Notes from the May 4, 2016 class with Professor Renee Hobbs

1. Seminar on Digital Authorship
EDC534
Spring 2016
Professor Renee Hobbs

2. Digital Authorship
Synthesis in 12 Simple Sentences
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Spring 2016
Digital Authorship
Renee Hobbs
EDC 534

3. Creativity, Literacy & Learning
1. Human creativity is an essential part of the
cognitive, social, emotional, physical and moral
development of human beings across the entire
lifespan; it involves “going beyond the information
given”
2. Creativity is an inquiry process that requires
sensitivity to content, medium, form & audience
3. Critical analysis and creative production exist in a
dialectic relationship of mutual dependence

4. Ethical Dimensions of
Digital Authorship
4. Human creativity involves remix & synthesis as
people use, rework and manipulate others’ creative
expression as part of their own creative work
5. Copyright and fair use offer strong protections to
authors and users of creative content
6. When people use digital media as creators and
consumers, they become implicated in an ethical
relationship that includes both the subjects
depicted and the audiences who interpret the work

5. Contexts: Where and How
Composing Occurs
7. The practice of digital authorship as a literacy
pedagogy has a long history that includes
approaches developed by youth media
practitioners, English educators, and technology
integration specialists.
8. Through collaboration, learning about personal and
social identity is magnified

6. Contexts: Where and How
Composing Occurs
7. The dialectic between process and product affect
how & whether youth media works are
comprehensible to their audiences
8. The creative collaboration process involves a
complex set of power relationships among learners
9. Creative authorship activities are inevitably
inflected by the ideology and world view of the
educators and mentors who support this work.

7. Contexts: Where and How
Composing Occurs
10. Educators need to learn to be comfortable with
messy engagement as learners discover their own
power & autonomy as creative individuals
11. Risk-taking & transgression are important to the
development of self-efficacy & confidence in the
creative process
12. “Creating to learn” is a pedagogy of engagement
that activates critical thinking, collaboration,
creativity & communication skills to promote
lifelong learning

8. Renee’s Assumptions about Learning
A. Learners are engaged and self-directed, able to
make strategic choices in order to maximize all
available learning opportunities.
B. People learn best by making and doing things.
C. Reflection is an essential literacy component
that can be activated through social interaction
in a challenging and supportive community
where there are high levels of respect and trust.

9. The Experiment:
Open Network Learning
• Learning outside the walled garden builds
transferable skills that help people participate
in public, creative and collaborative endeavors
• Using social networking to select, organize,
create and evaluate content helps people
develop ideas and connect to people,
resources and tools in an open and
transparent way.

10. Our Technology Learning Curve
• Change is a constant: we are learning to learn for
a lifetime
• New digital technology tools are an essential
dimension of the work of information
professionals
• Peer learning is important for developing
technology fluency and digital media literacy
competencies. We informally serve as helpers,
coaches, mentors, colleagues, collaborators, and
critics. Each of these roles promotes learning.