Information and digital literacy: a look at the development of these skills in students

Abstract

Introduction. Informational and digital literacy integrates multiple forms and languages of communication through instruments, with potentialities unknown until recently; That is why there is an urgent need to offer university students solid training in digital skills to develop important skills for their professional future. Objective. To identify the informational and digital competences of the students of the Literature career of the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Educational Sciences, University of Guayaquil. Methodology. It was developed under a quantitative approach, with a descriptive, exploratory methodology, with a field design, not experimental. The population was 120 students. For data collection, the survey technique was used, and a questionnaire was applied as an instrument, sent to the participants through Google Forms. Results. Regarding the dimension: information, most students have high skills to easily locate information, retrieve it and store digital information, with percentages between 80% and 80.83%. In relation to the dimension: security, it was found that they have a high competence in these issues; however, they showed few skills for creating digital content; and, for problem solving. Conclusion. Informational and digital skills constitute an important element to be considered as part of the training of future professionals of all careers. It is recommended to generate and apply didactic strategies aimed at the development of skills related to participation in communities and networks; creation and editing of new content, realization of digital artistic productions, multimedia content and programming, and identification of problems in digital resources.