DIGLIT- a K-log for Documenting a Project on Digital Literacy- Case Study

1. DIGLIT- a K-log for Documenting a Project on Digital Literacy- Case Study Gabriela AVRAM gabriela.avram@go.ro Romania, AISTEDA University, Alba Iulia

2. Content • Background of the diglit K-log • The blogging concepts • Why we got there • Discovering weblogs • Advantages and… • Problems • Other Romanian bloggers • Conclusion diglit.blogspot.com

3. 1. Background of the diglit K-log • diglit evolved from the need to keep track of the activities developed and references used in the framework of an international educational program, • it gradually became a sort of meeting place for the community of practice created through this project. • Four organisations involved in providing adult education in the IT field started in 2001 to develop a Socrates-Grundtvig project titled European Citizen's Access to Digital Literacy. diglit.blogspot.com

4. The objectives The project aims at gathering information on best practices used in the partner organisations for the : • evaluation of adults' current needs and skills, • methods for promoting the individual's demand for long life learning, • teaching and learning methods&techniques • adjustment of the course curricula offer to the demands of various target groups, from unemployed graduates to people living in rural areas or retired people. • the skills certification methods The final aim = to get more people prepared for facing the requirements of the emerging Information Society. diglit.blogspot.com

5. The Partners Folkuniversitetet Lund, Sweden AISTEDA Alba-Iulia, Romania ATRIUM Research and Innovation, Geleen, The Netherlands Odense Tekniske Skole, Odense, Denmark diglit.blogspot.com

6. How does the partnership operate • Partners’ own activities • Project meetings (2 per year) • Staff exchanges (1 per year) • Joint activities • Creating products (reports, techniques, glossaries) • Evaluation activities diglit.blogspot.com

7. The timing • Officially, the project started in August 2001 • In February, April and June 2002– 2 project meetings and one staff exchange • Final product – a Joint Report on the situation of Digital Literacy in Denmark, the Netherlands, Romania and Sweden • Lot of work was done via a discussion list diglit@yahoogroups.com • The list was meant to become public after the end of the “technical” discussions • There’s also a web site dedicated to our project: www.diglit.go.ro diglit.blogspot.com

8. The 2nd year of the project • September 2002 – “discovery” of weblogs • First restructuring of the project’s site on the AISTEDA Intranet – using the weblog layout - posts ordered in reverse chronological order • October 2002 – PM in Odense, Denmark- discussion on weblogs, k-logs • The ideea of starting a k-log for the partnership’s new project- dedicated to the Portfolio Method diglit.blogspot.com

9. Questions from the partners • What’s a k-log? • What are the PROs? • How is it different from the website and from the discussion list? • Why not starting immediately? diglit.blogspot.com

10. 2. The blogging concepts • A weblog = a web site that is a “log of the web”, indicating a record that points to material available on the WWW. • A K-log (knowledge log) = a weblog created and maintained at work / or for purposes connected to a specific work. • An organisational weblog is a weblog run by an organisation, either public, or private -on the company’s intranet, for sharing information on various projects, products and so on. diglit.blogspot.com

11. The diglit weblog • A project weblog • We want to think of it as a knowledge log • It belongs to our community of practice • Started in February 2003 using Radio • Moved to Blogger.com in April 2003 http://diglit.blogspot.com diglit.blogspot.com

12. 3. Why we got here? During the development of the project, we faced many difficulties in: • keeping track of all the activities developed by the partners • retaining information on the digital literacy sources we found and on the studies carried on • improving the visibility of our project both inside and outside our organisations diglit.blogspot.com

13. Activities log • The need to keep an organization diary • In educational activities – people consider documenting as a burden • There is always useful information to remember in connection with past events. diglit.blogspot.com

14. Reference tracking • Summer of 2002 - each of the partners had to provide a contribution to the first year’s report on digital literacy. • The pieces were put together and the report had to be re-written from a holistic perspective • Each author used a lot of quotes, but eventually they were not able to track the initial sources of information anymore • For the second year’s report, we started to log the reference material diglit.blogspot.com

