Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

It didn’t have to be a pandemic. Any event of enough significance — a massive cyberattack, a devastating storm — could have catalyzed the degree of widespread transformation that higher education finds itself facing today.

It is truly astounding how people can embrace doing things the way they have always been done without contemplating where and when the original decisions were made. We just accept a pre-existing mindset because it is the path of least resistance. President Woodrow Wilson said it best, “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.” Humans often prefer to remain mired in the mundane and find comfort in the status quo rather than head towards the undiscovered country on the unknown. This preexisting mindset is often defended or at the very least justified by the excuse of That’s The Way We Have Always Done It, or TTWWADI for short.

Learning to change your teaching practice in today’s digital-first world is a bit like learning a foreign language, to hear ed-tech vet Ann McMullan tell it. “You don’t speak it fluently on the first day. But you pick up one word, two words, three words, and the more you engage and the more you use it, the more  natural it begins to feel.”

The pandemic took us all by surprise, and it completely turned our education world upside down. Without many options, instructors had to make extreme adaptations to their instruction to continue learning online.

Now that we have all had a moment to wrap our heads around the changes that have taken place, it is crucial that we, as online instructors, have a go-getter attitude when it comes to the new norm of online teaching. Without this mindset shift, you might get left in the dust. 

Here are seven strategies to ensure you embrace the future of online instruction and demonstrate your willingness to learn and adapt in these times of significant change. You do not have to be a tech-pro to implement these easy strategies to meet the needs of today’s online learners.

Adapting to change requires reacting positively to change – even creating change – and ultimately ensuring that it works to a special library’s advantage. Equally important, special librarians themselves can thrive, both personally and professionally, when they become change agents …. think “resilience,” not resistance.

Special librarians achieve sustainability by understanding that end user requirements and forces at work (e.g. new technologies, globalization and a mobile workforce) all demand change—and by reacting positively. Libraries must cope with staff shortages, budget cuts, outdated technology, competition from unexpected sources, and even negative stereotypes.

Change is happening at a disorienting pace and our institutions can barely keep up.

That’s why, in March 2017, we convened a meeting of top thought leaders in the fields of learning, innovation, and technology. We asked them: how can we rapidly accelerate progress in education—not only to help marginalized communities catch up to where the privileged are today, but also to reach a more effective, holistic, and equitable education for every child in the world?

 All of us face new realities that threaten our pedagogy.. But it is often in the midst of those pressures that new pedagogies flourish.