Jisc webinar 2 May 2013

1. Which best describes your role?
A. Supporting/managing e-learning or technology-enhanced learning
B. Staff and educational development
C. Lecturer/course leader
D. Professional services eg library, careers, student support
E. Other – please use chat box to give detail
How do you currently engage with students around digital literacies? (Please
type in the chat)
02/05/2013 Developing Digital Literacies slide 1

2. Changing Student Practices and Digital Literacies
 Introduction - Sarah Davies, Programme Manager, Jisc
 Digital literacies: changing student practices
– Lesley Gourlay, Institute of Education, Digital Literacies as a Postgraduate
Attribute
 Students as change agents and digital pioneers
– Elizabeth Dunne, University of Exeter, CASCADE project
 Undergraduates as change agents to support digital literacies
– Mark Kerrigan, University of Greenwich, Digital Literacies in Transition project
 Student ePioneers: agents of change for digital literacies development
– Richard Francis & Rauri Pountain, Oxford Brookes University, InStePP project
 Questions after each input; 15 mins for discussion at the end
02/05/2013 Developing Digital Literacies slide 2

3. Digital literacies:
changing student
practices
Lesley Gourlay
Institute of Education

4. About the project
Research work year 1:
Survey analysis
Focus groups (PGCE, taught
Masters, distance Masters, PhD
students)
Longitudinal, multimodal
journaling (12 students, 9-12
months, 3-4 interviews;
images, video and text)

5. Student
orientations:
Combat
Curation
Coping

6. How can rich student data
be used?
At IOE it has influenced the establishment of an
IT Users’ Group & also intervention work, year 2:
Synchronous tutorials, Academic Writing Centre
Focus groups on interactive guides, Library
Staff digital literacies, Learning Technologies Unit
Sense of narrative, and the ‘day-to-day’ of
student engagement
Powerful resource for developmental activities
and reflection on practice

7. Links
http://diglitpga.jiscinvolve.org/wp/
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elea
rning/developingdigitalliteracies/DigLitPGAttribut
e.aspx
http://www.slideshare.net/lesleygourlay
http://www.slideshare.net/martinoliver

8. STUDENTS AS CHANGE AGENTS
and DIGITAL PIONEERS
JISC webinar, May 2013
CASCADE -
Elisabeth Dunne

9. There is a difference between an institution that ‘listens’ to
students and responds accordingly, and an institution that gives
students the opportunity to explore areas that they believe to
be significant, to recommend solutions and to bring about the
required changes.
The concept of ‘listening to the student voice’ – implicitly if not
deliberately – supports the perspective of student as
‘consumer’, whereas ‘students as digital pioneers’ explicitly
supports a view of the student as ‘active collaborator’ and ‘co-
producer’, with the potential for transformational change.
INSTITUTIONAL ETHOS

10. To implement research rich initiatives in 5 Colleges that
illustrate what digital scholarship means and what counts as a
digitally literate research professional
To provide professional development for staff and students in
research roles
To use postgraduate students as Change Agents (Pioneers) to
support student and staff development in digital literacy
‘CASCADE’ OBJECTIVES

11. CASCADE INTERNS
• Several Postgraduates from each College joined CASCADE
to create a group of 17 ‘interns’
• Most of these were Postgraduate Researchers, strongly
embedded in their disciplines
• Payments for up to £600 were available for participation in
initiatives with the project team
-engaging with intern group activities/skills sharing
-developing a small-scale digital literacy project of their
choice
-writing a case study…

12. ‘Supporters’ - through sharing expertise with each other and
supporting others in learning ways of working with technology
(e.g. showing each other their favourite referencing tools).
‘Producers’ or ‘Creators’ - for example by developing resources
that will be useful to others across the University (e.g. the
production of online resources for new international students, or a
Facebook site)
‘Pioneers’ - in their subject areas, using their personal
technologies in novel ways and finding new uses for technology
(e.g. for data visualisation and presentation).
‘Transformative agents of change’ - where post graduates who
are digital specialists and/or are strongly motivated by change
help to transform the culture of their department (e.g. by
deliberately finding ways to change conversations and practices
amongst peers and other stakeholders).

