Digital Literacies

Fiona Harvey and Lisa Harris7th November 2012

LLAS Workshop

Fiona Harvey• Fiona Harvey is an Educational Development and

Learning Advisor with the Centre for Technology in Educational Innovation at the University of Southampton. She is Chair of the Digital Literacies Special Interest group.

• www.elearning.soton.ac.uk• www.twitter.com/fionajharvey• www.linkedin.com/fionaharvey

Lisa Harris• Lisa is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Director of the

MSc programme in Digital Marketing and Co-Chair of the Digital Economy USRG at the University of Southampton. She is also an accredited tutor for the University of Liverpool online MBA programme.

• www.digitaleconomy.soton.ac.uk• http://lisaharrismarketing.com• www.twitter.com/lisaharris• www.slideshare.net/lisaharris• www.delicious.com/lisaharris1

Plan

• Quick overview of the ‘big picture’• What is “digital literacy”?• Digital Literacy activities at Southampton:

– Conference 2012 (even bigger and better for 2013)– Student Digital Champions– Curriculum Innovation– Social Media in Live Events (SMiLE) research

project #SXSC2 #Creative Digifest

Exercise 1: What technologies are being discussed here?

• “The modern world overwhelms people with data and this is confusing and harmful to the mind” (Conrad Gessner, 1565)

• “It will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories.“ (Socrates, 469-399BC)

• “It socially isolates readers and detracts from the spiritually uplifting group practice of getting news from the pulpit” (Malesherbes, 1787)

• “It might hurt radio, conversation, reading, and the patterns of family living and result in the further vulgarisation of American culture“ (Ellen Wartella, 1962)

• “It’s making us stupid” (Nicholas Carr, 2008)

Isn't it just a mechanism for timewasting or at its best a space for

informal social chatter?

http://www.socialnomics.net/2011/12/28/infographic-every-60-seconds-on-the-web/

The world is changing…

• Educators are no longer the ‘gatekeepers’ of knowledge

• The vast majority of graduate jobs require effective communication skills, both online and offline

• Acquiring information is no longer the issue – critical evaluation of an abundance of data is a key skill

• Contributing effectively to your community builds your profile and ‘social capital’

21st Century Careers (JISC, 2009)

• Competition for employment in a global knowledge economy

• increased levels of self-employment and portfolio working• growth of multi-disciplinary teams focused on specific

tasks whose members might be physically located anywhere in the world

• life within a networked society • blurring of boundaries between ‘real’ and ‘virtual’, public

and private• increasingly ubiquitous use of digital technologies.

Definitions

• “Digital literacy is the ability to locate, organise, understand, evaluate, and analyse information using digital technology. It involves a working knowledge of current tools and an understanding of how they can be used”

• “The active management of online activities such as collaboration, networking , content creation and curation in order to “stand out from the crowd” in today’s job market”

• “an ability to respond positively to change”

www.futurelab.org.uk

What do we mean by Digital Literacy?

• Collecting, managing and evaluating online information

• Building an online brand for personal or career development

• Creating and curating content in written, audio and visual media

• Communicating effectively online for networking and collaboration purposes

• Managing digital identity/ies with due awareness of privacy and security issues

Come to our workshops

• 6th November Online Identity, Safety and Security

• 7th November Social Media for Researchers• 15th November

Employability and online professional profile• 22nd November Open Access and Copyright• 28th November Social Media for Researchers 2• 12th December Managing Information Overload

Student Digital Champions

• Help staff and students to learn new tools, build their online profiles, and manage social media for live events

• Champs to be attached to each USRG • Digital Economy USRG is funding students to

participate in relevant events, report back at monthly networking lunches and collaborate in research/teaching projects

