Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

The world is changing quickly, and education systems must either adapt or change completely to keep up. Luckily, there are many viable solutions to this issue. Several applications are available right now for both teachers and students to get acquainted with. 

To keep things both structured and concise, we have come up with a list of 12 of the best digital and mobile learning resources that are sure to make a positive difference in your schooling environment and keep your students engaged and invigorated. 

Digital resources to support online teaching This guide is put together to support those in UK universities moving to online teaching in light of the COVID-19 outbreak. This is work in progress so please feel free to add any additional resources to the list below, we are relying on librarians t

Editor’s Note: We first quoted Caltech Artist-in-Residence David Kremers maxim, “Privacy is the new luxury” back in 2009. In the decade since then, we’ve seen a continuous assault on personal privacy, as surveillance has become the dominant business model on the internet. We’ve approached questions of privacy from many different angles over the years here at The Scholarly Kitchen, including technology architectural approaches to privacy (particularly relevant in light of new authentication systems like RA21), as well as striving to find the right balance between personalization and privacy).

Librarians have long been stalwart guardians of patron privacy — an increasingly difficult task in the era of Google and Facebook. Today’s post is by Mimi Calter, Deputy University Librarian for Stanford University, who brings a useful framework for libraries as they consider patron privacy.

Patron privacy has been a long-standing concern of libraries, and in the era of Facebook data-sharing scandals and of GDPR, the privacy of users of digital content is an increasing concern. In response to that general issue, and to several specific difficulties with data providers, Stanford Libraries, with support from a number of our peer institutions, have put forward a Statement on Patron Privacy and Database Access.

Hurrah! Karen Blakeman has published an edited (but still extremely useful!) version of the slides she presented at one of her advanced searching workshops on the 31 May 2018 - this one focused on searching for research.

What are the best dynamic, digital resources that can fit teachers’ unique instructional styles, align with district and state standards, and be personalized to meet students’ diverse learning needs? At Liberty Public Schools (LPS), we started asking this question over five years ago, and discovered an answer: open educational resources (OER). OER are openly licensed materials that are free for educators and students to use, customize, and share.

One of the biggest concerns of student researchers and academics is access to scientific knowledge stored in the form of journal articles. Many of these articles are not free and unless you are affiliated with a higher education institution, it will cost you a fortune to buy or rent these resources. 

I am regularly in awe at the goodwill our students extend faculty, myself included, as they attempt to make sense of and successfully complete our idiosyncratic assignments. Too often, students hear faculty respond to any confusion students might have by telling them to “read the syllabus” or “read the assignment,” as if none of the faculty have ever tried to put together an Ikea dresser or played a board game for the first time after simply reading the instructions. Learning to do anything means learning to do the thing through some combination of instructions, participation, and materials.

Within many further and higher education institutions and their allied organisations there exists a wide-ranging, diverse group of libraries, archives and collections.