Discussion of the theory behand a programme to develop researchers' Digital LIteracies

1. Teaching Digital Skills
for Researchers
Dr Helen Webster
Anglia Ruskin University
Anglia Learning and Teaching

2. Digital
Humanities
Digital
Literacies
Digital
Pedagogies
Researcher
Develop-
ment

3. The brief
“to increase awareness of the transferability of digital skills
and encourage Early Career Researchers to develop
advanced digital and social media skills to enhance their
research, wider professional practice and employability”
• Advanced digital tools might include peer-to-peer networks
and social media platforms, managing user-generated
content, and engaging with the public and the media in online
environments.
• “To develop and deliver training resources (a workshop and
online resources)”

4. Is this project Digital
Humanities?
Chris Martin
Digital Asset Flow
http://etcetera.caret.cam.ac.uk/bl
og/digital-asset-flow

5. Problematising the brief:
Learners and Learning Outcomes

6. Problematising the Brief:
Modes of Learning

7. Problematising the Brief:
Modes of Learning

8. Problematising the Brief:
Modes of Learning

9. Problematising the brief:
Concepts of transferable skill

10. Principles
Not just to teach digital tools, but also:
•an awareness of the ways in which social media and
digital technologies can enhance or impact on your
work
•an understanding of the issues raised by social media
and digital technologies, including potential
pitfalls, good practice and ways they are changing
the profession
•an awareness of, and ability to evaluate, new and
future digital tools and make informed decisions
about your own engagement with them

11. Theoretical Solutions
• Digital Literacy and Digital Literacies
(Lea and Street; Lea and Jones)
• Situated learning and communities of
practice (Lave and Wenger; Wenger)
• Connectivism (Siemens) and
Rhizomatic learning (Cormier)

12. Practical Solutions
MOOCs, SPOCs and 23Things
• C-MOOCs (connectivist Massive Open
Online Courses
• X-MOOCs (more traditional instructivist
Massive Open Online Courses)
• 23Things
• Small Private Online Courses

13. E-learning models: bridging
theory and practice
Access and
motivation
Online
Socialisation
Information
exchange
Knowledge
Construction
Development
Gilly Salmon

14. DH23Things
Central
Blog
1 or 2 Things
posted on the
central blog each
week.
Participants write
their own
reflective blogpost
on the week’s
Thing and read
and comment on
each others’.

15. Things
Each weekly blog post comprises:
•Things You Do: Brief introduction to the topic and tool
•A Thing to Use: Instructions for using the tool (and links
to other instructional material)
•A Thing to Try: A small task to complete in the context
of their work
•Things to Think About: The reflective framework (Key
skills, Discipline-Specific, Evaluation, Integration)
tailored each week with questions and issues to think
about
•Things to share: Further reading, ‘extras’, other
participants’ blogs

16. Reflective Framework
• Key skill. Issues, problems, tips, advice
• Discipline-specific issues. This section therefore consists of two
elements – the general ways in which digital technology impacts on
academic work, and more specifically, whether this changes the
nature of academic work, and might be considered ‘Digital
Humanities’.
• Evaluation. You are invited to evaluate the tool for use in your own
practice and to consider particular issues which it might raise, and
which you may have to negotiate. These might include things like
confidentiality, copyright, sustainability, accessibility, data ownership
or ethics.
• Reflection and integration into practice. You will need to think about
creating a strategy for engaging with the tool or tools like this in your
future working practice. This might include the changes in your habits
or routines to integrate it into your workflow, or change the way you
work in the new way enabled by the tool. Alternatively, if you decide
not to use the tool, you might need to consider other ways of
enhancing that aspect of your work.

17. The Modules

18. Phase One: Digital
Humanities, CRASSH
o DH23Things online in 2-3 modules
• Module One: Building your online profile and
network
• Module Two: Managing Information Online
o The Researcher Online workshops:
• Building your Online Profile
• Building your Online Network
• Making and Sharing Content online
• (Blogging)

19. Phase Two:
STEMDIGITAL
STEMDigital blended learning programme
comprising:
•STEMDigital Module One launch workshop
•STEMDigital online Module One: Building your
online profile (commenting rather than
blogging)
•Associated Workshops:
o Social Media for Sceptics
o LinkedIn
o Beginner’s Guide to Twitter
o Beginner’s Guide to Blogging

20. Reactions
Was the format as a blogging programme helpful?
•Very helpful: 1
•Helpful: 5
•Unhelpful: 2
What did you like most about the format?
•I could choose to participate or not. Wasn’t forced to blog.
•Provided content to get blogging; reading other people’s work and ideas
for applying the tools
•The opportunity for interactive discussion
•The interaction and sharing of ideas as I got some useful points from other
bloggers
What did you like least about the format?
•Blogging
•The emphasis on individual blogging rather than discussion
•Scrap the requirement for blogging. Just don’t think it useful or helpful.
Maybe set up a group blog and get people to contribute a couple of
entries as the programme goes along?

21. Findings
• Drop-out rates and smaller numbers
• Access to hardware, software and the internet
• „Lurkers‟
• Concerns about privacy, anonymity and professional identity
• Not embracing digital thinking, values and behaviours:
• Demand for support rather than self-directed exploration and creating a
learning network
• Concerns about openness, IP and sharing user-generated content
• „Broadcasting‟ and consumption rather than peer-networked, many-to-
many, participatory engagement

22. Conclusions
Identity