North Carolina Sets its Digital Skills Standards

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Round-Up for the Week of October 20-24, 2025

The North Carolina Department of Information Technology’s (NCDIT) Office of Digital Opportunity is defining what it means to be digitally prepared. Recognizing that digital access alone is not enough, NCDIT released its North Carolina Digital Skills Standards, a statewide framework that identifies the essential knowledge and abilities residents need to engage in civic, economic, and social life.

Together, NCDIT's six Digital Skills Standards outline the essential skills, knowledge and learning residents need to be fully engaged in digital life in North Carolina.

How the Six Standards Came Together

In fall 2024, the N.C. Department of Information Technology’s Office of Digital Opportunity partnered with the William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, part of North Carolina State University’s College of Education, to begin a landscape study of digital skills and literacy needs across the state.

As part of these efforts, researchers conducted interviews with several state agencies, including the North Carolina Department of Commerce, the Department of Public Instruction, the Department of Adult Correction, the North Carolina Assistive Technology Program, and the North Carolina Community College System. The team also engaged Digital Navigators and representatives from community-based organizations that provide digital skills training and digital navigation services to North Carolina residents.

Additionally, the team reviewed digital skills frameworks from other states and national organizations to identify common themes and promising practices. Drawing on this multi-faceted approach, the team developed a customized set of Digital Skills Standards tailored to the unique needs of North Carolina residents. At each stage of development, the team met with collaborators from throughout North Carolina to gather input and feedback. This collaborative process centered the voices and needs of North Carolina communities.

NCDIT outlines six Digital Skills Standards to help North Carolina residents master essential digital competencies. These standards are designed to incorporate communication, creation and privacy as they are increasingly expected in both formal and informal settings. Each Standard represents a broad area of knowledge, while the Skills included with each of the standards are the specific abilities required for mastery. While some skills are actionable, other skills may reflect attitudes, mindset or understandings. Each of the Digital Skills Standards includes a range of three to four Digital Skills.

1. Digital Identity

Digital Identity refers to the way your actions, creations, and interactions online shape how you are perceived in digital spaces. A digital identity includes everything from the content you create to the platforms you use, and understanding its impact helps ensure your online presence aligns with your personal values. By being intentional and ethical in your digital choices, you can manage your digital footprint and participate confidently in an evolving digital world.

The digital skills associated with Digital Identity are:

• Digital Profile: the ability to responsibly contribute and manage your online persona in the digital world. 
• Digital Self: The ability to understand that you are actively creating in the digital space.
• Digital Footprint Management: The ability to understand and manage your online data, activity, and other information trail to maintain a positive digital reputation.

2. Digital Wellbeing

As our lives become increasingly connected, understanding how your digital habits—such as screen time, social media use, and constant connectivity—affect your emotional balance, sleep, focus, and overall wellness is essential. Digital Wellbeing involves cultivating healthy routines, recognizing when technology use becomes harmful, and setting boundaries that preserve personal privacy while still fostering meaningful online interactions. Developing your Digital Wellbeing is critical to achieving a balanced, intentional relationship with technology in daily life.

Skills that apply to the Digital Wellbeing Standard are:

• Balanced Use of Technology: The ability to manage your life both online and offline in a balanced way by exercising self-control to manage screen-time, multitasking, and engagement with digital media and devices.
• Healthy Use of Technology: The ability to understand the benefits and risks of technology on your mental and physical health and to use technology while prioritizing overall well-being.
• Healthy Boundaries: The ability to handle with discretion all personal information shared online to protect your privacy and others’ privacy.

3. Digital Relationships

Digital Relationships involve building and maintaining respectful, meaningful connections in online spaces. This Standard includes communicating thoughtfully, managing online interactions, and creating a positive digital environment. It also requires understanding the impact of words and actions in virtual settings and fostering empathy, inclusion, and respect in all digital communication.

