scholarly journals A qualitative investigation of the digital literacy practices of doctoral students

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Diane Louise Bell
Keyword(s):  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Research Productivity ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Digital Skills ◽  
Research Students

Academic libraries are currently part of a landscape where there is a rapid growth of digital technologies and electronic resources and they have responded to this by developing their research services. Some of the most specialised and complex research in higher education is conducted by doctoral students and the effective use of digital tools and skills is often crucial to their research workflow and success. The need for digital literacy has been further emphasised during the global pandemic of 2020-21 which has required the maximisation of online working and digital skills to ensure the continuation of education, services and research productivity. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative research study in a UK university exploring factors influencing differences in the digital literacy skills of doctoral students. The literature included has been updated as digital skills and technologies are a constantly changing area of research.   Due the complex nature of doctoral research, it was difficult to draw definite conclusions about the many factors which influence the digital literacy practices of research students. Students interviewed in the study discussed their approaches to and understanding of information, digital and media literacy (Jisc, 2016) but the influence of demographic factors such as age, discipline and gender could not easily be evaluated.  All students in the study appeared to be under time pressure and required a high level of organisation and this was assisted by digital skills and proficiency and access to robust hardware and software. They believed they were largely self-taught and some required appropriate training at the point of need to increase their research productivity. This paper will explore how evidence-based practice and engagement may be used to understand the digital practices of doctoral students and to inform the development of research services within academic libraries. 

scholarly journals The role of libraries in teaching doctoral students to become information-literate researchers

2019 ◽  
Vol 120 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 158-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Ince ◽  
Christopher Hoadley ◽  
Paul A. Kirschner
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Skill Sets ◽  
Types Of Information

PurposeThis paper aims to review current literature pertaining to information literacy and digital literacy skills and practices within the research workflow for doctoral students and makes recommendations for how libraries (and others) can foster skill-sets for graduate student research workflows for the twenty-first century scholarly researcher.Design/methodology/approachA review of existing information literacy practices for doctoral students was conducted, and four key areas of knowledge were identified and discussed.FindingsThe findings validate the need for graduate students to have training in information literacy, information management, knowledge management and scholarly communication. It recommends empirical studies to be conducted to inform future practices for doctoral students.Practical implicationsThis paper offers four areas of training to be considered by librarians and faculty advisers to better prepare scholars for their future.Originality/valueThis paper presents a distinctive synthesis of the types of information literacy and digital literacy skills needed by graduate students.

How to Use Parody and Humour to Teach Digital Literacy

2016 ◽  
pp. 423-435
Author(s):  
Luis Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Young People ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Practical Approach ◽  
Digital Skills ◽  
The Impact

Based on the assumption digital literacy needs a practical approach and actions, this chapter presents an initiative that intends to develop digital skills in a very creative way. Considering the challenge educators (for instance, teachers or librarians) face to promote digital literacy skills especially to young people in a very engaging way, some training was developed to create a possible answer to that problem. This chapter discusses the impact of that initiative that highlights the potential of humour and parody that we can find on digital media to teach digital literacy. According to some attendants, this approach was creative, engaging and built in their minds alternative paths to explore digital literacy and critical thinking.

Children and Youth Librarians

2016 ◽  
pp. 25-50
Author(s):  
Sylvia Vincent Stavridi ◽  
Dalia Ragaa Hamada
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Technical Skills ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Children And Youth ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Specific Knowledge ◽  
Digital Skills ◽  
Children And Young Adults

In a high-tech environment where knowledge and information are delivered in a fast paced mode, the role of librarians serving children and young adults is being re-directed from being solely responsible for information and knowledge transfer to teaching and research. The children and young adult libraries at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina have been trying to extend their ways to deliver the services and understand the challenges in integrating various technologies. The chapter locates a series of technology competencies and skills that are currently expected of librarians working with children and young adults. In addition to their non-technical skills, librarians have to be technologically empowered and learn a variety of technical behaviors and acquire the digital skills needed to embrace the constantly changing complexities and advances in digital technology. This chapter upgrades the digital literacy skills in discipline-specific knowledge to support the integration of digital proficiencies as relevant skills for librarians to serve in their new role as teacher librarian.

Conceptualizing the integration of digital humanities in instructional services

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Pun
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Digital Humanities ◽  
Visual Literacy ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Digital Resources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Digital Skills ◽  
Instructional Services

