Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

In this week's Practical Ed Tech Tip of the Week newsletter I shared a short guide to finding and using media for use in classroom projects like videos, slideshows, and podcasts. This morning I've already had a few requests for more information and more resources to help students understand copyright, Creative Commons, and fair use. In no particular order, here are some of my go-to resources for helping students and teachers understand the importance and the key concepts of copyright as it relates to school projects. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically upended traditional schooling and made remote learning the “new normal.” Teachers are scrambling to offer some form of continuing education using virtual technologies, with the recognition that traditional approaches to curriculum, instruction, assessment, and grading must be altered. While it might be more expedient to present online lessons, electronic worksheets, and resource packets, we propose that the learn-at-home circumstance offers an opportunity to present students with more engaging and meaningful learning experiences. More specifically, we recommend providing students with assignments and tasks that challenge them to find information from various sources, critically appraise what they find, and use what they learn to address interesting issues and genuine problems.

This guest blog has been kindly contributed by Professor Neil Morris, Chair in Educational Technology, School of Education, University of Leeds. He can be found at @NeilMorrisLeeds

The Unbundled University research project, funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC grant number ES/P002102/1) and the National Research Foundation in South Africa (NRF grant number 105395), explored a range of issues in relation to the expansion of online education in universities in the UK and South Africa, including partnerships with private companies and the disaggregation of learning and teaching materials for delivery online (‘unbundling’).

Data were collected from interviews with senior leaders, academics, students and private companies in both countries. The data are being written up for publication in academic journals, but given the rapid shift to focus on online education as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is evident that some of the headlines from the research need to be put in the public domain rapidly.

I''m currently writing several short online courses for educators, and I've just published the second module in my online series about digital learning. It focuses on digital competencies and literacies and takes under an hour to complete.

I've written about digital literacies in previous publications, because I consider them vital for the success of any technology supported learning ventures. I believe that unless we develop appropriate digital literacies, we will be less able to exploit the power and unlock the potential of new and emerging technologies in education.

Here are a few links to previous posts:

What digital literacies?
Crossing the divide: Transliteracy
Digital literacies in the age of remix
Digital readiness

Innovating Pedagogy 2020 report.

Exploring new forms of teaching, learning and assessment, to
guide educators and policy makers.

Understanding digital transformation across the cultural heritage sector
Last week we invited our networks to take part in a special series of Europeana workshops on ‘Digital Transformation in the time of COVID-19’. In this post, we share other aspects of our ongoing efforts to understand, identify and shape a capacity building framework that meets the needs of the cultural heritage sector. In particular, how we are working with Culture24 to develop a shared understanding of what is happening in our sector to support digital capacity and what terms like ‘digital transformation’ mean in practice for GLAM institutions.

As the presenter, you can choose the languages you want to use for both your 'spoken language' and 'subtitle language'. PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 supports several languages although more options are available for 'subtitle language'. 

Amid talk of pandemics and economics, it may seem like a comparatively minor discussion to have: the difference between remote learning and online learning. 

But, with COVID-19 forcing schools around the nation to move their classrooms online and more and more scrutiny leveled at the sustainability of doing so, it’s a conversation that education experts increasingly insist should happen. Making the distinction, some say, could shape the future of online learning for years to come.