Beyond literacy panics: Digital literacy and educational optimism

Public debate over education has been beset in recent years by highly charged 'literacy wars' between conservatives and progressives, casting a pall of gloom over the direction of education generally. This article argues that the theme of 'digital literacy' has a potential to shift these debates, opening new possibilities for educational optimism. It draws attention first to the discipline involved in the use of digital media, challenging easy assumptions that such discipline belongs only to print; second, to cognitive processes over content or values, significantly altering the way we think about the social significance of media; and third, to the production end of media use, neatly sidestepping tired debates over media consumption.