding of the effects it can have, specefically towards education. For example the paper by “Asian Journal of Distance Education”, focuses on the role of Artificial Intelligence and its role in education in the present and the future. This paper highlights that A.I. has made significant stride in completing tasks on behalf of educators and because of the lack of quality control, educators should evaluate how A.I. and people should collaborate in an educational setting.

2. How does digital literacy impact mental health positively? 

Sobel, Tamara, April 14, 2025: https://medialiteracynow.org/why-media-literacy-now-supports-digital-wellness-and-media-literacy-in-health-education/

Because so much of our time is spend communicating and working in a digital world, it’s important to highlight the positive effects that it can have relating to mental health. Benefits of online support depend heavily on a person’s ability to navigate digital spaces wisely. Digital literacy can help to shape these interactions to promote wellbeing and ensure a safe online enviorment. For example, social media platforms, such as Youtube, can provide people with a vast community to create, share, and watch others relating to an endless ammount of topics.

In the book by Alison Yung, titled “Youth Mental Health“, she speaks on how “e-health” and how education and allow you to have a positive influence when being online. For example, the internet provides so many resources relating to mental health support and education, that when accessed properly, can have a lasting positive impact. Yung mentions sights, such as the National Institute of Mental Health which provides education, resources, and community to those suffering with mental health issues (Yung, p. 126-128).

5 Practical ways teachers can encourage digital literacy in the classroom. (n.d.). https://vibe.us/ca/blog/digital-literacy/

In Nasulunds “The Future of mental health care“, they speak about the effects that a lack of digital literacy can have on an individual. For example, someone with limitied digital litercy skills is more vulnerable to misinformation, online hostility, and other issues when relating to online content, such as social media. Essentially, it highlights a growing need to support digital education alongside mental health care.

This short video by South Carolina ETV shows how citizens of all age are working to improve their digital literacy skills.

This video frames digital technologies in a positive way to help seniors fight dementia. By providing seniors with digital literacy skills it allows them to safely navigate their technologies to continue using them in a positve method.

#3 What are the Negative Mental Health Consequences

Although social media offers tools for connection, learning and peer support, it can create issue relating to mental health concerns. For individuals with poor mental health, platforms like Facebook, twitter and youtube can have negative effects and even make mental health worse when navigating these platforms

In the article by Curran, titled “The effectiveness of a digital media mental health literacy campaign“, they speak on how mental health can be improved in five areas:

  1. competition
  2. social media
  3. perfectionism
  4. loneliness and isolation
  5. independence

The five areas listed provide a structured list of how certain aspects of being online can influence your well being in different ways. For example, competition is a growing concern when relating to mental health. Because being online provides you access to vast ammounts of people, the ability to compare yourself to another creates unfair comparisons and competition. Comparisons to others online may not have fair implication because you are often not able to see the full story of how someone acheived something and the resources they has available, but you are just able to see the final product. By adressing digital literacy skills and having an understanding that what you see online isn’t necessarliy the full story, it can help prepare you against possible negative mental health effects in an online world.

In Hammonda’s article titled “Knowledge Management & E-Learning“, they adress how digital technologies will be a long lasting and influential tool and therefore, it requires people to be educated on how to navigate it. By understanding digital technologies it allows people to protect themselves against the negative mental health influences of technology. Hammonda speaks about the Digital Literacy Global Framework (DLGF), which essentially outlines the importance of digital literacy and provides tools to better understand the risks involved with digital technologies. Hammonda also speaks about the demand for more frameworks relating to digital literacy and its effects on mental health because digital technologies are developing faster and therefore the risks are too.

Citations:

Curran, T., Ito-Jaeger, S., Perez Vallejos, E., & Crawford, P. (2023). What’s up with everyone?’: The effectiveness of a digital media mental health literacy campaign for young people. Journal of Mental Health (Abingdon, England), 32(3), 612–618. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2023.2182412

Hammoda, B., & Foli, S. (2024). A digital competence framework for learners (DCFL): A conceptual framework for digital literacy. Knowledge Management & E-Learning, 16(3), 477–500. https://doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel.2024.16.022 

Naslund, J. A., Aschbrenner, K. A., Marsch, L. A., & Bartels, S. J. (2016). The future of mental health care: peer-to-peer support and social media. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 25(2), 113–122. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796015001067 

Yung, A. R. (2021). Youth mental health : approaches to emerging mental ill-health in young people (A. R. Yung, J. Cotter, & P. D. McGorry, Eds.; 1st ed.). Routledge.