Digital Literacy:Fad or Fundamental?

UCL Digital Literacy Symposium | 7 January 2016Helen Beetham

#digilitUCL

‘Digital’ as a term in UK HE

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Before digital literacy there was...

Learning Literacies for a Digital AgeStudy (2009-10)‣ working definition ‣ development pyramid‣ 7-element framework

those capabilities that allow an individual to thrive (live, learn and work) in a digital society

“”

access

situatedpractices

functionalskills

identity: attributes

Learning Literacies for a Digital Agestudy (2009-10)‣ working definition ‣ development pyramid‣ 7-element framework I am...

I do...

I can...

I have...

To aspire beyond functional skills

To reach beyond the specialistsLearning Literacies for a Digital Agestudy (2009-10)‣ working definition ‣ development pyramid‣ 7-element framework

‣ a foundational knowledge or capability or set of practices

‣ a cultural entitlement‣ meaning-making‣ continuously developed‣ socially and culturally

situated/specific‣ an aspect of identity

‣ new forms of knowledge, know-how, practice, method, pedagogy, representation...

‣ the changing experiences and expectations of learners

‘Digital’

‘Literacy’

To generate critical debate

How did that go?‣ Mainstream

‣ Research and development funding

‣ Leadership/management agenda

‣ QAA Review topic

‣ New/revised questions in NSS/Student Engagement: other surveys and KPIs

‣Radical? Critical? Scholarly? Embedded?

Sherry Turkle meets David Mitchell

Radio 4 in Four

Less focused, self-disciplined, persevering, able to cope with boredom...

iflscience.com

The Internet is rewiring our brains‘Technologies are infantilising the brain into the state of small children who ... have a small attention span and who live for the moment.’ Daily Mail (2010)‘Popularized representations of neuroplasticity obscure the complicated conceptual and ontological entanglement between natural, social,and cultural realms ...’ Choudhury and McKinney (2013).

How fundamental are these changes?

‘Writing is a technology that restructures thought.’ For example: linear rather than cyclical time; spatial/visual as well as time-based/aural; reproducible; transmissible; separable from the embodied moment; enabling ‘inward turn of ego-consciousness’ or reflexivity; loss of sensory richness...

Walter Ong:Orality and Literacy

...brought about by networked digital devices?‣ screen-based interface‣ highly visual‣ data rather than text(s)‣ reconfigurable, multiple‣ access virtually cost free,

virtually simultaneous‣ constant recording

‣ places and events are porous: here and not-here

‣ information/communication, production/consumption, tools/texts constantly crossing into one another

How fundamental are the changes...

content

theory method

practice

How fundamental are the changes in the life of the University?

The real digital innovations will depend on your discipline area...

screen capture from iai.tv/iai.academy

73% under 35s >90% new jobs 7-10 careers

>98% of all information 43.5% graduates 1.4m ‘micro’ firms

36% UK jobs(40% US jobs) 2.5% EU jobs 4-20% learners

How fundamental in the lives of graduates?

Pick a number... any number...

with thanks to Simon Rae 2015

How fundamental in the lives of students?

How fundamental in the lives of students?

Who owns students’ learning data?What should it be used for?

Digital change is profoundand should be addressed within the curriculum as a series of critical explorations‣ not as a received solution e.g. the ‘digitally capable

graduate’, the ‘digital economy’‣ but situated in the concerns of the subject/discipline‣ ideally in a critical pedagogy tradition (not ‘we know,

we teach you’)‣ ...

Example: followthethings

www.followthethings.com

Example: BYOD4L

https://byod4learning.wordpress.com/topics/

Example: PhonarNation

CC phonarnation 2015

Example: authentic researchusing open data

UCL’s Connected Curriculum (Fung 2014)

Over to you

‣How does my discipline advance our understanding of the digital revolution?‣How does my discipline equip students to thrive in a digital society & economy?‣What does my discipline have to say about living well in a digital world?

#DigiLitUCL

Framing digital literacyas a creative, critical practice

ICT proficiency (core skills)Information, media and data literacy (critical use)Creation, scholarship and innovation (creative production)Communication, collaboration and participation (engagement)Learning and self-developmentIdentity and well-being