• Supported by Social Media in Live Events (SMiLE) project

Digital Champions

Sam Su

Oliver Bills

Marina Sakipi

Panos Grimanellis

George Georgiev

Hamed Ayhan

Hamed Ayhan

Farnoosh Berahman

Manish Pathak

Ivan Melendez

Ahmed Abulaila

Lucy Braiden

Alessia Fiochi

Digital Champion Activities

• PianoHAWK launch in London, May 2012• Digital Literacies Conference• Support for informal workshops• One to one training as required• Helped set up a Chinese Social Network

account for Modern Languages• Creative Digifest #SXSC2

The conference was attended by 95 people on site and via Twitter we had followers both locally based and from New Zealand, Columbia and Ireland.Student Digital Literacies Champions played a key role in supporting the event Summary Storify is here

Feedback

“More like this please”

“The workshop was very inspiring and generated some very good insights. It

was wonderful having international students attending, as they were able to contribute with a different perspective,

specifically those coming from totalitarian regimes. Their concerns and priorities in regards to protecting their own identity

are very different from those in UK.”

“Hearing from such a diverse range or people on the subject was really inspirational. I would recommend this to anyone with

even a remote interest in the area.”

“Lots of interesting discussion inspired by some pretty open questions.”

“I thought this was a brilliantly organised, and immersive experience, and in that latter respect corresponded exactly to one of the stages of digital literacy mentioned by one of the speakers. I learned huge amounts and felt by about 3.30 that my brain was full!”

“Great to get big names to Southampton.

*** It was a really great day. Thank you.*** ”

“…the whole event was a real eye-opener in more ways than I can mention here. It was kept under control through a nice blend of more discursive talks with shorter introductions to key advances or resources. This was very clever and helped a new-comer like me to manage it all.”

Looking forward to next one!

“I liked the openness and contributions from almost everyone.”

Plans for this year (1)

• Allocation of #digichamps to Research and Innovation Services for each USRG and to assist with Multi-disciplinary Week

• #Digichamps booked to assist with promotion of a number of events and conferences

• Develop and deliver CIP module – Working and Living on the Web (also included in Web Science BSc)

• #digichamps requested to be part of other CIP modules (Intercultural Communications)

Plans for this year (2)

• Work with SUSU VP Ed to train all sabbaticals • Graduate Passport – develop closer links for

recognition of contributions by SDLCs• Full programme of DL workshops and one to one

training• Graduate Attributes – ensure our graduates are

recognised as being ‘digitally literate’ and enhance employability

• Developing links to student support – DL input to personal tutoring system

New CIP Modules: linking research and teaching

“Life-wide” and “life-long” learning

Living and Working on the WebThis module focuses on the development of online identities and networks to enhance your employability in the digital age.

Specifically, it investigates how the digital world is influencing how we:

• collect, manage and evaluate online information – ideal preparation for dissertations• build an effective online identity for personal or career development• create and curate content via blogging and video production • interact with others for networking, team-building and project management purposes• deal with online privacy, safety and security issues• participate remotely in live events

Working in small groups, you will develop and deliver your own online seminars for assessment purposes, and engage in real time with a ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ audience at the University Digital Literacies Conference in May 2013.

For more information check out the module webpage and video or contact:

The “digitally literate” student

• be proactive, confident and flexible adopters of a range of technologies for personal, academic and professional use

• use appropriate technology effectively to search for and store high-quality information

• curate, reflect and critically evaluate the information obtained• engage creatively and productively in relevant online communities• be familiar with the use of collaboration tools to facilitate groupwork and

project management• be aware of the challenges inherent in ensuring online privacy and security• Have developed appropriate communication skills for peer and tutor

interaction within an ‘always on’ environment• Parody Video (very funny, rather bad language!)

SMiLE Project

• a University-wide system and procedure for archiving tweets.

• investigating new ways of expressing context through timelines and network visualisations

• Code of conduct for ethical storage and curation of social media (with Oxford E-research Centre)

• Case study for JISC Datapool project• Digital inclusion/exclusion• Supporting the development of communities of

practice before/after major live events

Useful links

• The Networked Student (5 mins)• Eric Qualmann (video, 2 mins)• A vision of students today (video, 5 mins)• Rethinking Education (video, 7 mins)• Assessed student wikipedia contributions

(Keynote, LLAS 2011)

More useful links

• Digital Literacies for EFL teachers (useful definitions here)http://www.slideshare.net/EvelynIzquierdo/digital-literacy-1515057