Learning Literacies in a Digital Age (LLiDA)

1. Learning Literacies in a Digital Age (LLiDA) Helen Beetham Lou McGill Allison Littlejohn Small-scale JISC study Reporting end March 09

2. Scope and definitions • By ‘digital literacies’ we mean the range of practices that underpin effective learning in a digital age • We use the term ‘effective learning’ as characteristic of ‘skilled, digitally aware learners with the capacity to participate in learning using technologies of their own choosing’. • We use the term ‘digital age’ as a shorthand for technical, social, economic, cultural and educational contexts in which digital forms of information and communication predominate

3. Three-pronged approach • Review available evidence • Current research into literacies • Conceptual and competency frameworks relevant to UK HE and FE • The changing context and requirements for learning and literacy • Investigate current provision in UK HE and FE institutions • Institutional audits • Best practice exemplars • Test conclusions • Expert advisory group (institutional auditors, stakeholders) • Interviews with leading researchers and theorists

4. Reviewing the evidence

5. Key issues from research and theory • Multi-modality • text-based literacy is no longer enough • focus on ‘communicative competence’ across multiple domains • Socially situated: • contextual practices rather than individual skills • ‘Net generation’ a contested concept • from ‘rewired brains’ to ‘nothing new ‘ • Next-generation user skills (web 2.0) • do/don’t entail new forms of learning • for some learners, for some kinds of learning, for some of the time • Information skills vs knowledge practices • Poverty of information skills (high certainty) • Changing modes of knowledge and knowledge practice (uncertainty)

6. engaging with academic tasks engaging with digital tools slow change, cultural and institutional inhibitors rapid change, economic and techno-social drivers engaging with academic knowledge/ content competence frameworks information and media literacies ICT literacies academic literacies critical thinking problem solving reflection academic writing note-taking concept mapping time management analysis, synthesis evaluation creativity, innovation self-directed learning collaborative learning ICT skills web skills social networking using CMC using TELE using digital devices word processing using databases analysis tools assistive tech personalisation … searching and retrieving analysing, interpreting critiquing evaluating managing resources navigating info spaces content creation editing, repurposing enriching resources referencing sharing content

7. digital = ‘tools are changing really fast!”

8. literacy = ‘learning stays much the same!”

9. Current provision – the evidence

10. Current practice: early indications • Poor articulation of provision and support among central services • Low awareness of digital and learning literacy in departments (some exceptions) • Little understanding among students of how they will be expected to study and learn – even after induction • Over-confidence in information skills among students • Lack of confidence in ICT skills among staff • ?Digital disadvantage (cultural capital like any other) • ?clash of knowledge cultures (authority, ownership, media) • Emergence of new policy and practice frameworks • Pinch points: induction, information habits, assessment, plagiarism, use of personal technologies, collaboration

11. Institutional drivers for change (evolutionary) • Student expectations • Staff champions • Diverse student population • Changing technologies and digital practices • Employability agenda • External funding and policy drivers • Internal leadership and special initiatives • Other

12. consumerism demographic globalisation lifelong learning economic accreditation gaming technological skills, competences socialnetworks in(non)formal learning educational public policy employability funding social/environmental sustainability Future scenarios Supra-institutional drivers for change Current trends high/low demand for UK graduate skills Leicester, OU… collective/individual responsibility for ed. Educause Horizons TLRP retrenched/transformed teaching workforce OECD schools future of knowledge/disciplines Beyond Current Horizons

13. Paradigm-breaking scenarios? • Text-based practices of formal learning increasingly obsolete • Online reputation more valuable than formal accreditation: just-in-time, piecemeal, informal learning triumphs • Collapse of publishing and IP arrangements • Collapse in demand for UK-educated graduates • … • BUT little evidence for these We see little evidence that even highly-skilled digital networkers are learning informally through social communities in the deep and self-transforming way that is the aim of post-compulsory education Formal, post-compulsory institutions remain uniquely placed to support higher-level learning and knowledge practices

14. Conclusions (still to be tested!)

15. Institutions need to address: • The capacities that are taught for, supported and assessed: • Digital participation, production and enquiry • Multiple modes of knowing, multiple media, multiple communities • Self-management of learning, career and reputation • Creativity, innovation and agility • How these capacities are supported • Peer learning, informal learning, 360 degree support and review • Organisational upskilling (not ‘we teach u’) • Interdisciplinarity? Cross-contextual learning? Learner-generated contexts? • How these capacities are valued • Recognition and reward (staff and student) • Investment in literacies of the digital – cultural as well as financial Digital competence needs to saturate institutional practice Digital talent needs to be nurtured in teaching & research professions

16. JISC needs to address: • Upskilling of the community at large • or risk failing to embed outcomes and realise benefits • Development work must include consideration of how the resulting standards, services and technologies will be used • beyond the expert community • beyond their basic functionality • agilely and creatively • for life-enhancing purposes i.e. for deep learning, self-realisation, progress towards life goals Getting technology into the hands of learners is not enough to empower them

17. http://www.academy.gcal.ac.uk/llida/

18. Reflecting on the context and drivers for change • Please look at p3. (qu. 7.11) ‘drivers for change’ • Are there any other drivers at GCal we have not included? • Please rank the three you think are most important, in order of importance (i.e. 1 to 3)

19. http://www.academy.gcal.ac.uk/llida/

20. relatively stable aspects of the person attributes strategies skills access changeable and context-related aspects of the person literacies

21. attributes strategies Ensuring all learners have functional access to core technologies, services and devices; developing core literacies; building capacity to learn across the lifecourse. skills entitlementequality of access access literacy as common entitlement • a foundational knowledge or capability, such as reading, writing or numeracy, on which more specific skills depend • a cultural entitlement – a practice without which a learner is impoverished in relation to culturally valued knowledge

22. Enabling learners to access and integrate own technologies, services, and learning communities; supporting the development of socio-technical practices; supporting achievement of personal goals and learning journeys. enhancementexpression of difference attributes strategies skills access literacies as difference • communication – expressing how an individual relates to culturally significant communications in a variety of media • the need for practice – acquired through continued development and refinement in different contexts, rather than once-and-for-all mastery • a socially and culturally situated practice – often highly dependent on the context in which it is carried out • self-transformation - literacies (and their lack) have a lifelong, lifewide impact • an ongoing process which is never completed