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize how digital humanities (DH) projects can be integrated into instructional services programs in libraries. The paper draws on three digital projects from the New York Public Library (NYPL) and explores how librarians can creatively utilize these resources to teach new digital literacy skills such as data analysis and data management. For patrons, they can learn about the content of these crowd-sourcing projects as well. By integrating DH projects into library instruction, the possibilities and opportunities to expand and explore new research and teaching areas are timely and relevant. Design/methodology/approach – The approach of this paper is to explore NYPL’s three digital projects and underscore how they can be integrated into instructional services: “What’s On the Menu,” “Direct Me NYC” and “Map Warper” all offer strengths and limitations but they serve as paradigms to explore how digital resources can serve multipurpose use: they are databases, digital repositories and digital libraries but they can also serve as instructional service tools. Findings – The paper conceptualizes how three DH projects can serve as teaching opportunities for instructional services, particularly teaching digital literacy skills. By exploring the content of each digital project, the paper suggests that users can develop traditional information literacy skills but also digital literacy skills. In addition, as crowdsourcing projects, the Library also benefits from this engagement since users are adding transcriptions or rectified maps to the Library’s site. Patrons develop visual literacy skills as well. The paper addresses how librarians can meet the needs of the scholarly community through these new digital resources. While the paper only addresses the possibilities of these integrations, these ideas can be considered and implemented in any library. Practical implications – The paper addresses positive outcomes with these digital resources to be used for library instructional services. Based on these projects, the paper recommends that DH projects can be integrated into such instructions to introduce new content and digital skills if appropriate. Although, there are limitations with these digital resources, it is possible to maximize their usage if they are used in a different and creative way. It is possible for DH projects to be more than just digital projects but to act as a tool of digital literacy instruction. Librarians must play a creative role to address this gap. However, another limitation is that librarians themselves are “new” to these resources and may find it challenging to understand the importance of DH projects in scholarly research. Originality/value – This paper introduces DH projects produced in a public research library and explores how librarians can use these digital projects to teach patrons on how to analyze data, maps and other content to develop digital literacy skills. The paper conceptualizes the significant roles that these DH projects and librarians can play as critical mediators to introducing and fostering digital literacy in the twenty-first century. The paper can serve as an interest to academic and public libraries with large research collections and digital projects. By offering new innovative ideas of integrating DH into instructional services, the paper addresses how DH projects teaching tools can support specific digital skills such as visual literacy and data analysis.

scholarly journals Reimagining Professional Development for Digital Literacies: Old, New and Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-60
Author(s):  
Suzanna Wong ◽  
Linda Laidlaw ◽  
Yina Liu
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Professional Associations ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Development Models ◽  
Literacy Teaching ◽  
Digital Skills

During the COVID-19 pandemic teachers have been expected to learn new digital literacy skills, often applying them immediately. While professional development structures within school districts and professional associations are organized to offer supports, teachers may be challenged to gain digital skills within existing professional development models. Within our study, teachers explored technologies with the aim of rethinking frames for teaching and learning literacy. Following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic they shared their experiences, insights and challenges. In our article, we address implications for digital literacy teaching and learning and the need for new ways of approaching teacher development.

scholarly journals Digital Literacy

Communication ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Troy Hicks ◽  
Katherine Baleja ◽  
Mingyuan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Computer Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Instant Messaging ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Adolescent And Young Adult ◽  
Ict Literacy ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Print Communication ◽  
K 12

For centuries, both the technologies of literacy—from cuneiform tablets to the printing press to, most recently, the smartphone—as well as the practices of reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and visually representing have evolved. In the late 1990s, with the emergence of the hyperlinked and increasingly visual form of the Internet known as the World Wide Web, researchers, journalists, and educators began to use the term “digital literacy” to describe and differentiate emerging practices that were considered new, or at least different, from linear, text-centric literacy practices. To be digitally literate, competent learners would need to perform equally as well in face-to-face and print communication, as well as with emerging online tools such as discussions boards, instant messaging, and email. Along with the introduction of the term “digital literacy,” a number of related—and often considered synonymous—terms have emerged from various perspectives including “computer literacy,” “information communication technologies (ICT) literacy,” “information literacy,” “media literacy,” “new literacy(ies),” and “multiliteracies.” In an effort to clarify definitions and to distinguish between other entries in the Oxford Bibliographies, “digital literacy” is defined here as the complementary and interwoven skills, both technical and social, that people must employ when using Internet-based communication—including hypertext, images, audio, and video—to consume and create messages across a variety of academic, civic, and cultural contexts. Digital literacy, then, has particular significance within the realm of education. Often positioned as a set of skills and dispositions on par with—or in some cases, even more important than—traditional literacy skills of reading and writing, digital literacy has taken a prominent role in academic conversations from early childhood education through adolescent and young adult learning. Additionally, references to digital literacy are now common in conversations outside of school as well. This bibliography focuses attention on digital literacy in K-12 contexts, with reference to out-of-school and global contexts, drawing attention to the wide range of educational scholarship that embraces the study of digital literacy including research in linguistics and sociology as well as education.

scholarly journals Digital literacy practices of Turkish pre-service EFL teachers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sedat Akayoglu ◽  
H. Müge Satar ◽  
Kenan Dikilitas ◽  
Nazlı Ceren Cirit ◽  
Sibel Korkmazgil
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
University Professors ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Information And Communication

