Digital Literacies: Theory, Research and Practice | Recognizing digital literacies as a social practice, this course highlights the differentiated, situated, and enculturated ways in which learners use technology for diverse relational, informational, expressive, and recreational purposes. Beyond being a set of skills that support the needs of the knowledge economy, digital literacies are understood as the practices of assembling and interpreting linguistic and semiotic resources online, while negotiating platform designs, ideologies and cultures-of-use. Through the interplay of human and non-human interactants, technology mediates social interactions, transforming the social order, and reshaping the way we perform identities, maintain social networks, and produce and consume knowledge. At the same time, it enables new forms of colonialism, amplifying inequalities, automating biases and reproducing modes of exclusion. Addressing these issues, this course discusses the significance of both functional and critical digital literacies for learners to not only participate agentively in online spaces, but also reflect critically on their practices. By examining current theory and research on digital literacies, it illuminates the implications of these issues for language and
literacy learning and explores how digital literacies can contribute to a more equitable and inclusive future.