13. Digital Literacies
in Transition
University of Greenwich
2013
@DLinHE
http://www.DLinHE.com

14. What is the project about?

15. http://www.HEI-FLYERS.org
Students are DL Change Agents

16. Interdisciplinary Working
• Supports buy-in from the entire university
• Mix of students from academic years
• Mix of students from academic subjects
• Excellent mix of skills and abilities
• Increased networking and staff buy-in
• Potential to be truly representative of the university (student body)

17. Recruitment & Accreditation
Step
1
• Online expression of interest and
the completion of a simple
application for.
Step
2
• Creation of a format neutral
artifact, aligned to the
competencies of the role
Step
3
• Attendance at a
selection
workshop
1.Tap into as many networks as possible to advertise the studentships (understand what the project is offer
those that want to engage);
2.Be clear and transparent on the grading and selection process;
3.Provide structured instructions for the format neutral artefact remembering that offering too much
guidance risks over determining what applicants produced and offering too little guidance risks leaving
applicants unsure of what was required from them;
4.Design the outputs from each step carefully as they can be recycled and used as part of the bigger project;

18. Hints and tips (students)
Hints:
Maintaining good communication skills and developing
an understanding of students needs.
Maintaining regular feedback and implement student
suggestions.
Tips:
Group discussions can enable the understanding of
student views and an understanding of development.
Our experiences of the project:
We have had very open and free discussion and have
been treated as peers with individual voices rather
than students.
We have the feeling of making an impact on digital
learning.
We receive positive and structured feedback.

19. Richard Francis & Rauri Pountain
JISC Webinar
2 May 2013
Student ePioneers: agents of
change for DL development
InStePP is a JISC-funded project
https://wiki.brookes.ac.uk/display/instepp/Home JISC inspires UK
colleges and universities in the innovative use of digital
technologies, helping to maintain the UK's position as a global
leader in education. www.jisc.ac.uk

20. • Institution pursuing multiple forms of student engagement
• All too easy for these initiatives to be subservient to the
dominant ethos of consumerism: market research for product
enhancement
• Project has promoted idea of partnership relationship, parties
with complementary skills,
• Objective of establishing new transformative roles for students
across disciplines
• Digital literacy the vehicle
Institutional Partnership

21. •Trainer
•Mentor
•Resource creator
•Researcher
•Entrepreneur
•First three established
•Last two in pilot
ePioneer Roles

22. • Semestral recruitment by PL SE network in Faculties assisted by
professional association liaison officer and InStePP
Communications intern
• Consultancy and ePioneer training provided by Careers service
and learning support staff (library, IT and learning technology)
• Faculty and directorate staff commission ePioneers to partner on
small-scale digital literacy development initiatives
• Commissions signed off by project team and handed over to
ePioneer community to self-assign
• PL SEs manage and monitor progress and delivery of
commissions
• On completion of commission accompanied by reflective portfolio
ePioneer eligible for ILM endorsed consultancy certificate
Recruitment and commissioning

23. • All Faculties and 3 Directorates engaged
• via SESE: RA for project evaluation and matched funding for
PL SEs
• Embedded in SESE:
• Supported by PVC SE
• PL SEs as partnership leads in all faculties:
• for line management of ePioneers
• cascading partnership dl development to faculty
colleagues
• liaison with faculty learning technologists
• Student co-organising L&T Conference
• Increased awareness and deployment of range of student
partner roles
Changing institutional practices

24. • Critical self-awareness and self-confidence - as important
as DL capabilities: desire to effect change
• Negotiation of roles, outcomes, deliverables; role switching
• Shared responsibility for DL development
• Value of project and time management
• Career choice insight
• Confidence to seek employment opportunities within
institution (internships, service desk, teaching)
New light on student role

25. • New academic pathway for work-based learning:
ePioneers using partnership experience towards academic
credit on Independent Study Module in two faculties
• Impact on other strategic initiatives:
• Moodle rollout Phases 1 & 2 - ePioneers as
trainers, mentors
• Make Moodle Mine - good practice guidelines for social-
constructivist learning with Moodle
• Reading list process review (Learning Resources)
• Focus on team initiative
Impact on curriculum development