Digital Native ~ Terminology Debate

After an interested meeting of the CoP in Edinburgh on Bonfire Night, I thought I'd share a link or two. Well, it was the day of Bonfire Night, we didn't get together to forgo the fireworks!

We discussed how the term digital native is misleading. There is an assumption digital native denotes an innate understanding of technology and therefore  means all those born within a certain timeframe (and from now on) are highly adept at using technology for all means.

For those that work in libraries and education, we regularly see that this is not the case. JISC and the British Library undertook research into young people's technological abilities and discovered there is no correlation between ability to work technology with information literacy, academic literacy or in some cases digital literacies. They did this with CIBER in a project called Google Generation which really prompted a lot of my personal interest in digital natives.

Prensky, who introduced us to the term digital native cannot be credited, nor berated, for giving us a definition. The current understanding seems to have grown from a collective consciousness of what being digitally native might mean. Notably, it had to be non-digital natives, or digital immigrants, who decided what it was to be digitally native which is perhaps where the misunderstanding came from.

Dave White a researcher at Oxford University, challenged the Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants model in Digital Visitors and Residents, abstract below:

This article proposes a continuum of ‘Visitors’ and ‘Residents’ as a replacement for Prensky’s much‐criticised Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. Challenging the basic premises upon which Prensky constructed his typology, Visitors and Residents fulfil a similar purpose in mapping individuals’ engagement with the Web. We argue that the metaphors of ‘place’ and ‘tool’ most appropriately represent the use of technology in contemporary society, especially given the advent of social media. The Visitors and Residents continuum accounts for people behaving in different ways when using technology, depending on their motivation and context, without categorising them according to age or background. A wider and more accurate representation of online behaviour is therefore established.

Further information about Dave and his work is available here.  

I don't know how others feel about this debate, though I do wonder what the library of the future will look like, when the only staff it might have were born into a world saturated with technology. Interested to hear the thoughts of others.

Dundee College's Skills for Learning, Life and Work Course

The Learner Resources team at Dundee College have successfully launched a pilot course called Skills for Learning, Life and Work. The 'press release' information we provided:

A key part of the College’s role is to help students prepare for obtaining and retaining employment. In addition to the academic qualifications, it is important we provide them with the skills required for their future careers. The aim of this course is to provide students with a certificated qualification which demonstrates to employers that the students have the essential soft skills and personal qualities required to be successful employees through a range of ‘learning by doing’ activities.

In addition, it aims to help students make the connection between the knowledge, skills and experience gained at College and how they can demonstrate these when applying for jobs. For example, gaining the knowledge and understanding behind learning how to research a subject topic can be transferred into the workplace setting in key areas such as professional communication and IT skills.

The Skills for Learning, Life and Work course will cover the following subject areas at level SCQF 6:

• Induction to library, Hub services and resources and College systems
• Using IT Successfully
• Study Skills
• Research Skills
• Writing Styles (for business, for scientific reports, for essay writing, for communications reports)
• Referencing
• Presentation Skills
• Reflexive Writing / Personal statements
• Searching and Applying for Jobs
• Time Management and Stress Reduction

The key element of the course is information literacy supporting all academic literacies. Students must complete 10 hours of the subjects listed and then must pass a summative test for that topic. Once all ten hours are completed, a College certificate is issued.

We have been overwhelemed by uptake for the pilot groups, with 11 streams currently undertaking the course. All the materials are available under a CC licence and we are working with JISC to make this widely known.

An overview of the materials can be accessed here.

Dundee College's Literacy Information Skills Project

At the recent CoP meeting, I gave a short presentation on the Literacy Skills Project run at Dundee College. Library staff work with the Special Programmes* Curriculum Manager to devise a 12 week course improving basic literacy and numeracy skills. The focus was on improving these basic skills for learning, life and work - pillars of Scotland's new Curriculum for Excellence which is currently being implemented for all age groups.

The activities include:

• QR code treasure hunt using iPads (incorporating library induction)
• How to stay safe online
• Ways to find out information - online and hard copy - and how to judge if it's trustworthy and relevant
• Google Maps session
• Simulated shop where students select the best offers and practice using money
• Working on a joint project like a book of poems or recipes to improve computer skills (particularly in Microsoft Office), team working and interpersonal skills
• Creating comic strip library user guide, available in all our libraries

At present the course is College certificated, though the bank of materials exists for all students of the College. The material is held on the Dundee College virtual learning environment (VLE) Moodle which promotes inclusion within the College, as all learning and teaching materials are held here.

Click here to see the comic strip user guide, please feel free to contact me with any questions.

a.mawhirt@dundeecollege.ac.uk

*The Special Programmes groups are learners with additional learning and behaviour difficulties. These students will often have a carer or support worker and will normally display below average social and intellectual development for their age group. This makes them some of the most challenging and rewarding groups to work with, and they are some of the College's best library users.

BASE e-learning

Something that might be of interest:

What is BASE E-Learning?

BASE -Library E-Learning is a platform that allows you to enhance your information and evidence retrieval skills.

This resource supports the ambition of high quality care and provides an innovative approach to learning by supporting and responding to changing needs.  Learning modules help you to develop skills to search effectively for evidence-based information and to appraise it for relevance and credibility. Learning outcomes meet recognised key skills and competencies.

BASE E-Learning was created for BASE (Birmingham and Black Country NHS Libraries) and aimed at library members to develop key skills in finding and appraising evidence based information.

Content includes:

• BASE Libraries Online Catalogue (library specific only)
• Basic and Advanced Database Searching
• How to register for Athens
• Introduction to NHS Evidence
• Critical Appraisal         
• Cochrane Library     
• Publishing, Copyright and Citations Understanding Copyright & Plagiarism in the NHS
• Individual modules can be purchased

How BASE E-learning can support YOU!

Why reinvent the wheel?  Share the best E-learning!

• As a library service do you find that you are continually delivering the same information skills training time and time again?
• Would you like to offer refresher training to your users but don't have the time
• Are you having to release your staff to conduct such training and in the process taking them away from their day to day responsibilities?

Now imagine if you could use e-learning information skills training courses that have already been developed by library staff? If only you knew what was out there and how to get them your service users.

If you have answered yes to any of these questions, then BASE E-Learning could be for you!

For further information please email: Jacqui.watkeys@walsallhealthcare.nhs.uk or Sue Caldicott on s.caldicott@nhs.net for further information and cost.

Dear all,

Excellent to be blogging with The Right Information, as it were!

I currently work at Dundee College in the libraries team, which we affectionately (and confusingly!) know as the Learning Hub team. We're involved in information literacy through our Literacy and Hospitality Information Skills programmes, check the blog or sign up for the RSS feed to see a post on that soon.

I'm presonally interested in information literacy, currently completing my distance learning MSc Information and Library Studies with RGU, writing my dissertation. I'm looking at the role of the library in blended learning curriculums, specifically at the librarian's specialist skills in improving information literacy in students and how this in turn improves engagement with studies, retention and achievement.

I am from a family of teachers and my involvement with education has, thus far ;o), been life-long. With so many practitioners in the family, I've always been passionate about good education, excellent teaching and ensuring everyone learns the basics to fully participate in learning, life and work. I'm interested to see how Scotland's new Curriculum for Excellence will support or improve this, as I think there is potential there, but I'm not sure it will be realised.

Look forward to working with everyone and getting to know more people through the site.

Abi