21st Century Learning Resources - my wish list

Lesley Wilton's Wish List for Digital Learning

Over the years of research in the areas of Digital Learning and Literacy, I have drafted a schematic of what I think the next offerings of Digital Learning Resources (DLR) should include. These resources should provide information to the teacher, the student and the parents with frequent and detailed feedback and be capable of guiding students to the next level (differentiated). They should also be interconnected to schools' learning management systems. Assessment tools should be well designed and built in. It should be relatively easy to use. These resources will allow the teacher to focus on the curriculum while being responsible for the necessary pedagogy,  supporting students and facilitating peer interactions. I will keep building on this wish list as I continue my research.

 

Digital Literacy Connections between Home and School

FutureLab's report: Connecting digital literacy between home and school seeks to define digital literacy and digital participation and discusses multiple digital literacy practices. Their working definition is “digital literacy is the way in which
people understand, make and share meaning with digital media and
technologies” (p. 4). The emphasis is on meaning, however. Digital literacy is more than just using technology and they note that this is a time of digital culture.

Digital Literacy Skills a Myth?

Joe Nutt's report: Professional Educators and the Evolving Role of ICT in Schools: Perspective Report (2010) challenges the definitions of Digital Literacy and concludes that "On closer examination ‘digital literacy skills’ appear to be no more than the higher order enquiry and synthesis skills that teachers of traditional subjects have long taught" (p. 3).

I think Nutt proposes some interesting arguments but doesn't seem to address evidence related to technology integration and student engagement, and the notion that traditional literacy (a focus in Ontario schools) doesn't necessarily include digital information. I think being digitally literate is essential to students today, who will need these skills in their future workplaces.

A Digital Literacy Questionnaire

Take a few minutes to answer my questionnaire

Michael Wesch at STLHE 2010

A short Michael Wesch youtube video filmed by Tatian Diniz of University of Wales, about his keynote at STLHE 2010 June 24th at Ryerson. He created a mashup video and encouraged all educators to become comfortable with this technology.

He is a Digital Ethnographer and has also posted these more popular youtube videos:

A Vision of Students Today
The Machine is Us/ing Us
An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube

Tonya Noel and I presented on Avatars: Usefulness in Collaborative Online Learning Environments. See program details.

Challenges of effective online learning are well documented. Two playful activities attempted to address the issue of creating a community of learners in a collaborative online environment. The first was to create a depiction of oneself using character building tools. Avatars, complete with props, were self‐created to represent online identities of class members and to provide opportunities for comment, discussion and engagement. The second activity required participants to creatively express their thoughts on an abstract topic without using text. Participants were then invited to guess the information their peers were trying to portray and intentions vs. interpretations were discussed. These simple and ludic activities were favourably welcomed with high participation by the group. The outcomes reflected stronger senses of engagement, belonging and trust. Our session is intended to provide an overview of the activities' benefits and challenges, discuss related literature on online collaboration, sense of community, and learner identities, and engage attendees in creation activities of their own.

Is Networked Literacy Distinct from Digital Literacy?

Jeff Utecht blogs about Networked Literacy and the importance of teaching this to students. He believes that some schools are beginning to bring Digital Literacy into the equation. See

http://www.thethinkingstick.com/are-we-teaching-networked-literacy

I'm not sure that I believe that Networked Literacy is distinct from Digital Literacy.

Conscientization, Freire and Digital Literacy

Doug Belshaw links Freire's thinking around conscientization and digital literacy where he concludes that Freire would not see digital literacy as an entity but rather those who are digitally literate.

http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2010/06/10/freire-conscientization-digital-literacy/