The Importance of Digital Fluency in Terms of Disruptive and Emerging Technologies

Background

Today's technological developments have made digital tools an indispensable element of our lives. Digital tools that radically change the way we communicate carry us into a future where machines communicate with each other. Digitization brings together individuals, cities, countries and continents to increase individual and social potential. It leads us to live in a more complex and more uncertain world (OECD, 2018). It is stated that specialization has become a special form of abstraction by detaching information from its context (Morin, 2003). Specialization isolates knowledge takes it out of context and makes a blackout between concrete events. We can adapt this to information technologies with the following example: Instead of expecting an accountant to use word processor and spreadsheet programs at a level as competent as expert software developers, he will be able to facilitate his work and solve complex problems in the context, time and appropriate purposes, when necessary. It makes more sense to expect it to use easily.

Each new technology makes it compulsory to have different skills and knowledge. For example; mobile devices must be used at a basic level when it is necessary to work with virtual reality technologies. If it is desired to develop original content with these technologies, three-dimensional modeling is among the skills that should be known. An individual who is an expert in three-dimensional modeling can transfer this knowledge for the use of different technologies and can also use it with, for example, three-dimensional printers. Computer programming and computational thinking transform society and encourage innovation, entrepreneurship, teamwork and creative thinking. Having only reading, writing and arithmetic skills does not seem sufficient for the individual in developing economies. Computer science determines the meaning of being a world citizen and being literate in the 21st century (Harel, 2016). In this context, the concept of digital literacy stands out as an important competence area.