Digital Skills Week posters and videos

Digital proficiency is the ability you have to use digital devices, applications, software and services. How quickly do you pick up new tools and skills? Do you cope when technology doesn't work first time, do you explore what it can do, and can you work things out for yourself?

Proficiency concerns digital 'mindset' more than the use of specific tools, but of course using different applications helps to develop your confidence and range.

Digital identity management is how you develop and project a digital identity - or several identities - and how you manage your digital reputation. Most of us have identities distributed across a range of platforms and media. Do you keep these separate, or aim to make them work together? How do you manage assets such as profiles, records of achievement, contacts and networks to achieve your personal goals?

Digital wellbeing is how you stay safe and look after yourself and others in digital settings. Do you use your digital access to help you achieve what you want in life, nurture your friendships and stay well? Do you know how to manage digital stress, distraction and information overload? A first step is to recognise online bullying, scam, and fake news.

But beyond that, we need to be aware of all the ways that digital tools can impact on our lives and on people around us.

Information literacy is your ability to find, evaluate, organise and share information, whether you're using it for academic or professional purposes, or as a learner. Information specialists recommend we're creative in how we find information, but critical in how we judge its value and credibility. Everyone in education needs a broad understanding of information-based rules such as copyright, referencing, and avoiding plagiarism.

Media literacy covers all the ways you receive and respond to messages in digital media, including text, graphics, video, animations, audio, and media such as websites, simulations and games. Most of us also share and produce messages of our own, and that means we need to understand issues such as audience, accessibility, user design and impact. As with information, media users need to ask why messages are designed as they are, how they affect us - and particularly how difference media can be used for learning.

Data literacy is how you handle data as a special form of information. Data is used in diverse ways in education, from monitoring your grades, to generating new theories. Our own data can also be used, sometimes in ways we might not want. We all need a basic understanding of legal, ethical and security issues when we handle data, and good habits with our own personal data security.

Digital communication is any communications using digital media and networks. The ability to communicate well includes using different channels such as video and instant messaging, photo sharing and emails.  But it also includes and awareness of different audience, different rules and requirement, and the changing boundaries between public and private communication.

Digital collaboration is the ability to take part in digital teams and working groups to meet specific goals, using share tools and media. Even when you're working with other students who see you every day, digital collaboration can be an efficient way to produce shared materials, to play and run a project, or to work effectively across various boundaries and differences.

Digital participation means take part in a more open-minded way than collaboration, over a longer time, and in a range of different settings. This is how you join, facilitate and build digital networks. Through taking part in shared social and cultural life through digital services, you can build contacts and share ideas. Digital participation should always be safe and respectful.

Digital creation is a term we use to cover all kinds of digital production, from coding new apps to making digital images and websites. Digital creatives have special techniques when it comes to digital production, but we all create digital artefacts as a side effect of thinking and participating in a digital world. Mind maps, digital sketches, Facebook pages, even selfies can be seen as expressions of digital creativity.

Digital problem-solving is your ability to solve problems and answer questions, either using digital evidence, or using digital environments (such as simulations and virtual worlds) to test out solutions. Digital scholars have many specialist digital methods available, depending on their research area, but all of us take part in digital problem solving every day.

Digital innovation describes your willingness to try new practices with digital technology, take calculated risks and look for new solutions. As a learner, it may seem that you don't have much opportunity to innovate, but in fact you're always trying out new things, and sometimes, what you discover might be new for other people as well.

Digital learning activities are the different ways you learn in digital spaces and with digital media. These might include participating online, using a wide range of digital media, recording and showcasing your learning, and producing digital outcomes for assessment. Effective digital learners are willing to try new approaches, but know what works for them and can be critical of technology when it is used inappropriately.

Digital skills for work are all of your digital capabilities as they support your chosen work. Most workplaces have their own digital systems and practices: what matters is that you're able to learn them. Digital employability also covers seeks and securing work and using your digital access to progress in your chosen career, by upgrading your qualifications or by networking and showcasing our achievements.