Digital Relationships-related skills include:

• Self Awareness: The ability to recognize and manage how your value system and digital competencies fit with your digital environment.
• Digital Empathy: The ability to be aware of, be sensitive to, and be supportive of your own and others’ feelings, needs, and concerns online.
• Digital Collaboration: The ability to use technology to effectively communicate and collaborate, including at a distance.
• Relationship Management: The ability to skillfully manage your online relationships through cooperation, conflict management, and persuasion.

4. Digital Safety

Creating safe and secure digital habits is essential for protecting personal information and maintaining privacy online. Digital security involves understanding how to manage privacy settings, avoid common risks, and make smart choices in various digital environments. Practicing digital safety helps individuals navigate the online world with greater confidence and awareness.

Digital Safety skills are:

• Internet Safety: The ability to detect, avoid and manage cyber threats to cloud based digital environments.
• Data and Device Protection: The ability to detect cyber threats (e.g., phishing, scams, malware) against personal data and devices, and to use suitable strategies and protection tools.
• Online Threat Awareness: The ability to detect cyber threats (e.g., phishing, scams, malware) against personal data and devices and to use suitable strategies and protection tools.
• Scam Awareness: The ability to identify, mitigate, and manage commercial or community cyber-risks online, such as organizational attempts to exploit individuals financially or through ideological persuasion (e.g., embedded marketing, online propaganda, and gambling).

5. Digital Reasoning

Navigating today’s digital world requires strong reasoning skills to interpret the vast amount of online information we encounter daily. Digital Reasoning involves the ability to find, analyze, and evaluate digital content with a critical eye, considering both accuracy and intent. This Standard supports ethical decision-making and responsible engagement with media, helping individuals distinguish fact from misinformation and form well-informed opinions.

The skills associated with Digital Reasoning are:

• Source Evaluation: The ability to find, organize, analyze, and evaluate media and information with critical reasoning.
• Misinformation Detection: The ability to identify, mitigate, and manage cyber-risks online related to content which is unintentionally incorrect or misleading.
• Disinformation Detection: The ability to identify and evaluate online information (text, graphics and videos) that have been created to cause harm.

6. Digital Futures

As technology continues to evolve rapidly, developing the skills needed to engage with new tools and platforms is essential. Digital Futures emphasizes the ability to adapt to emerging technologies, stay informed about trends, and think critically about their impact. This Standard supports lifelong learning and prepares individuals to navigate an ever-changing digital landscape with confidence and curiosity.

Digital Futures skills include:

• Digital Resilience: The ability to prepare for emerging technologies and adapt as the technological landscape changes through critically analyzing new tools and technologies to determine how they might improve everyday life.
• Data Management: The ability to understand how data is collected and used and how to analyze and apply data in meaningful ways to make informed decisions.
• Computational Thinking: The ability to solve problems by breaking complex ideas down into smaller parts, recognizing patterns that emerge, and evaluating these ideas to find new approaches through critical thinking.
• AI Awareness: The ability to recognize, evaluate, and engage with artificial intelligence or “AI” tools and systems in ways that are informed, ethical, and responsible.

A Digital Skills Starting Point

The North Carolina Digital Skills Standards represent an important next step in the state’s broader commitment to digital opportunities for all residents. The standards provide structure and clarity, but their success will depend on continued investment in local partnerships, adult education, and accessible, high-quality learning experiences for implementation across the state.

These published standards are also the starting point for developing Digital Skills courses for North Carolina residents. As a next step, an online learning course will be developed for all North Carolina residents to explore and build capacity in each of the six standards. Digital Navigators across the state will be trained to use these materials when working with residents across the state before they are fully launched in 2026. Organizations are encouraged to stay connected, share their experiences, and provide their feedback as the work of the North Carolina Digital Skills Standards continues to evolve.

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Oct 29––Verizon Policy Breakfast with FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty (Verizon)

Oct 30––43rd Annual Parker Lecture and Awards Ceremony (United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry)

Feb 3-5––Net Inclusion 2026 (National Digital Inclusion Alliance)

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