23 Things for Digital Literacy

Dr Helen Webster, Research Associate

Researcher Development

Principles

Not just to teach digital tools, but also:

•an awareness of the ways in which social media and digital technologies can enhance or impact on your work

•an understanding of the issues raised by social media and digital technologies, including potential pitfalls, good practice and ways they are changing the profession

•an awareness of, and ability to evaluate, new and future digital tools and make informed decisions about your own engagement with them

Provision should be tailored, embedded, scaffolded, model digital values, and be informed by an interprofessional approach

What is 23Things?

23Things is a self-directed, peer-led and peer-mentored online learning programme which supports learners in discovering Web 2.0 technologies and is built and participated in using those same tools

How does a 23Things Programme work?

Central Blog

1 or 2 Things posted on the central blog each week.

Participants write their own reflective blogpost on the week’s Thing and read and comment on each others’.

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Advantages of a 23Things style course

• Learning by doing, and getting started in a ready made context

• Building a supportive learning network and ongoing community

• Embedded in learner’s own workflow, tools and context

• Real-time and space, but flexible

• Rich source of qualitative feedback and case studies

• Materials can be left as an artefact, or reused and updated

• Facilitators learn as much as the participants!

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Adapting 23Things

• Broadening of remit and ‘Thing’s

• Modularisation

• Reflective framework

• More specific audience, tailoring and embedding

• Associated workshops

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What is a Thing?

Each weekly blog post comprises:

•Brief introduction to the topic and tool

•Instructions for using the tool (and links to other instructional material)

•A small task to complete in the context of their work

•The reflective framework (Key skills, Discipline-Specific, Evaluation, Integration) tailored each week with questions and issues to think about

•Further reading, ‘extras’

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Content for a 23Things course

If you were developing a 23Things style course, what Module might you run and what Tools, Themes and

Issues would you include?

•For undergraduates (decide if you want to narrow the discipline!)

•For other Learning Developers (including yourself!)

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Challenges

• Drop-out rates and smaller numbers

• ‘Lurkers’ (browsers, legitimate peripheral participation?)

• Concerns about privacy, anonymity and professional identity

• Access to hardware, software and the internet

• Not embracing digital thinking and behaviours:

• Demand for support rather than self-directed exploration and creating a learning network

• Concerns about openness, IP and sharing user-generated content

• ‘Broadcasting’ and consumption rather than peer-networked, many-to-many, participatory engagement

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Evaluation: Blogging as participation

Was the format as a blogging programme helpful?

•Very helpful: 1•Helpful: 5•Unhelpful: 2

What did you like most about the format?•I could choose to participate or not. Wasn’t forced to blog. •Provided content to get blogging; reading other people’s work and ideas for applying the tools•The opportunity for interactive discussion•The interaction and sharing of ideas as I got some useful points from other bloggers

What did you like least about the format?•Blogging•The emphasis on individual blogging rather than discussion•Scrap the requirement for blogging. Just don’t think it useful or helpful. Maybe set up a group blog and get people to contribute a couple of entries as the programme goes along?

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E-learning Models and 23Things style courses?

Development

Knowledge construction

Information exchange********

Online Socialisation**************

Access and Motivation **********

Gilly Salmon12

Examples of 23Things style Programmes

• For Librarians (the original format): http://23thingscambridge.blogspot.co.uk/

• For Researchers (and in modules): http://dh23things.wordpress.com/

• For CPD (Librarians): http://cpd23.blogspot.co.uk/

• For ALDinHE: LD5D (forthcoming!)