Digital Literacies: Knowledge, Skills and

Attitudes for a Digital Age

EiRP-Ruth Wong Memorial Lecture on EducationUniversity Hall Auditorium

National University of Singapore (NUS)4 October 2013

Professor Mike KeppellExecutive Director

Australian Digital Futures InstituteDirector, Digital Futures - CRN

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Guiding words...n “A reminder and challenge....to

examine and re-examine the ends and means of education...” (Ho Wah Kam,1995, p.v)

nEmphasis on holistic teaching in student education (Wong Hee-Ong, 2013, p.47)

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Moebius stripIf an ant were to crawl along the length of this strip, it would return to its starting point having traversed the entire length of the strip (on both sides of the original paper) without ever crossing an edge (Wikipedia).

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Foreshadowing...

n “With the development of educational technology other methods than the lecture could be used to enrich classroom teaching” (p.27)

nQuality... ”will involve changes and improvements in instructional approaches and methods besides those in physical facilities” (p.26)

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Research Futuresn “Concerning educational

research, it was important from the start to obtain the services of those who had not only some training abroad but had thought through local problems and issues and were sensitive enough to select the right problems for attention” (p.32)

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Overview

nBackground

nDigital future

nDigital literacies landscape

nADFI digital literacies

nNew mindsets

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Design Educational Technology

Innovation Solving real-world problems

Authentic learning

interactions

Transformation

Leadership

Background

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Digital Future

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Horizon Report

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Trends ‣ People expect to be able to work, learn, and

study whenever and wherever they want.

‣ The abundance of resources and relationships will challenge our educational identity.

‣ Students want to use their own technology for learning.

‣ Personalisation - learning, teaching, place of learning and technologies

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New Generation Students

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Rapport with technology12Friday, 4 October 13

Student-generated content (learner-as-designers)

Connected students (knowledge is in the network)

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Owning the Place of Learning

rapport with

technology

mobile

generate content

personalise

connected

adapt space to

their needs

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Digital Literacies Landscape

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http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/

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Europe - Digital Agenda Scoreboard 2012n 73% of EU 27 households had access to the internetn A lack of skills is the second most important

reason for not having access to the internetn Only 53% of the labour force - confident that

they had sufficient digital skills to change jobs.n Age, gender, and education remain the key

challenges. Older people, women, those with lower levels of education tend to have lower level digital skills.

n http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/sites/digital-agenda/files/scoreboard_digital_skills.pdf

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mp3 2009-2014

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2010, Ministry of Education, Singapore19Friday, 4 October 13

2011, Ministry of Education, Singapore20Friday, 4 October 13

UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for TeachersnTechnology literacy -

learn more effectively

nKnowledge deepening - apply to real-world problems

nKnowledge creation - create new knowledge

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http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/icts/teacher-education/unesco-ict-competency-framework-for-teachers/

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Literacy is a contested conceptn Literacy is at present recognized to be a plural

and dynamic concept (p.9)

n Consider all literacies on a continuum...

n We demonstrate differing levels and uses of literacy according to our environments and needs.

n There is no single notion of literacy as a skill which people possess (multiple literacies).

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Literacy is a contested conceptn There is currently no universally accepted

definition of media literacy, information literacy, digital literacy, or even of “media” itself.

n ‘Digitally literate ...use new digital tools to engage with the news and information ecosystem...

n The digital divide is much more than a ‘technology access’ divide; without the skills to use the technologies an even greater divide emerges – the information literacy divide.

n http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/unesco_mil_indicators_background_document_2011_final_en.pdf

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Wheeler Digital Literacies

n Social networking skillsn Transliteracy skillsn Maintaining Privacyn Managing Identityn Creating contentn Organising and sharing contentn Reusing/repurposing contentn Filtering and selecting contentn Self broadcasting

http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/what-digital-literacies.html

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Cognitive

TechnicalSocial-

Emotional

Information literacyCritical literacyMulti-literacies

Socio-emotional literacy

Critical literacy

Operational literacy

Critical literacy

Digital literacy

NG (2012)

Can we teach digital natives digital literacy? Computers & Education 59 (2012) 1065–1078

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LiteraciesnLiteracy is no longer “the ability

to read and write” but now “the ability to understand information however presented.”

nCan't assume students have skills to interact in a digital age

nLiteracies will allow us to teach more effectively in a digital age (JISC, 2012)

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ADFI Digital Literacies

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ADFI Major Projectsn Digital Futures - Collaborative Research Network

n Regional Universities Network (RUN) Maths and Science Digital Classroom: A Connected Model for all of Australia

n Aged Care Community, Education, Research & training (ACCERT)

n Network of Australasian Tertiary Associations (NATA)

n Making the Connection: Improving access to Higher Education for Low SES Students with ICT Limitations project

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Personalised Learning

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Personal Learning Spaces

‣ Integrate formal and informal learning spaces

‣ Customised by the individual to suit their needs

‣ Allow individuals to create their own identities.

‣ Recognises ongoing learning and the need for tools to support life-long and life-wide learning.

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Connectivism

‣ Knowledge has changed to networks and ecologies (Siemens, 2006).

‣ Need improved lines of communication in networks.

‣ “Connectivism is the assertion that learning is primarily a network-forming process” (p. 15).

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Spaces

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Spaces for Knowledge GenerationnPhysical, blended or virtual ‘areas’ that:

n enhance learningnthat motivate learnersnpromote authentic learning interactions

nSpaces where both teachers and students optimize the perceived and actual affordances of the space (Keppell & Riddle, 2012).

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Physical Virtual

Formal Informal InformalFormal

Blended

Mobile Personal

Outdoor Professional Practice

Distributed Learning Spaces

Academic

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Virtual Learning Spaces

Blending - Affordances - Equity? 38Friday, 4 October 13

Mobility

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Mobility

nGlobal mobilitynMobility of peoplenTechnologies to support

mobilitynAdapting our teaching and

learning?nAssessment?

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Undergraduate Students and ITn Monitors students

relationship with digital technologies

n Portable devices are the ‘academic champions’

n 3x as many students used e-books or e-textbooks than in 2010

n Survey of 100,000 students across 195 institutions

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Seamless Learning

Seamless learning occurs when a person experiences a continuity of learning across a combination of locations, times, technologies or social settings (Sharples, et al, 2012).

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New Mindsets

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New MindsetsnPrivileging mobile learning and

teaching access

nEmbedding digital literacies into all aspects of curriculum, learning, teaching and assessment.

nPrivileging diverse places of learning as opposed to a singular place of learning

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New MindsetsnAssisting teachers and students

to develop their own personalised learning strategy

nPrivileging user-generated content

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n“Each day brings new questions and insights. The teacher is a perpetual learner.....” (p. 22)

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Text*Beauty is in the detail.....

*CHNG Huang Hoon, discussion

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Questions?

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