On the 256th day of the year, an unofficial, but already traditional holiday is celebrated in many countries of the world - the programmer's day. The number 256 is symbolic for programmers, it corresponds to the amount of numbers that can be represented using one 8-bit byte. In leap year 2020, the 256th day fell on September 12. On this day, Francisk Skorina Gomel State University became a regional platform for holding a large-scale educational action "All-Russian Dictation on Information Technologies". An IT dictation is a set of tasks of varying difficulty levels: from the basics of working with computer technology and skills in using Internet resources to knowledge in topics such as blockchain and the Internet of Things. The tasks were divided according to the level of difficulty and into the following categories: "Fundamentals of Computer Literacy"; "Use of digital devices"; "Search for information"; "Digital ways and means of communication"; Digital Content Production; "Critical perception of information"; "Information Security"; "End-to-end technologies".
Within the walls of GSU, students, undergraduates, and the representatives of Gomel enterprises and organizations, as well as everyone interested, took part in the IT dictation in an online format on the website http://ит-диктант.рф.
This action made it possible to obtain an independent assessment of the level of digital literacy of the population. The relevance of such events lies in drawing attention to the importance of computer knowledge both in professional activity and in everyday life. Citizens of Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, USA, Great Britain, France, Finland, and the Netherlands, were interested in checking their level of digital literacy.
