Lampros K. Stergioulas Brunel University, UK

1. The pursuit of Digital Literacy and e-Inclusion in Schools: Curriculum Development and Teacher Education Lampros K. Stergioulas Brunel University, UK

2. The challenge of Digital Literacy • “Pupils must be digitally literate by the time they have left school and teachers should be trained so that they can adapt their curriculum to new technologies” (EC, 2002a:13) • “ICT enriches the curriculum in at least two fundamental ways. The first is as an enhancement across almost every subject and activity…(and) the second, yet more radical, is the pursuit of digital literacy in its own right, whereby the individual becomes empowered as a discriminating and autonomous learner” (OECD, 2001:36) • One of the established priorities of the European Commission is to “counteract the digital divide” by taking action towards “understanding digital literacy” and “promoting digital literacy” (EC, 2002b:14) • A range of other EU publications (EC, 2001; EC, 2002b) put forward a number of proposals, including the establishment and implementation of a pan-European digital literacy curriculum (EC, 2004:4; Tornero, 2004).

3. A Common Framework? • What does “digital literacy” mean? • What is the relationship between digital literacy and other forms of information and communication literacies? • What is the relationship between digital literacy and the digital divide? • Through what kind of actions and strategies could we foster the development of a common European rationale for the pursuit of digital literacy in compulsory education?

4. Digital Literacy: The history • 1990s: The ability to comprehend “hypertext” structure and understand “multimedia” texts. • 1997: “Digital Literacy” by Paul Gilster “Digital Literacy is the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide variety of sources when it is presented via computers“

5. Digital Literacy: The history Late 1990s: The multi-literacies period

6. Digital Literacy: The history • OECD/CERI, 2001: Digital Literacy is used interchangeably with ICT Literacy. • OECD/CERI, 2003: Programme for International Student Assessment – Feasibility Study for the PISA ICT Literacy Assessment • “ICT literacy is the interest, attitude, and ability of individualsto appropriately use digital technology and communicationtools to access, manage, integrate, and evaluate information,construct new knowledge, and communicate with others inorder to participate effectively in society”

7. Digital Literacy: The history • EU, 2004: “Promoting Digital Literacy” – Final Report, EAC/76/03 • Digital literacy is treated as synonymous to media literacy • Project DigEuLit, 2005: “The development of a European Framework for Digital Literacy” • “Digital Literacy is the awareness, attitude and ability of individuals to appropriately use digital tools and facilities to identify, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, analyse and synthesize digital resources, construct new knowledge, create media expressions, and communicate with others, in the context of specific life situations, in order to enable constructive social action; and to reflect upon this process.

8. Digital Literacy: Basic characteristics • Refers not only to the skills of operating and using a wide range of information and communication technological environments (hardware devices and software platforms), but also to the processes of “reading” and “understanding” the contents of these technological environments, as well as the processes of “creating” and “writing” such contents (information, services, resources, etc) • Even though is often described in comparison to the umbrella term “ICT literacy”, which is broader than both computer and network literacy, it appears to contain it.

9. Digital Literacy: Basic characteristics • DL is indisputably related to media literacy, because it addresses social, cultural, human and ethical issues related to digital citizenship, emphasizes the influential role of digital mass media of expression and considers their attributes, merits and limitations. • The contemporary endorsement of digital literacy is perceived as an act in response to the emergence and broadening of the “digital divide”, a complex phenomenon involving a web of inter-related cultural and socio-economic factors.

10. Digital Divide: a concept in permanent flux • Disparities in technology access between developed and developing nations • Disparities in technology access within individual countries Perceived as a dichotomous gap between the “haves” and the “have nots”, that could be counteracted through the provision of universal access to technology for all.

11. Digital Divide: a concept in permanent flux Contemporary notions suggest that: • Emphasis on the access factor alone is rather deterministic • Both the “digital divide” and “access to technology” are hierarchical and not dichotomous concepts • The digital divide is simultaneously a projection and an extension of the “social exclusion phenomenon” • Quality of use of digital technology is dependent on the “economic”, “cultural” and “social capital” that individuals possess and project in their engagement with technology

12. Digital literacy – Digital divide • Digital literacy is a hierarchical concept, existing in a continuum • Digital literacy is relative (may take different meanings in different cultural and socio-economic contexts) • Digital literacy development targets contemporary socio-economic problems and prevailing educational conditions involving notions of power, dominant ideology and hegemonic culture.

13. Factors and Indicators of Digital Literacy in Schools • ACCESS • - access to computers at school • - Ownership of digital equipment and resources at home • - ….

