Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

The Higher Education Digital Capability framework identifies four core dimensions along the learner lifecycle: Demand & Discovery (DD), Learning Design (LD), Learner Experience (LX) and Work & Lifelong Learning (WL). Within these are sixteen capability groups or ‘domains’, with more than 70 capability blocks adding a further level of detail. Overall, the framework is designed to allow flexibility and interpretation in context; some institutions will find almost every capability block relevant to their organisational structure, activities and aspirations, whilst others will focus on a more specific set of capabilities applicable to their individual context.

Digital capabilities are integral to personal, academic and professional development. This resource aims to support students and staff in developing these capabilities. In the broadest sense, digital capabilities may be defined as those skills, knowledge and practices that enable an individual to understand and interact with the digital world effectively and safely. Digital capabilities mediate how well a person is able to utilise digital tools and services aimed at supporting learning and, for many professions, they will impact on subsequent employability. Teaching staff need to meet expectations around delivering digitally and supporting the necessary digital capabilities required by a twenty-first century graduate.

The digital journey consists of 15 online modules for teachers who use little ICT in their lessons and 15 modules for already experienced teachers.

Building capability for new digital leadership, pedagogy and efficiency.

We're working to ensure staff in universities and colleges are equipped for a changing digital environment

At the end of 2017 we began a short review into how Human Resources (HR) departments support staff to develop their digital capability. We developed an online survey and interviewed some of the respondents to try to capture a snapshot of current practice.

The Digital discovery tool provides links to a wide range of resources for each of the digital capability framework areas.

The platform delivers these resources in two ways.

You would think that the annual Association for Learning Technology conference – held this year at the University of Liverpool – would be primarily focused on technology. But you might be surprised to find that discussions and presentations are centred far more on policy and people. In setting the themes for the conference, co-chair Helen O’Sullivan (University of Liverpool), and ALT CEO Maren Deepwell chose not to highlight particular hardware or software, but to look at the common issues that underpin the way technology is used.

Staff digital capabilities are central to student and organisational success. It's a digital world, and in addition to a chosen subject, students are preparing for work and life in a digital society. 

I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on what makes a good and accessible digital assignment for faculty and teachers who are not comfortable with digital tools but open to learning and experimenting. An approach I’ve often seen is what I’ve recently started calling the kitchen sink approach to “onboarding.” In this approach, a suite of tools or a single tool that can do “everything you can imagine and more” is shown or given to a faculty member to integrate into their already existing course or assignment. The hesitant but eager faculty member, initially excited to try something new, quickly becomes overwhelmed and frustrated as they attempt to make the tool live up to the promises of “doing everything and more.” Frustrated, the faculty member then abandons integrating the tool because they “tried and it didn’t really work with their style of teaching” or “there is too much stuff in the course already to add digital tools.”

As schools settle into more sustained use of online learning tools, attention needs to be paid to teachers’ development and resource needs as well as their students’, writes Patrick Roach

It now seems like a lifetime ago that the majority of children and young people’s learning took place at school. The speed and scale of the Coronavirus crisis meant that virtually overnight living rooms, kitchens, sheds and bedrooms have been repurposed as places of both learning and teaching.

For the majority of schools this has meant a sudden and abrupt shift to delivering the majority of learning online. For some schools this will have been easier than others.

After three years of development, two years of field testing, and countless hours of creative innovation and hard work, Carrick Enterprises is proud to announce the availability of the Threshold Achievement Test for Information Literacy!

The Threshold Achievement Test for Information Literacy (TATIL) is a unique and useful tool to add to your assessment program. It will facilitate conversations on your campus and throughout the profession about what information literacy means to students today and into the future.

Inspired by the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, TATIL provides librarians and other educators information to better understand the information literacy capabilities of their students. These data-driven insights inform instructors of weak areas, guide course instruction, affirm growth following instruction, and prepare students to be successful in learning and life.

The modules are Evaluating Process & Authority (“Information Creation as a Process” and “Authority is Constructed and Contextual”); Strategic Searching(“Searching as Strategic Exploration”); Research & Scholarship (“Research as Inquiry” and “Scholarship as a Conversation”); The Value of Information (“Information Has Value”).

With European elections coming up in May 2019, you probably want to know how the European Union impacts your daily life, before you think about voting. In the latest in a series of posts on what Europe does for you, your family, your business and your wellbeing, we look at what Europe does for people wanting to gain digital skills.

We live in a digital age, where the fast pace of technological development is transforming our economies and societies profoundly. Almost all jobs now require some level of digital skills, as does participation in society in general. In this context, digital literacy has become a life skill and the inability to access or use the internet seems unthinkable to many of us. However, about 44 % of adults in the EU have low digital skills and about 20 % have never used the internet, which can hamper their social integration and personal development.

If the children are the future, the future might be very ill-informed.

That's one implication of a new study from Stanford researchers that evaluated students' ability to assess information sources and described the results as "dismaying," "bleak" and "[a] threat to democracy."

As content creators and social media platforms grapple with the fake news crisis, the study highlights the other side of the equation: What it looks like when readers are duped.

What skills do our students need to be successful in their future? What skills do adults need to be competitive in the job market?

This is a totally free, online curriculum, with engaging videos and practical projects that teach technology skills to students (middle and high school) as well as adult learners.

This session is delivered by Manfred Gschwandtner who was a student on the MA library and information services management programme at the Information School, presenting his dissertation study, for which I was the supervisor. Manfred works at Canterbury Christ Church University, and became interested in teaching digital literacy following a change in his role description. He investigated how the faculty as a whole supported digital literacy, but this presentation focuses on the role of librarians.