This concept map presents a personal theory of learning organized as three concentric spheres, each set on its own depth plane. Its purpose is to argue that critical digital literacy (CDL) is not a flat checklist of competencies but a layered synthesis, where observable digital skills rest on cognitive and constructivist foundations and are held together by intellectual character.
The outer sphere gathers foundational learning theory. On the constructivist side, it draws on the zone of proximal development and scaffolding (Wertsch, 1985) and equilibration (Fosnot, 2005). On the social cognitive side, it draws on self-regulated learning and reciprocal determinism (Bandura, 2011). These constructs share a common commitment: they prioritize the internal processes of the learning agent, how knowledge is constructed, regulated, and reorganized, rather than the observable behaviors of an actor. Placing them on the outermost plane signals that they are the theoretical ground from which everything else grows.
The middle sphere translates that ground into CDL skills and abilities: digital self-determination, fluency with digital affordances and tools, semiotic awareness, and digital engagement. Rather than treating CDL as a set list of behaviors (Hauck, 2025; Lo et al., 2024), the map reframes each competency as a cognitive process. Digital self-determination extends self-determination theory into digital spaces, where the agent navigates, constructs, and withdraws as an end in itself (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Semiotic awareness applies constructivist meaning-making (Wertsch, 1985) to the interpretation of digital signs.
The inner core holds intellectual virtues: conscientiousness, honesty, creativity, courage, and propriety, revolving around a central orb. This draws on virtue epistemology, where excellence of character is epistemologically fundamental to knowing (Zagzebski, 1996; Code, 1987; Pritchard, 2018). Zagzebski’s notion of reliable success, virtue as disposition coupled with ability, explains why the virtues sit at the center: they are what allow a skill to be exercised well rather than by luck.
The integration is intentional. The map argues that a digital skill is only meaningful when it is enacted through virtue and grounded in theory. Fluency without conscientiousness produces careless tool use; engagement without honesty produces performative participation. By nesting the spheres, the map claims that CDL synthesis requires all three layers acting together, not in isolation. Propriety is included as a personal addition drawn from my school’s motto, which I flag as an inference rather than an established element of the literature.
The concept map is best read as an argument rather than a settled taxonomy: a proposal that critical digital literacy is most coherent when observable skill, cognitive process, and intellectual character are understood as one nested system.