Digital Literacy among Student Community in Hisar District: A Study

Neera Bansal

Librarian

Fateh Chand College for Women, Hisar

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

Digital literacy is accepted as an essential tool for sustaining in today’s highly competitive marketplace. Government of India has also recognized the importance of digitally literate citizens and took initiatives in this direction. Digital literacy must be inseparable from other type of literacy. Higher education institutions have been responsible for generating an army of skilled and informed citizens. Hence, digital literacy assessment must be a regular feature in higher education institutions. In the ever changing society, Information Technology has become a critical tool for survival. The present study was undertaken to access digital literacy of the students of F.C.College for Women, Hisar. For the purpose of data collection, questionnaires were distributed among 280 students from Arts, Commerce and Science faculty. The findings reveal that a good percentage of students from commerce stream possess their own desktop, laptop and smartphones. 45.52 % students are familiar with E-mail whereas in the case of Twitter, Blog and Skype the figure is very low. The digital competence of students was tested by framing a few questions and the students of Arts faculty are not very confident in many operations. To improve the current picture, digital literacy skills must be imparted in every graduate because only then they can become a part of the knowledge society.