Digital literacy: a review in the South Pacific

In this era of exponential prominence and adoption of technology, one needs to have the ability to find, evaluate, utilize, share and create ideas, responsibly and ethically, using Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools and technologies combined with the Internet. This emerging human attribute is known as digital literacy. Today, digital literacy is an essential component of everyone's personal and professional lives to survive and thrive in the digital world. The notion of advocating digital literacy around the world is leveraged on the shoulders of higher education institutes. The institutes are playing a pivotal role in mentoring the younger generation to be digitally literate so that they can contribute effectively towards an individual, societal and national development and progression. This same now applies to the South Pacific region as well, with its recent progressive growth of ICT and the dynamic use of digital technology. It can also be added that digital literacy and, by extension, digital fluency is more needed in developing countries, including the South Pacific region, as these countries rely heavily on ICTs for their economic survival, competition and progression. However, there is a dearth of baseline research on digital literacy in the South Pacific since the concept is still new and an emerging one in the region. A few works have been done on the components of digital literacy highlighted in this integrative literature review paper. The anecdotal research will elaborate on the concept of digital literacy, discuss its importance and impacts with major emphasis on the South Pacific, and provide a comprehensive review of digital literacy, its importance and its impact on higher education in the South Pacific