Developing our digital literacies: the imperative

Developing our digital literacies: the imperative Dr. Rhona Sharpe Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development Changing the Learning Landscape, 29 May 2013

What is digital literacy? • How do people develop their digital literacies? • What does it mean to be a digitally literate staff and educational developer? • Why should we care?

Is she digitally literate?

Is he digitally literate?

Definitions: literacy “The use of the term literacy implies a broader form of education about media that is not restricted to mechanical skills or narrow forms of functional competence. It suggests a more rounded, humanistic conception’ (Buckingham, 2007)

‘Literacy’ implies socially and culturally situated practices, often highly dependent on the context in which they are carried out. Beetham & Oliver (2010)

At Oxford Brookes University, digital and information literacy is defined as .. The functional access, skills and practices necessary to become a confident, agile adopter of a range of technologies for personal, academic and professional use https://wiki.brookes.ac.uk/display/slidacases/Oxford+Brookes

I’m not afraid to use it … I guess that’s the difference. I’m not afraid to just go explore it

Confident, agile adopters The staff are asking us to do things like, "how do we integrate Twitter with this?" and, okay, I don't know, gimme five minutes and I'll go and find out. And that's how I've always worked.… I will go away and make myself an expert in that field and then come back and pass on that knowledge, enable other people to go and use that software (InstePPePioneer 2, JISC cluster group Sep 2012).

dlf.brookesblogs.net

Socially and culturally situated practices are often highly dependent on context

Socially and culturally situated practices are often highly dependent on context • Personalised uses of technology, • developed through interactions with others, • in response to some need. Littlejohn, Beetham & McGill (forthcoming)

Encourage personalised uses of technology…e.g. OU Learning Design Toolswww.open.ac.uk/blogs/OULDI/

Provide ways of sharing and networking …e.g. lamscommunity.orgDalziel (20130

Contextualising support for the disciplines e.g. mapping the graduate attributes

What does it mean to be digitally literate in . . .? Health and life sciences Use online databases to conduct systematic reviews. Analyse data in Excel to produce scientific reports. Maintain electronic patient care records appropriately. Evaluate the role of assistive technologies in advancing health and social care practice.

What does it mean to be digitally literate in . . .? Use relevant software to solve complex automotive engineering problems. Work with models that simulate the behaviour of the physical world. Produce high quality output using the latest software tools. Technology and engineering

Ferrari, A. (2012) Digital competence in practice: an analysis of frameworks. JRC Technical Report. EU.

Contextualising digital literacy for our own discipline: some ideas • Facilitation of online communities

Contextualising digital literacy for our own discipline: some ideas • Facilitation of online communities • Working in an open academic environment Roberts, G. (2013)

Contextualising digital literacy for our own discipline: some ideas • Facilitation of online communities • Working in an open academic environment • Productive use of learning design tools Conole, G. (2013)

Contextualising digital literacy for our own discipline: some ideas • Facilitation of online communities • Working in an open academic environment • Productive use of learning design tools • Digital scholarship

Why should we care? • People who will thrive in the digital age will need the confidence and agility to respond to complex and changing circumstance.

Why should we care? • People who will thrive in the digital age will need the confidence and agility to respond to complex and changing circumstance. • The powerful influence of context means that we, the teachers, should take the lead in developing our learners and ourselves.

Why should we care? • People who will thrive in the digital age will need the confidence and agility to respond to complex and changing circumstance. • The powerful influence of context means that we, the teachers, should take the lead in developing our learners and ourselves. • With our expertise in learner development, we should be at the forefront of providing opportunities for people to develop and share their personal practices for using technology.

References Beetham, H. & Oliver, M. (2010) The changing practices of knowledge and learning, in R. Sharpe, H. Beetham & S. de Freitas, Rethinking Learning for a Digital Age, Routledge. London & New York. Benfield, G. (2012) InstePP Evaluation report. Oxford Brookes Unversity. Oxford. Buckingham, D. (2007) Beyond Technology: Children’s learning in the age of digital media. Polity Press. Cambridge. Conole, G. (2013) Tools and resources to guide practice in H.Beetham & R.Sharpe(eds) Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age. 2nd Ed. Routledge. London and New York. Dalziel, J. (2013) The LAMS Community: Building communities of designers, in H.Beetham & R.Sharpe (eds) Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age. 2nd Ed. Routledge. London and New York. Littlejohn, A., Beetham, H. & McGill, L. (forthcoming) Learning at the digital frontier: a review of digital literacies in theory and practice. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. Roberts, G. (2013) OOCs for the rest of us. Presentation to ELESIG Symposium, March 2013. Available at elesig.net Weller, M. (2011) The digital scholar: how technology is transforming scholarly practice. Bloomsbury. London.

Developing our digital literacies: the imperative