Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

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.

What was the first thing you did this morning? For me, it was being woke up by an alarm that I’d set via Alexa. I told her to snooze whilst I caught up on the news on the BBC app. My Google calendar reminded me that my youngest had swimming.

I arranged lifts for the kids to their after-school clubs on Whatsapp, did 10 minutes of Duolingo (learning useful Spanish phrases such as ‘my turkey eats pineapples’) and had a quick check of my emails – all before I’d even got out of bed. And on a device that fits in my pocket! Could we even have imagined this 10 or 15 years ago?

By Professor Grainne Conole.

I recently attended a HEA Future-focus Forum on Digital Transformation and Empowering Technologies in Higher Education. Prior to the meeting a paper was circulated setting the scene for the meeting. This contextualized the topic by referencing various Irish and EU relevant documents, including the Irish Future Jobs Initiative, the Digital Agenda for Europe, the European Digital Education Action Plan, the European Higher Education Area in 2018, etc.

The paper argued that digital transformation is pervasive and can be understood as the changes that digital technology causes or influences in all aspects of human life. In addition, Higher Education will change significantly over the coming years due to digital transformation. Critical questions include: how can higher education Institutions (HEI) provide leadership in ensuring an ethical and responsible use of technology and data? How do we empower people to build a data-first culture and future proof our digital infrastructure? What are the challenges and how do we prepare for them? What international best practice exists to inform a national approach to digital transformation in Higher Education?

Digital transformation is a trending topic for businesses as they look to embrace and utilize technology in new and innovative ways. With stories about business transformation occurring all around us, we wanted to know exactly what people are thinking about the topic of digital transformation — not just CEOs and executives — but also employees.

In a previous article, I shared a framework we’ve engaged to guide our digital transformation over the past seven years. During that period of time, I’ve often noted that the balance of conversations between technology and learning has shifted. Conversations about learning are more prevalent now than they were at the beginning of our work, and as a result we are seeing more examples of deeper learning with technology.

This report introduces each of the six stages as a self- contained phase, offering a narrative and a checklist to guide your journey. While presented in a linear format, our research shows that companies may span multiple stages at once depending on their goals, resources, and overlapping initiatives. Use this framework to validate, benchmark, and map your company’s progress toward digital literacy and leadership, but know that you may find yourself revisiting and overlapping stages throughout program and strategy deployment.