Comments for Timmus Limited

Comment on Teachers use of digital resources: drivers and blockers by Doug Belshaw

Doug Belshaw — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:11:27 +0000

Hi Tabetha, I find Singapore fascinating. I've never been there but, like you, did a literature and policy review for Chapter 2 of my thesis. I was at a conference recently when someone from the Singapore government's Ministry of Education presented. They painted a picture of compliance and wonderful digital literacy skills. I've no doubt there's the latter, but I doubt very much whether it was caused by the former! Singapore is notorious for its compliance culture with a huge focus on standards-based testing. Hence their PISA results, I suppose. Almost every teacher in the UK is either explicitly or implicitly in the situation where the copyright for anything that they produce for the classroom can be claimed by their employer. It's a ridiculous situation. The other thing that both schools and the government do is try and put teachers on a leash in terms of social media and their online life. I'm all for teachers avoiding sharing drunken photos of themselves with students they've friended on Facebook, but I do think most policies go too far. (Just check out the teaching unions' policies around this to see what I mean) One last thing to be careful of, though. Teachers are busy people. Very busy people. As such, there can be a tendency to put off that which isn't seen as core or essential to the priorities coming from their leadership. And, in fact, to third parties who wonder why they aren't doing XYZ, they're likely to blame the leadership for being 'hamstrung' in some way. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that all is not always what it seems. Sometimes the speed bumps and roadblocks are in the mind, and don't exist in reality!

Comment on Digital Literacy in a EU context by Tabetha

Tabetha — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:46:42 +0000

Hi Doug. Thanks for your comments and link.
I hope you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the current EU work, in that it definitely encompasses our ‘wider’ view of digital literacy. In 2008-9 Ofcom were a bit of a pain in trying to push for a narrow definition, hence why I had a slide to compare the specific differences between digital and media literacy contexts at the Shock of the Old conference (http://tinyurl.com/pyqu99). Essentially the Becta v Ofcom argument that ensued was like two blind men feeling different bits of the same elephant. It all came down to context.
Ofcom had a lot of clout – in fact Becta and I were invited up there for a meeting in which they tried to get me to see the ‘error of my diglit definition ways’! It didn’t work but the lunch was nice. After my review and Futurelab’s work (done in parallel, which is how I met @notyap) Becta backed us up and stuck with a wide definition of digital literacy. Interestingly, the boss of that project has now transferred to a senior role in the DfE as Head of Humanities, Arts & Languages. He’s a good egg and I know he does follow our posts, so I have faith that all will not be forgotten!
As for the EU folk, check out their review and model http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=4699. OK so I think they have rather over-complicated the whole thing – their model has way too many components (see summary diagram, page 6) but essentially they are trying to include: ‘communication and collaboration’, ‘information management’, ‘learning and problem solving’, and ‘meaningful participation’. So they certainly are not confining themselves to a ‘consumptive’ media literacy context.
I say this now of course, but this is before the Seville trip. I may need to eat my words )

Comment on Digital Literacy in a EU context by Doug Belshaw

Doug Belshaw — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:45:58 +0000

Hi Tabetha. I did some digging around the way the EU equates ‘digital literacy’ and ‘digital competence’ and came up with some findings about how (lobbying for) media literacy has pushed out pretty much everything else in the EU new literacies landscape:

http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2010/11/12/the-problem-with-digital-literacy-in-the-uk-media-literacy

Hope it’s of some help.

Comment on What does it mean to be “digitally literate”? by Doug Belshaw

Doug Belshaw — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:41:03 +0000

I’m *so* glad that my Dad’s not the only one who comments on his offspring’s blog!

I like the first three of your elements, Tabetha (especially ‘social awareness’) but I think the last one is a bit nebulous. You may be interested in this:

http://literaci.es/2012/why-the-remix-is-at-the-heart-of-digital-literacies/

(I’ve tried to come up with ’8 essential elements of digital literacies’)

Comment on Email propaganda and digital literacy by Doug Belshaw

Doug Belshaw — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:38:42 +0000

Wow, good skills Tabetha.

Comment on What does it mean to be “digitally literate”? by Andy

Andy — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:12:59 +0000

Really pleased to see how you have distilled this so well Tabetha. Two things come to mind you may wish to consider.

1. In one I would add the word ‘safely’ after resources.

2. Possibly in three say something about digital self-awareness / maturity where a digitally literate person would understand and operate within the forms and etiquettes within the digital environment.

You are far better than me with words so will be able to express this more coherently

Andy

Comment on What does it mean to be “digitally literate”? by Dad

Dad — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:02:20 +0000

Yes – on the whole a thought-provoking piece. You set the bar quite high. Have you considered the use of two levels or requirements – ‘essential’ and ‘desireable’?

Forward thinking though and just what is needed.

Comment on Digital literacy resources for teachers and students by Digital Literacy in a EU context | Timmus Limited

Digital Literacy in a EU context | Timmus Limited — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:30:08 +0000

[...] There are some slight differences between the projects: Becta’s focus was to then create resources for schools, developed mainly by Sarah Payton and her team from Futurelab – for example see their “Digital Literacy across the Curriculum” handbook and Professional Development resource page. I also created a couple of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 introductory packs for teachers and students (see separate blog post). [...]

Comment on Digital literacy resources for teachers and students by Tabetha

Tabetha — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 13:59:20 +0000

Realised I forgot to mention the great Futurelab work in this area – check out http://futurelab.org.uk/resources/school-approaches-developing-students-digital-literacy

Comment on Digital literacy resources for teachers and students by Doug Belshaw

Doug Belshaw — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 20:31:03 +0000

Thanks for sharing these, Tabetha – looking forward to going through them and blogging about what I find!