In order for you to improve your digital literacy, you first need to know what level you are on in the beginning. In our group assignment in the ONL (Open Network Learning) course, we tried out different on-line tests about different digital tools, then we compared the tests and reflected on pros and cons on them. After that we focused on how we can improve our digital skills, like watching You tube- videos, trying out different programs and so on.
According to Martin & Grudziecki (2015) digital literacy is the ability to understand and use information in different formats from different sources found on a computer. It is a fundamental act of cognition. Digital literacy is seen as a prerequisite for innovation and creativity. The digital literacy depends on your attitude and your ability to “identify, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, analyse and synthesize” (p. 255)digital resources and critically evaluate them and by using them appropriately.
Increasing or improving one´s skills is a progression of increasing competence from novice to expert. Here I, as nurse and a nurse educator, can see similarities with the nursing theorist Patricia Benner (Alligood & Tomey, 2010.) In Benners nursing theory she is talking about the different stages of nurses, we begin with being a novice and evolving due to experience in the following order: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient and expert. According to her theory the novice can´t discern between relevant or irrelevant whereas the expert does not rely on the analytical principle ( rules or guidelines) to connect the understanding of the situation to an adequate action. The expert is described as having intuition and being able to identify problems without losing time on considering alternative solutions.
Higher education requires both literacy and language skills, both teachers and students has stated this. English has become the scientific lingua franca since international research and articles are found in international data-bases written in English. In the study executed in Serbia the result was that students are more motivated than the professors to use Internet services and social media in teaching. The older generation is not teaching young adults in digital literacy due to the lack of knowledge. (Radovanovic, Hogan & Lalic. 2015) Adopting new digital media is challenging for both students and teachers, because the educators may not be digitally literate themselves. (Buckingham 2006).
At Arcada University of Applied Sciences we use the educational model “Didaktik” from the German tradition. This means that the teachers have a higher degree of autonomy when it comes to content and pedagogical methods. The university pays for access to digital tools and technologies but it may be difficult to integrate it in the different courses in an interesting way.
Educational institutions play a significant role in ensuring the needed competencies for the future employees. As teachers we need to know how to implement digital literacy in the curricula, and which pedagogical approach should be used. Problem Based Learning (PBL) is stated to be an effective way for learning digital literacy. (Ryberg & Georgsen. 2010)
Digital literacy can be divided into three categories where the second category is collaboration and work skills which include multitasking, distributed cognition and collective intelligence. (Ryberg&Georgsen.2010)
I found my very first tweet chat as multitasking, and was struggling to keep up. Tweet chat means having a virtual meeting on Twitter. People “meet” on a specific time, usually for one hour to discuss a specific topic. We met up with the #ONL211 group to discuss on digital literacy. At first our instructors explained how a tweet chat works and gave the instructions that we will discuss around the questions asked. There were 6 questions all concerning digital literacy and the attendees were supposed to answer accordingly: A1 was the answer to the first question and A2 the answer to the second and so on. Since I haven´t been active on Twitter and this was my first tweet chat, it was kind of difficult to try to keep track on the conversation. Who is responding to which question and who is commenting on somebody´s tweet. Time went very fast, even though I felt like multitasking for one hour I was disappointed when the hour was up.
Before the tweet chat I watched a You Tube video to learn on how a tweet chat is done, and I read all the other instructions that were found ONL´s pages, still I was anxious. What if I don´t know how to do it? I thought that everybody else would be very used to using twitter and know how a tweet chat works. What a relief, to see the first tweets saying “this is my first tweet” from all over the world!
During these two first weeks of attending the ONL I have learned a lot and looking forward the upcoming weeks.
References
Alligood, Martha Raile & Tomey, Ann Mariner. 2010. Nursing theorists and their work. Seventh edition. 137-164.
Buckingham, D. 2006. Defining digital literacy- What do young people need to know about digital media? The nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 263-276.
Martin, Allan & Grudziecki, Jan. 2015. DigEuLit: Concepts and Tools for Digital literacy development. Innovation in Teaching and Learning in Information and Computer Sciences, 5:4, 249-267.
Radovic, Danica & Hogan, Bernie & Lalic, Danijela. 2015. Overcoming digital divides in higher education: Digital literacy beyond Facebook. new media & society. vol 17(10), 1733-1749.
Ryberg, Thomas & Georgsen, Marianne. 2010. Enabling Digital Literacy. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, vol 5, 88-100.
