Presentation for Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools, January 18.

1. Towards Digital Fluency
Dr. Alec Couros
Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools
January, 2012

2. me

4. #rdcrs12
bit.ly/rdcrs12

6. context

7. Shifts in Media
Early Day of PC in Schools Today’s Social/Mobile Reality

12. Shifts in Education
Group growth
Individual growth
Objectivism
Cognitivism
Constructivism
(Leinonen, 2005;
Schwier, 2009) Social Learning

14. Shifts in Society

15. “The average digital birth of children
happens at about 6 months.”
“In Canada, US, UK, France Italy,
Germany & Spain ... 81% of children
under the age of two have some kind
of digital profile or footprint.”

16. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dkuropatwa/4285762190

18. Consume

19. Produce

20. Remix

21. myth of the digital native

22. Children and young people are described as ‘the
collaboration generation’, eager to work together
towards common goals, share content and draw upon
“the power of mass collaboration”. This combination of
individualisation and collaboration is often presented
as giving young people a propensity to question,
challenge and critique. These are individuals who
“typically can’t imagine a life where citizens didn’t
have the tools to constantly think critically, exchange
views, challenge, authenticate, verify, or debunk.
The Digital Native - Myth & Reality, Selwyn (2009)

23. Are We To Believe This?

24. Or This?

25. Or This?

26. “... age is not a determining factor in students’
digital lives; rather, their familiar and
experience using ICTs is more relevant.”
“... the notion of ‘digital natives’ is inaccurate:
those with such attributes are effectively a
digital elite. Instead of a new net generation
growing up to replace an older analogue
generation, there is a deepening digital
divide ... characterized not by age but by
access and opportunity.”

27. Visitors vs. Residents

29. “post literacy”

30. Postliterate are “those who can read who choose to
meet their primary information and recreational needs
through audio, video, graphics, and gaming. Print for
the postliterate is relegated to brief personal messages,
short information needs, and other functional, highly
pragmatic uses such as instructions, signage, and time-
management device entries - each often highly
supplemented by graphics. The postliterate’s need for
extended works or larger amounts of information is met
through visual and/or auditory formats.
Libraries for a Postliterate Society, Johnson (2009)

31. David Crystal
5 Main Myths (roughly)
•Youth text messages are littered with
mangled abbreviations.
•Youth use abbreviations as a way to
trick adults.
•Youth don’t know how to spell.
•Youth essays are filled with
@mwesch inappropriate abbreviations.
•Texting shows the decline of the
English language.

32. Texting & Literacy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Boj8VYzDAy8

33. digital fluency

34. Framework for Student Learning, Government of Alberta (2011)

35. “Technological fluency means much more
than the ability to use technological tools;
that would be equivalent to understanding a
few common phrases in a language. To
become truly fluent in a language (like
English or French), one must be able to
articulate a complex idea or tell an engaging
story -- that is, to be able to make things of
significance with these tools. ”
The Computer Clubhouse: Technology Fluency in the Inner City, Resnick, Rusk, & Cooke (1998)

36. The Difference Between Digital Literacy & Digital Fluency, C. Briggs (2011)

37. “... our ability to use digital technologies to have the
intended positive effect on people & situations.”
“... the more fluent a person is, the better they
are able to predict the outcome of their actions.”
The Difference Between Digital Literacy & Digital Fluency, C. Briggs (2011)

38. “Digital Fluency is the ability to use digital
technologies readily & strategically to
learn, work, and play.”
Unpublished Digital FluencyWorking Group, SK Government (2011)

39. 21st Century Readers/Writers Must ...
• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology.
• Build relationships with others to pose & solve problems
collaboratively and cross culturally.
• Design and share information for global communities to
meet a variety of purposes.
• Manage, analyze, & synthesize multiple streams of
simultaneous information.
• Create, critique, an analyze multimedia texts.
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these
complex environments.
NCTE Framework for 21st Century Curriulum & Assessment (2007)

40. in practice

42. evaluating, modelling,
& managing

43. Blogs & Wikis

44. Simple Blogging

45. Microblogging

46. Social Bookmarking

47. Info/File Management

48. Media Sharing

49. Social Networking

50. Social Curation

53. Let’s Play!
What do you know?
What do you want to share?
What are you interested in learning?

54. communicating, connecting,
& collaborating

55. Network Literacies
• “Understanding how
networks work is one of
the most important
literacies of the 21st
century.” (2010)
Howard Rheingold

56. Politics
Howard Rheingold
http://www.anduro.com/calgary-mayor-race.html

57. Services

58. Reputation

59. Meaningful Projects
“Dear Photograph:Thank you for everything we had.”

61. Human Connections

63. God bless you and your family
through this difficult time.

64. My best attempt, I only
removed the tubing, left
colors and levels alone. I
am sorry for your loss.

65. I color corrected the
skintones a bit as well.

66. minor lighting, a 6 x 4 crop for printing in standard size &
removed some of the background.
well done fellow redditors !!!!

