I checked out Beetham and Sharpe’s (2011) theoretical framework, Jisc. I looked for a definition of digital literacy and found this: “Digital literacy looks beyond functional IT skills to describe a richer set of digital behaviours, practices and identities. What it means to be digitally literate changes over time and across contexts, so digital literacies are essentially a set of academic and professional situated practices supported by diverse and changing technologies.” I agree – to be digitally literate definitely changes over time and across contexts. They (or at least I think it was these two scholars?) talk about the seven elements of digital literacies (i.e., media literacy, communications and collaborations, career and identity development, ICT literacy, learning skills, digital scholarship, and information literacy) and for me (both as a teacher and as a user of ICT), ICT literacy and learning skills would be the most important (or relevant) literacies. I need the functional skills that Beetham and Sharpe introduce in their framework! Further, I enjoyed the online hour with David White. It went by fast! Right now I am wondering about how to define digital literacy in my own academic context; for example, what is digital literacy in second/foreign language (L2) English and for teachers of L2 English? What does it entail? This week I also came across a paper by Bennett (2014), who discusses Jisc, and she explores the developing practices that surround the adoption of Web 2.0 and how lecturers make use of digital tools. She touches upon students’ needs (and needs analysis is something we will include in our group’s presentation, so that made me happy) as well. Quite an enjoyable read.

I enjoyed our meetings online with PBL13. Sebastian and I have cooperated running ‘Topic 1’ and I hope it turned out OK for everybody.

After a depressing week with the Coronavirus spreading across the globe, causing so much pain and sorrow, and at the same time a week during which I have kept up with my regular work duties plus participating in this course (and never found the time to buy myself a decent headset, arghhh!), I feel almost as if I have had a Digital Participation OverDose (a.k.a., DPOD). I will log out Friday night and log on again Saturday after a long, slow run in the woods.  

Refs

Beetham, H., & Sharpe, R. (2011). Digital literacies workshop. Paper presented at the JISC Learning Literacies Workshop, Birmingham. http://jiscdesignstudio pbworks.com/w/page/40474566/JISC

Bennett, L. (2014). Learning from the early adopters: developing the digital practitioner. Research in Learning Technology, 22. Retrieved from https://journal.alt.ac.uk/index.php/rlt/article/view/1450/pdf_1