15. Visibility of the project • the other departments in the partners’ organizations were not aware of the project content and aims - lack of co-operation • the same situation in the relationship with the local community • all the efforts to improve the visibility of the project - perceived as isolated diglit.blogspot.com

16. 4. Discovering weblogs Phase I • weblogs as a good model for keeping track of the latest developments inside our project • the layout of the page, not the tool itself • own-built HTML pages dedicated to the project activities and linked to a calendar on the index page • information regarding the project - well organised and easy to access on our intranet • the content - in Romanian • intended as a tool for the Romanian team members and for the rest of staff in our organisation. diglit.blogspot.com

17. 4. Discovering weblogs Phase II • reviewing available shareware: • Radio from UserLand • Blogger from Pyra Labs • moved on the Internet • switched from Romanian to English, • categories: • references, • activities, • photos diglit.blogspot.com

18. 5. What’s good … The diglit K-log is • an organised manner to keep track of activities, ideas, references connected to the project • easy accessible to all the team members, and also to other people interested in the topic of digital literacy • anyone can contribute. diglit.blogspot.com

19. The activities log … is now very easy to maintain. • Every time one of the partner organisations arranges an event, a short note has to be posted on the weblog. • It can be detailed or improved later • all the team members, the staff working in their organisations and the grand public can find out about the latest developments. diglit.blogspot.com

20. Reference tracking • By posting a note on any reference discovered and recommended to the other members of the team - a vast repository of links on digital literacy • of great help at the time of report writing • for this second year of the project, the topics of the report are • Evaluation and Certification and • Innovative Methods for Teaching and Learning diglit.blogspot.com

21. Visibility of the project • There is a chance that the diglit K-log could improve the visibility of the project • Anyone who’s interested in the topic of Digital Literacy could read it regularly • Is it attractive enough? diglit.blogspot.com

22. The Benefits • it helps to develop a sense of the team – becoming a virtual meeting place for the team members and for outsiders interested in the same topics; • it is easy to search; • it provides a central repository for documents; • it provides better communication by creating a single point of contact; • it also creates a sense of ownership regarding the project’s achievements; • at the end of the project, the diglit K-log will also provide a record of the team accomplishments, making reporting easier. diglit.blogspot.com

23. 6. And what’s bad… • some technical difficulties; • problems with Radio licence purchasing; • difficulties in maintaining the K-log, from the content point of view. There are periods when apparently nothing happens, and others when the cited references and activities are abundant; • not all the team members have time to contribute, but, at least they claim they read it regularly; • we were not able yet to set an appropriate tone to the postings- it should sound more funny, more attractive; • no content guidelines were yet compiled, but because the contributors were by now only the project team members, it was not necessary. diglit.blogspot.com

24. 7.Are there any other Romanians blogging? • only two blogs in Romanian, and some other in English, written by Romanians living abroad. • The Romanian edition of PC-Magazine includes a paper on blogging – „15 minutes of fame for each of us” - (May 2003) diglit.blogspot.com

25. Romanian bloggers • mirelush învîrtecush- a Romanian girl working in Germany and writing about her work and her life there, but also about life in Romania • High school student passioned by PHP- it’s called php9.com weblog- the Paradise of a future PHP developer – the new version: diglit.blogspot.com

26. 8. Conclusion • Our project team started as would-be-bloggers • We started to enjoy using the diglit k-log • It could be contagious, but not for anyone • We imagined several possible uses in education, research, business during the years to come. diglit.blogspot.com

27. Invitation to the ECKM 2003 • THE 4th EUROPEAN CONFERENCEON KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT • Oriel College, Oxford University, UK18-19 September 2003 • Co-Conference Chairs :David Gurteen and Roy Williams • http://www.mcil.co.uk/2o-eckm2003-call-papers.htm • Deadline for abstracts: 31 May 2003 diglit.blogspot.com

28. Thank you! Read us at diglit.blogspot.com gabriela.avram@go.ro diglit.blogspot.com