Functional Internet Literacy: Required Cognitive Skills with Implications for Instruction

Abstract

Patterns of typical Internet use provide the basis for defining functional Internet literacy. Internet use commonly includes communication, information, recreation, and commercial activities. Technical competence with connectivity, security, and downloads is a prerequisite for using the Internet for such activities. Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive skills consists of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Such a hierarchy provides a structure by which to organize the intellectual requirements for effective online communication, information, recreation, and commercial activities, and the technical skills necessary to operate the equipment that mediates Internet use. Functional Internet literacy, conceptualized as a range of cognitive skills applied to common online activities, is best achieved in formal learning environments. The assessment of cognitive skill deficits associated with specific online activities targets instruction. Functional Internet literacy is not the ability to use a set of technical tools; rather, it is the ability to use a set of cognitive tools.