Slides from UCL Digital Literacy SIG 7th Jan 2016

1. Digital Literacy:
Fad or Fundamental?
UCL Digital Literacy Symposium | 7 January 2016
Helen Beetham
#digilitUCL

2. ‘Digital’ as a term in UK HE
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Com
putersin
Teaching
Initiative
Teaching
&
Learning
TechnologyProg
Networked
Learning
JISC
e-learning
program
m
e
Benchm
arking
e-Learning
Technology-Enhanced
Learning
Developing
DigitalLiteracies
Changing
Learning
Landscapes
Digitalstudent
Digitalcapabilities

3. Before digital literacy there was...
Learning Literacies for a Digital Age
Study (2009-10)
‣ working definition
‣ development pyramid
‣ 7-element framework
those capabilities that
allow an individual to
thrive (live, learn and
work) in a digital society
“
”

4. access
situated
practices
functional
skills
identity:
attributes
Learning Literacies for a Digital Age
study (2009-10)
‣ working definition
‣ development pyramid
‣ 7-element framework I am...
I do...
I can...
I have...
To aspire beyond functional skills

5. To reach beyond the specialists
Learning Literacies for a Digital Age
study (2009-10)
‣ working definition
‣ development pyramid
‣ 7-element framework

6. ‣ a foundational
knowledge or capability or
set of practices
‣ a cultural entitlement
‣ meaning-making
‣ continuously developed
‣ socially and culturally
situated/specific
‣ an aspect of identity
‣ new forms of
knowledge, know-
how, practice,
method,
pedagogy,
representation...
‣ the changing
experiences and
expectations of
learners
‘Digital’
‘Literacy’
To generate critical debate

7. How did that go?
‣ Mainstream
‣ Research and development funding
‣ Leadership/management agenda
‣ QAA Review topic
‣ New/revised questions in NSS/Student Engagement:
other surveys and KPIs
‣Radical? Critical? Scholarly? Embedded?

8. Sherry Turkle meets David Mitchell
Radio 4 in Four

9. Less focused, self-disciplined, persevering,
able to cope with boredom...
iflscience.com

10. The Internet is rewiring our brains
‘Technologies are infantilising
the brain into the state
of small children who ... have
a small attention span and
who live for the moment.’
Daily Mail (2010)
‘Popularized representations
of neuroplasticity obscure the
complicated conceptual and
ontological entanglement
between natural, social,and
cultural realms ...’ Choudhury
and McKinney (2013).

11. How fundamental are these changes?
‘Writing is a technology that
restructures thought.’
For example: linear rather
than cyclical time; spatial/
visual as well as time-based/
aural; reproducible;
transmissible; separable from
the embodied moment;
enabling ‘inward turn of ego-
consciousness’ or reflexivity;
loss of sensory richness...
Walter Ong:
Orality and Literacy

12. ...brought about by networked digital devices?
‣ screen-based interface
‣ highly visual
‣ data rather than text(s)
‣ reconfigurable, multiple
‣ access virtually cost free,
virtually simultaneous
‣ constant recording
‣ places and events are porous: here and not-here
‣ information/communication, production/consumption,
tools/texts constantly crossing into one another
How fundamental are the changes...

13. content
theory method
practice
How fundamental are the changes in the
life of the University?

14. The real digital innovations will depend on
your discipline area...
screen capture from iai.tv/iai.academy

15. 73% under 35s >90% new jobs 7-10 careers
>98% of all
information
43.5% graduates 1.4m ‘micro’ firms
36% UK jobs
(40% US jobs)
2.5% EU jobs 4-20% learners
How fundamental in the lives of graduates?
Pick a number... any number...

16. with thanks to Simon Rae 2015
How fundamental in the lives of students?

17. How fundamental in the lives of students?
Who owns students’ learning data?
What should it be used for?

18. Digital change is profound
and should be addressed within the curriculum as
a series of critical explorations
‣ not as a received solution e.g. the ‘digitally capable
graduate’, the ‘digital economy’
‣ but situated in the concerns of the subject/discipline
‣ ideally in a critical pedagogy tradition (not ‘we know,
we teach you’)
‣ ...

19. Example: followthethings
www.followthethings.com

20. Example: BYOD4L
https://byod4learning.wordpress.com/topics/

21. Example: PhonarNation
CC phonarnation 2015

22. Example: authentic research
using open data
UCL’s Connected Curriculum (Fung 2014)

23. Over to you
‣ How does my discipline advance our
understanding of the digital revolution?
‣ How does my discipline equip students
to thrive in a digital society & economy?
‣ What does my discipline have to say
about living well in a digital world?
#DigiLitUCL

24. Framing digital literacy
as a creative, critical practice
ICT proficiency (core skills)
Information, media and data
literacy (critical use)
Creation, scholarship and
innovation (creative production)
Communication, collaboration
and participation (engagement)
Learning and self-development
Identity and well-being