14. Factors and Indicators of Digital Literacy in Schools • RELEVANCE • - “digital incentives” for life after schooling • - children’s “lifestyle choices” • - motivation, interest and attitude towards digital culture • - perceptions of usefulness and value of digital technology in everyday life

15. Factors and Indicators of Digital Literacy in Schools • SOCIAL RESOURCE NETWORKS • - pupils’ and teachers’ membership to different social communities • - differentiated forms of culture

16. Factors and Indicators: Some pertinent questions • Could the school as a significant socialization and enculturation agent address effectively factors related to issues of relevanceand social networks and empower pupils and teachers to participate in digital practice, not only as consumers of digital dominant culture but also as producers and communicators of their own culture? • What may be the institutional, organizational and educational changes that would enable schools to play such a socially responsible and significant role and help us all in keeping warm the hope of an inclusive society?

17. A Pan-European Digital Literacy Framework? • Should address aspects of relevance and relativity, by: • Being flexible enough and adaptive to the differentiated conditions of the community in which it is to be implemented. • Being unified, but only in terms of a central core of methodologies and values • Investing on project-based, child-centered, inclusive, experiential, thematic and integrated approaches to teaching and learning • Should address established socio-economic and cultural problems and foster the empowerment of social –resource networks by: • Involving participatory, bottom – up approaches to curriculum development • Being re-constructionist, in the sense that it should educate by fostering exploration, understanding, reflection and analysis of social problems, events and issues, and by stressing social responsibility and action-praxis towards changing the conditions that create antidemocratic and inhuman practices in school and in society.

18. A Framework development process • The creation and development of a European-wide “network of networks” of academics, researchers and educational representatives. • Collect, review and analyze the contents of established and implemented educational frameworks and/or curricula related to digital literacy • Collect, review and analyze the contextual and content characteristics of national teacher training and teacher education actions related to the development of digital literacy • Identify critical factors, indicators and conditions that may promote or hinder the pursuit of digital literacy in compulsory education • On the basis of the previous knowledge, start building consensus around a central designing core of methodologies and values

19. National Networks • Main aim:The analysis of the status of digital literacy in individual EU member countries and the development of educational policy recommendations • Synthesis/composition: (a) Academic community members, (b) Teaching community members, (c) Parent and pupil community members, and (d) educational authority representatives • Activities: (a) Collection and analysis of national primary data and information, (b) Review and analysis of the national theoretical and research educational literature, and (c) Development and then negotiation, modification and validation of a national report on digital literacy

20. Cross-country Networks • Main Aim: The identification of generalizable definitional aspects and generalizable goals and contents for digital literacy development in compulsory education, as well as the development and establishment of cross-country educational policy recommendations at EU level • Synthesis/Composition: (a) Participants of national networks, and (b) Representatives of other cross-country networks, European and/or international organizations activated in the area of digital literacy • Activities: (a) Comparative analysis of individual country national reports, (β) Review and analysis of research and educational literature of an international status, and (c) Development and then negotiation, modification and validation of cross-country • Organization of activities: Two vertical axes, four horizontal thematic agendas

21. Cross-country Networks • Vertical areas of interest: • Educational Frameworks –Curricula for compulsory education • Teacher Training initiatives and Teacher Education programmes of study • Horizontal thematic areas of study: • Conceptualizations of digital literacy: Theoretical Frameworks - National Curricula • The pursuit of digital literacy: Quantitative indicators and qualitative factors affecting it • Acquiring digital literacy: Action roadmaps and didactical scenarios • Digital Literacy and Social inclusion: Processes of participatory and re-constructionist framework development

22. Barriers to overcome • Differences in the way “digital literacy” is being defined, interpreted and understood • The multiple cultural, social and economical gaps and divides existing between countries and within the same country • The difficulty in cooperating and communicating in the context of cross-national and cross-cultural networks (heterogeneous landscape of regulation, legacy/tradition and language/semantics) • The problematic issue of achieving access to primary -source data and, in particular comparable data • The necessary obstacles of establishing and implementing framework building processes of a participatory nature and a bottom-up direction

23. …and most importantly • The promotion of a “new ethos” towards the process of designing and implementing educational policy and the endorsement of the idea of syn-praxis and unity within divergence, which: • Requires radical transformative changes in the processes of designing and developing the aims, the contents and the organization of the process of education • Disputes the structures, the regulatory settings and the contents of a centralized educational establishment

24. Are we then chasing after a utopian dream? Digital Literacy Networkwww.estart-net.org

25. BRUN Digital Literacy Network forPrimary & Lower Secondary (K-9) Education TKK Dipoli Tilu MII MENON CSI INT AUTH ITD NCSR