Slides from the JISC Developing Digital Literacies workshop, 2011 (with Rhona Sharpe)

1. 26 May 2011
Goodenough College, London
Who are your learners?
Rhona Sharpe
Oxford Brookes University

2. Who are your learners?
What do we know
already about our
learners?
What do you still
need to find out about
your learners?
Image by Snowmanradio, Flickr

3. Learner experience Phase 2: Summary
n Learners are immersed in technology rich environment
n The concept of ‘e-learning’ as course related technology
provided by the institution provides a narrow perspective
of students’ technology use
n Learners have high expectations of institutions to provide
robust, reliable and accessible technology.
n Some learners feel disadvantaged by lack of functional
access to technology or the skills to use it properly
n Some learners are making deliberate choices to adopt
sophisticated technology mediated learning strategies,
using a range of tools in personalised, creative ways to
support their study

4. Digital Natives?
n Learners’ ICT skills are less advanced than educators and
learners think (Nicholas et al. 2008, JISC 2008-9)
n Characterisation of young people as ‘digital natives’ hides many
contradictions in their experiences (Luckin et al. 2009)
n Learners’ engagement with digital media is complex and
differentiated (Bennet et al. 2008, Hargittai, 2009)
n Learners experience many difficulties transposing practices from
social contexts into formal learning (Cranmer 2006)
n Active knowledge building and sharing e.g. writing wikis,
tagging, reviewing, recommending, repurposing, are minority
activities to which most learners are introduced by educators
(Selwyn 2009)
n Some aspects of learners’ everyday practice with technology are
at odds with practices valued in traditional academic teaching
(Beetham 2009)

5. Birkenhead Sixth Form College SLiDA Case Study
“I don’t want to have to waste time on technology,
I just want it to do whatever it does quickly”

6. Finding out about your learners
Thinking about learners at your institution,
what do you know about their current access,
skills and strategies for learning in a digital
environment?
What challenges do you think they face in
becoming digitally literate?
Individually, Spend a couple of minutes
answering the questions on the checklist.

7. Activity: http://tinyurl.com/digilearners
1. Share, which questions do you find difficult to
answer? Which will be important for your teaching?
2. Compare, How are your students similar and
different? Where are the gaps in what you know
about your students?
3. Choose one section of the checklist to discuss in
more detail.
4. Discuss to what extent do your learners have the
access, skills, or strategies necessary for that
section?
5. Add comments to http://tinyurl.com/digilearners

8. Learner profile tool