ALDinHE 2013, Know your digital literacies

1www.technologyenhancedlearning.net
Know Your Digital Literacies
Professor Neil Witt
Dr Anne McDermott
Rob Stillwell

The influence of digital technologies in creating
a new context for Higher Education

It’s not just ‘digital’
Optimal
Educational
Value

It’s not just ‘digital’
Optimal
Educational
Value ?

Impact of technology?
• Students willing to use, and expect their devices to be used to
support their learning experience.
• An urgency in developing services that meets the students’
needs and expectations.
• Assume that academic staff can/will support their use of
technology

Impact of technology?
• Expectation Management?
• How to meet these digital needs?
• How to engage and support ALL staff?
• How to embed into practice?

Change via a JISC project?
• Builds on 2011 BCUP project
• Audit of systems, policies,
infrastructure and data
• Views from academic and
support staff on use of, and
practice with, existing software
and hardware systems.
• Recommending Institutional
change on DL issues around:
• Infrastructure
• Support
• Curriculum Design

What Is SEEDPoD?
• Investigating digital literacies at Plymouth
University
• Funded under the JISC’s Developing Digital
Literacies Programme
– National Programme 2011-2013
– 12 HEIs
– 11 sector bodies and professional associations
– http://www.jisc.ac.uk/developingdigitalliteracies/

What Are Digital Literacies?
In the 21st
century IT competence needed by
– learners
– teachers
– professionals
– everybody (>90% jobs require IT competence of some degree)
Seven separate ‘literacies’ contribute to 3 areas
– Content Production
– Content Consumption
– Professional and Academic Practice

The Digital Literacies

Digital Literacies
• ICT / Computer Literacy
Ranges from basic keyboard skills to the ability to
explore, understand and evaluate new technologies
• Information Literacy
Find, interpret, evaluate, organise, manipulate, share
and record information
e.g.
•working with documents, presentations and spreadsheets
•choosing and using cloud services
e.g.
•understanding issues of authority, reliability, provenance
•knowledge of IPR, plagiarism, citation

And …..
• Media Literacy
Consumption and production of high quality media
outputs needs a sophisticated understanding of
audience, creator, message and technology
• Communication and Collaboration
Digital networks for sharing and collaboration in
support of knowledge, scholarship, research and
learning
e.g.
•Selecting transmission means most suited to target audience
•Use of text, video and audio editing software
e.g.
•Email, online forums, chat rooms, social networks, webinar
•Collaborating in online documents & interactive events

Not forgetting …..
• Digital Scholarship
Open publishing is beginning to redefine what is meant
by the term ‘scholarly’
• Learning Skills
The ability to study and learn effectively in technology-
rich environments.
e.g.
•An academic’s blog might have 1000s of followers
•Academic debates in an online community of practice
•Mandates for Open Access Publishing
e.g.
•Think critically, academic writing, referencing, managing tasks
•Receive assessment and acting on feedback in digital formats

And finally ……
• Being a Professional
• Also known as Life Planning, this puts digital
literacies into a distinct framework in support of an
individual’s employability.
• Having the knowledge and skills to act ethically,
responsibly and safely in the digital world are vital
aspects of this element.
e.g.
• Digital tools, services, social networks can be used, to aid
reflection and build an ePortfolio.
• Online promotion through blogs, Twitter, Facebook, website
• Knowing what others can find out about you on the Internet
• Use digital tools to support PDP and CPD.

So, what’s important

The Digital Strategy
Opportunity 1 – inputting into Strategy
•Key theme 1 - Digital People
•Key theme 2 - Digital teaching, learning and research
•Key theme 3 - Digital services
•Key theme 4 - Digital Infrastructure and Capability

The way ahead – Digital Strategy
Theme 1:
To develop the digital literacy of our staff and
students to promote and develop the
University’s reputation, our research and our
student experience.
Professional Support Staff
•Develop the digital literacy skills and confidence of our
professional services staff to enable them to develop and deliver
efficient services, communicate effectively and promote the
reputation of the University
Academic Staff
•Develop the digital literacy skills and confidence of our
academic staff to embed technology in their learning approach,
to communicate effectively and support the delivery of their
curriculum.
Students
•Develop digitally literate students who are able to
appropriately choose, use and personalise technologies and
digital content to suit their own needs.
•They will be skilled users of digital information able to act
ethically, responsibility and securely in a fast-moving digital
environment

Performance Development Review
Opportunity 2 – using new processes
Embed in PDREmbed in PDR

Embracing Change
Opportunity 3 – use Restructuring
An opportunity to
recommend Institutional
change:
• Infrastructure
• Support

Joining it all up
Embed in the curriculumEmbed in the curriculum

• Benchmark and gather evidence
• Take every available opportunity
• Influence then operationalise strategy
• Embed into Staff Development
• Embed into processes (e.g. Curriculum
Design)

Find Out More
Visit www.seedpod.org.uk

ALDinHE 2013, Know your digital literacies

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