I met Doug Belshaw briefly in London a few weeks ago, and then Mark re-introduced us. Doug has been studying Digital Literacy (and in fact is defending his thesis in a few days — good luck Doug!) and works for JISC infoNet.
For a better understanding of what sorts of things Doug has been thinking about, check out this presentation:
View more presentations from Doug Belshaw
I’m especially given lots of food for thought starting at slide 18 — “the 8 elements” of digital literacy. Which of these apply to web literacy? What’s missing? Etc.
On three “ambiguity stages” of defining a “literacy”
- Generative ambiguity.
- “X” is like “Y”. These things have some things in common, which is obvious to those who know X and Y, and not obvious to those who don’t.
- Creative ambiguity. <– [web literacy seems to be mulling around here]
- Can explain the concept to someone else.
- Productive ambiguity.
- Nail bits down.
On how to better define the edges of literacy
- Idea: make up 3 people. Are they web literate or not? Make sure any definition sorts them properly.
- Ambiguous case: someone who’s very very technical but doesn’t have any web-social knowhow. Are they literate?
- Perhaps some sort of radar chart would be a good visualization.
- Minimal threshold to be “web literate” requires savviness in several areas.
On success metrics
- Need two elements:
- 1) Number of people in curriculum (+ completion)
- 2) User studies.
- “It unlocked the ability to do X for me.”
- Imagine a perfect, web literate world. How is it different from today? Go backwards.
Also, lots of other useful information in Doug’s other presentations which I’ll have to go scour now. 
Thanks for the kind words, Michelle.
It was great to talk to you and I shall be closely monitorinh your progress – keep up the good work!