Knowledge in the Information Society: New Skills for the Digital Economy

Technological progress is a driver of new skills. Over the past twenty years, many innovations have begun to be massively used, and the Internet has become a global phenomenon. The working environment is changing, and many activities become digital. Globally, networked computers are introduced into education, health and administration systems. The digital literate population is one of the main conditions that must be met for the digital society to operate successfully. Digital literacy represents one of the eight key competences for lifelong learning and development in a modern, global, information and digitised society. In this chapter, we describe digital literacy in the light of the development of the concept, with the focus on the latest research. We also present the definitions of digital literacy as a multidimensional and multilayer concept. These definitions often change by the advancement of technology. We point to the problem of measuring digital literacy and show the largest research results in this field. We have shown the digital compartment framework that the European Union is developing through the DigComp project. The part of this chapter is a preview of the digital competence framework developed by the European Union through the DigComp project. Finally, we stressed that Serbia is also aware of the process of digitisation and its importance to the economy and society. Unfortunately, the available data show that the level of digital literacy in Serbia is below the European average.