Developing Digital Literacies for a Digital World - ALISS agm speaker papers now available

Catching up on some email alerts that I thought would be of interest to the CoP and articles that I need to add to my to read pile. 

ALISS AGM 2014: Developing Digital Literacies for a Digital World papers now accessible. 

• Reflecting on Digital Scholarship competencies -  Dr Charles Inskip reports on the Rilads Project which has been examining the delivery of digital information literacy skills in UK Higher education.

• Start with the Staff -Sally Patalong provides insight into the digital fluency initiative at Coventry University- a practical project to upskill the library staff.

• Information literacy for researchers at SOAS - Beth Clark and Victoria Bird discuss their work in preparing, delivering and promoting digital literacy training for trainee Graduate Teaching Assistants at SOAS

For information about  ALISS see their website

DigiScotFest14

I attended the above event, held on Monday, 16^th June, at the Informatics Forum at Edinburgh University. It was organised by the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations. It was well attended and attracted delegates from local authorities, charities and voluntary bodies, universities, the NHS and, of course, libraries. It was organised on the unconference model and took the form of 40 group discussions carried out in a fairly informal fashion. There was also a debate about digital and human rights. This consisted of short presentations by three speakers including Chris Yiu of SCVO and Professor Michael Fourman. Some fairly familiar themes cropped up: the rights to education, leisure and a cultural life and the role of education in getting people into employment. The problems of the disabled who are more likely to be digitally excluded were also raised. Professor Fourman suggested that digital inclusion should be a civil right and that there should be a digital infrastructure which fosters equality of opportunity. He also emphasised the seriousness of the growing state surveillance culture, stating that everyone had a right to privacy.

After that I attended a discussion on how we can include people digitally when they are financially excluded. Much of the discussion focused on the Government’s digitisation of benefits payments and its consequences and the Universal Jobmatch Scheme. I was struck by the fact that there were two groups of people present who were doing similar work but had never heard of each other which raises interesting questions about local planning partnerships.

In the afternoon I attended a discussion about the role of public libraries in today’s digital society. There was little discussion about information literacy or reading. Employability was the main topic with concern expressed about the consequences of the Universal Credit Scheme, the problems it was causing claimants including sanctions and what librarians could do to help. Firewalls and the problems they cause also provoked a lot of discussion.

It was good to see librarians engaging with the digital participation agenda although it is a little concerning that so much attention seems to be focusing around the Universal Credit Scheme and less on information issues. Apologies for the delay in posting but I have been busy with time limited writing, not to mention the good weather.

John Crawford

CILIPS Autumn Gathering 2013: privacy is dead; CPD; elevator pitch

Back on October I did a blog posting about the morning session at CILIPS Autumn Gathering 2013. I promised I would do a posting about the afternoon sessions I attended - so here it is. In the afternoon I choose sessions that concentrated on CPD activities but could be used for IL purposes and attended the final session keynote by Simon Finch (Northen Grid) and I'll start there.

Somon's presentation tilted 'Welcome to the end of the World - E-Safety, Online Behaviour and the Death of Privavcy' was full of lots of warnings that are familiar to those of us interested or involved in e-saftey and online behaviour. He did however also offer some useful suggestions such as:

'Privacy is dead'- we must be seen to manage the risk to the best of our ability so:

• instead of saying 'don't share personal information' instead we need to say 'how to share personal information' 

• post like your enemy is watching

• 'Twitter is the biggest staffroom in the world'.

CPD 23 - Anabel Marsh talked about her participation in CPD23. I had heard of CPD23 and also meant to have a look at it but never got round to it, so this my opportunity. Something that struct me were that the 23 things model has been adapted for for other topics and that it could probably be used for information literacy. Of particular interest to me in CPD23 was 'reflective practice' No 5 and 'advocacy'. The later as Anabel says 'should be part of our toolkit' - I couldn't agree more. The later leads me onto the other session I attended 'Elevator pitch or elevate your pitch' a useful skill to have as part of your advoacy toolkit.

Elevator pitch or elevate your pitch - another thing on my to do list regarding skills was to be able to as Suzanne Wheatley put it to have 'a carefully constructed message that grabs the attention' of someone when I only have a few seconds to do so. Suzanne suggests that in order to achieve this 'with clarity and grace' we need to be

• concise
• relevant
• know what your'e selling.

You also need to create a connection with the person - you can't build a relationship with someone in that short space of time but you can start by making a connection with them so they may be persuaded to meet you at a later date to learn more or hear from you with more information.

She suggested that in crafting your pitch / message you break the pitch down into sections and address each one in turn then put them back together:

• aim for 30 seconds of talking - 150 / 230 words
• identify your goal (objective) - what are you pitching (funding, project, services) and what are you trying to achieve (what do you want out of the pitch).
• introduce yourself (who you are, what you do) - show value, communicate what makes you unique. Don't overload people with information - think quality not quantity - short snapy points.
• engage with the person - ask an insightful question (how ... / what ... / where ... / do you ... / I saw ... / I read your .... / and allow for the other person to respond. Ask if they have time for a coffee. Exchange email addresses.
• statge left - e.g. This is my floor. Nice to meet you (handshake). Look forward to hearing from you.

Remember:

• Delivery is as crucial as content - if you believe in yourself then it shows.
• Body language is also important: stand as straight as possible; good posture projects confidence; good hand shake (practice - a limp hand shake is not good). 
• Make eye contact and smile - if you look interested, they will engage with you
• Consider the volume of your voice (take your lead from the person you are talking to) and the speed (we tend to speak too quickly when we are nervous or have limited time).

As Suzanne says 'being able to pitch yourself with confidence and clarity in thirty seconds is a handy skills in all areas of life. Believe in what your pitching (enthusiasim is infectious), be concise and be compelling.' (View from the Hill: news from the world of information recruitment Issue 11 Summer 2013). See Suzanne's thoughts on the Gathering

For me this skills would be useful as apart of an information literacy advocacy tool.

The afternoon sessions were a great finish to a great day where I had learnt a few things and met some new people plus cauht up on a few that I hadn't seen for a while. great way to catch up with what's happening. 

I also managed to pick up a National Library of Scotland leaflet for tutors and adult learners about what NLS can offer them e.g. tailored tours and visits and online learning reasources at www.nls.uk/learning-zone

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.

Digital Literacies & Skills Project Manager - Vacancy

Young Scot has a vacancy that centres on digital and information literacies. The post is located at their office in Haymarket, Edinburgh. 

Digital Literacies & Skills Project Manager
(£25K, Initially Fixed Term to 31^st July 2014)

The Digital Skills & Literacies Project Manager will be directly responsible for project managing and developing the main components of the Young Scot Digital Academy:

- Digital Creative Modern Apprenticeship programme
- Digital Skills in Schools Programme
- Digital information literacy/digital footprint.

The post will line manage two Modern Apprenticeship Co-ordinators, and work with the Information Services and Outreach Teams to develop online and offline resources to support young people’s digital information literacy skills and digital footprint.

http://www.youngscot.net/news/vacancies-at-young-scot.aspx