67. Hope nobody thinks this is in poor taste... please accept
my warmest wishes and deepest sympathy for your loss.

68. Fixed
the
chair

69. OK black background gone. Sorry it took so long, had
to start over. Thanks again to wahoorob for doing the
hard part.

70. Sorry for the late help. I went
for simplicity. Enjoy - and I
hope you remember her well.

73. consuming, producing,
& sharing

74. Example #1: Using Relevant Modes
Jenny Johns

75. Example #1.1: Using Relevant Modes
@danikabarker

76. Example #2: Power Of (Global) Audience
ps22chorus.blogspot.com

78. “My student was delighted by the attention her blog
post had received; it gave her confidence in her
writing and bolstered her enthusiasm for our class....
We were no longer studying an important work of
20th century literature within the narrow context of my
syllabus; instead we had become part of a
conversation that involved the broader reading public.
As a professor, I was displaced from the centre of the
conversation, which became more open, distributed
and student-driven than it had been before.”
Beyond Friending, Gold, 2011

79. Example #3: Utilizing Networks

85. Example #4: Going Deep
@ddmeyer

86. Example #5: Teaching/Learning Online

90. 21st Century Learning Networks

91. 21st Century Learning Networks

92. barriers & affordances

93. embracing change

94. media stats (2010)
• 107 trillion emails (89% spam), from 1.04 billion users.
• 255 million websites
• 1.97 billion Internet users
• 152 millions blogs
• 600 million Facebook users (sharing 30 billion pieces of
content per month)
• 2 billion videos watched on Youtube daily
• 5 billion photos hosted on Flickr
Stats as of January 2011 via Royal Pingdom

96. ubiquity & convergence

101. Embracing Change - Key Questions
•Short/long-term planning appropriate for technology
renewal & support?
•Capacity to evaluate emerging technology & pedagogy?
Academically guided/driven?
•Prepared and/or willingness to embrace: mobile
computing, BYOD, cloud computing, greater appetite for
tech., increased bandwidth, institutional & individual social
media presence, & networked professional development.
•Responsible use policy that acknowledges the complexity
of blocking/banning & moves toward character approaches
(moral ed., etiquette, respect, community, etc.).

102. embracing free

103. Free/Open Content
“describes any kind of creative work in a
format that explicitly allows copying and
modifying of its information by anyone, not
exclusively by a closed organization, firm, or
individual.” (Wikipedia)

108. Embracing Free - Key Questions
•Strong understanding of the freely available resources &
tools available to school organizations?
•Recognition of various forms of “free” and implications for
each (free, open source, freemium, ad-sponsored, etc.)?
•Institutionally branded/supported options?
•District-wide understanding of copyright, copyleft, public
domain, and fair dealing?
•Student/staff contributions to an open culture
(development of a community of sharing)?

109. privacy & citizenship

111. Maria Aragon

117. “In July 2003, the student’s family filed a $250,000
lawsuit against the family of four of his schoolmates.
The lawsuit stated in part that he “had to endure, and
still endures today, harassment and derision from his
high-school mates and from the public at large.”

122. http://www.flickr.com/photos/will-lion/3356252350/

123. Best Job in the World

130. Embracing Change - Key Questions
•Are there current digital citizenship initiatives? Are these
widespread, developmental, and significant?
•Are there plans for the nurturing and development of
students as digital citizens through projects such as digital
portfolios and/or student blogging?
•Are teachers and administrators modelling responsible
digital citizenship and digital fluency?

133. Don’t limit a child to your
own learning, for he was born
in another time. ~Tagore
http://couros.ca
couros@gmail.com
@courosa

134. extras
(slides didn’t make the cut)

135. Questions For Admins
•Does your responsible use policy support digital fluency?
•Do your teachers and students have appropriate & easy
access to devices, tools, and content as required?
•Does pedagogy drive technology-based decision making?
•Are you connected to leading, innovative administrators?
•Are you modelling digital fluency?

136. Questions for Teachers
•Does your responsible use policy support digital fluency?
•Do your teachers and students have appropriate & easy
access to devices, tools, and content as required?
•Are you informed of the latest educational technology
trends, tools, and theories? What are you news sources?
Are you given the time to learn?
•Are you connected to leading, innovative teachers?
•Are you modelling digital fluency?

140. Activity #2: Digital Citizenship
Let’s talk about social networks and digital
citizenship.
•Do you have a digital identity? (e.g.,
What happens when you Google
yourself?
•What are your thoughts on sharing?
Where do you stand on both personal and
professional sharing?
•How do we help our children deal with
the issues of (digital) citizenship, (digital)
identity, and bullying?

141. Activity #3: Let’s Dig In
Let’s spend some time digging into the
tools and thinking about what we can do
to:
•Utilize social networks in our teaching
and learning.
•Develop personal learning networks.
•Improve student engagement through
the appropriate use of technology.
•Deal accordingly with the issues of
(digital) citizenship and (digital) identity.