With rapid changes in information and communication technologies, it is no longer sufficient for language teachers and pre-service teachers (PTs) to know how to use existing digital tools. They also need to be digitally literate in order to critically evaluate such tools and platforms for safe, wise, and productive use. Within a qualitative approach, this study investigated Turkish PTs’ conceptualisation of digital literacy. This included an exploration of how PTs defined this concept, what kind of tools they used, and for which purposes they preferred to use digital tools. First, we found that PTs concept of digital literacy consist of many levels from knowledge to use, and to critical, creative, and collaborative use. Second, we observed that university professors play an important role in the development of digital literacy levels of PTs. Third, it was found that PTs use social media platforms heavily for various purposes, however, we identified a need for further guidance in supporting PTs' use of these platforms for their professional development. The findings of this study shed light on the current digital literacy skills of PTs in Turkey and will be beneficial for educational policy makers and teacher trainers in teacher education for the twenty-first century.

Nurturing critical consumers and producers of narrative media

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennie Goforth ◽  
Winifred Fordham Metz ◽  
Kelsey Hammer
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Production Equipment ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Media Production ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Experience Teaching ◽  
Software Skills ◽  
Education Academic

Purpose Academic libraries have long housed multimedia centers filled with digital media production equipment and software. All too frequently faculty members and students alike have assumed that this technology is the key to effective digital media. It is assumed that because our “digital native” students are constantly immersed in media, they can create effective media instinctively. But, being a prolific consumer of media does not necessarily intuit the capacity to be an effective producer of media, and informed communication skills are of greater importance than a student’s software knowledge. This paper aims to describe partnering with faculty on media assignment design, providing a media instruction and consultation program, and providing spaces and technologies specifically designed to support multimedia literacy. Design/methodology/approach This paper outlines programmatic and pedagogical strategies demonstrated to improve students’ acquisition of multimedia literacy skills. These strategies are based on the authors’ years of experience teaching and supporting multimedia literacy in the university curriculum and beyond. It concludes with a case study detailing a new program that leverages a library’s services in support of student creativity. Findings The paper outlines an eight-step workflow for media projects that is core to our multimedia literacy instruction program. Originality/value With digital literacy garnering renewed attention in higher education, academic libraries are ramping up their services in support of these goals. This paper focuses on strategies for deepening students’ media production competencies, rather than just teaching them software skills.

scholarly journals Intersecting Flows of Language and Literacy: A Case Study of One Transnational Youth in the Cloud and in the Classroom

LETRAS ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 179-192
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Dillard-Paltrineri
Keyword(s):  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Virtual Spaces ◽  
Alfabetización Digital ◽  
Estudio De Caso

What youth do online is often dismissed as solely social and superficial a waste of time and certainly not academic. Many transnational youth use sophisticated, multimodal, and multilingual literacy skills to navigate these physical and virtual spaces. Calling on concepts of flows and scapes, as well as sociocultural notions of mediation, this case study investigates the digital literacy practices of transnational youth. A description is provided of see how these practices flow between (and simultaneously mediate further participation in) official and unofficial spaces of learning. Las actividades en línea de los jóvenes se consideran pasatiempos, y no actividades académicas. Muchos jóvenes transnacionales navegan los espacios físicos y virtuales usando destrezas de alfabetización complejas, multimodales y multilingües. Mediante los conceptos de flujos y scapes, mediación y teorías socioculturales, este estudio de caso investiga las prácticas de alfabetización digital de jóvenes transnacionales. Describe las formas en que éstas destrezas fluyen (y, simultáneamente, median más participación) entre espacios de aprendizaje oficiales y no oficiales.

scholarly journals Postsecondary Instructors’ Perspectives on Teaching English as a Foreign Language by Means of a Multimodal Digital Literacy Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (18) ◽  
pp. 86
Author(s):  
Norah Almusharraf ◽  
Joseph Engemann
Keyword(s):  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Computer Software ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia ◽  
Effective Utilization ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Assessment Strategies

It can be argued that multimodal digital literacy practices promote the development of literacy skills needed for today’s world without being constrained to one mode of learning. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the employment of multimodal practices during instruction within EFL classrooms in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is minimal and fraught with obstacles to its effective utilization. It is, therefore, essential to determine whether this is the case and, if so, to develop strategies that would ameliorate this situation. This study, therefore, sought to identify KSA postsecondary EFL instructors’ self-reporting of their use of various types of technology, computer software, and online software; the different teaching/learning and assessment strategies that they employ; the obstacles they face with the use of technology in their classrooms; and their beliefs about the use of multimodal digital literacy practices for teaching and learning. The study, which was based on the premises of social semiotic theory, utilized a mixed-methods design from which survey and focus group interview data were triangulated. The findings demonstrated that while most postsecondary EFL instructors have a strong positive attitude towards multimodal digital literacy practices and make robust use of specific types of technology and software programs, obstacles prevent these practices from being more widely and frequently deployed in the KSA. Suggestions for how to make a transformation to a more pronounced use of multimodal practices happen, and the limitations to the study are also presented.

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