Free Software Implementation Experiences for the Promotion of the Liquid Society

Information and communication technologies have changed the way in which citizens interact with Public Administrations. Digital literacy is key for the development of the Liquid Society, and Public Administrations must take the lead in promoting more efficient, universal, and user oriented public services. The migration to open source standards allows Public Administration to offer more democratic, universal, and efficient channels for establishing relationships with citizens. In this article, the authors present international experiences that show how certain Public Administrations have migrated to open source software to promote digital literacy in the contexts they are operating. The final results depend on contextual and organizational factors, including the need to change, the political support and the existence of available technological resources, the organizational climate, motivation levels of human resources, and the kind of leadership for the project or the organizational complexity. Change efforts have strategic and organizational impacts that the organization must evaluate beforehand.

Digital Literacy in a Lifelong Learning Programme for Adults

The study presented explores aspects of adult learning on digital literacy in the context of a lifelong learning programme for social cohesion in Greece. The article outlines the framework of the digital literacy subject and underlines its associated objectives regarding adults’ knowledge and competence in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The exploration draws upon the experiences and perceptions of eight adult ICT educators. The findings reveal that the educators tried to use flexible instructional practices that were adjusted to adult learners’ needs and interests. Common effective instructional practices used were: ICT competence sessions, interdisciplinary and multi-literacy lessons, ICT-based projects, individual instruction sessions. Additionally, the article reveals the difficulties that adults faced in the course of developing ICT literacy skills. The paper ends with implications for the design of adult digital literacy courses in lifelong learning programmes, and for the preparation and development of the ICT educators in the years to come.

The Media Diet of University Students in Italy

Developments in information and communication technologies have raised the issue of the intergenerational digital divide that can take place between “digital natives” and “digital immigrants”. Despite emphatic claims concerning how educational systems must take into account the specific characteristics of “digital natives”, sound empirical research on these topics is lacking, especially for Europe. This paper presents the results of research performed during the course of 2008, studying how university students in Italy use digital technologies. The research is based on a survey of 1086 undergraduate students at the University of Milan-Bicocca, complemented by focus groups and in-depth interviews. The results of our research show that, even if university students are familiar with digital technologies, the general possession of high level skills in accessing and using the Internet should not be taken for granted.

Beyond the Media Literacy

The advent of new media and web technologies made both contents and “containers” more “liquid” and requires an in depth reflection on the multi-facets concept of literacy in which the author tries to develop from an education point of view that can be defined as “experiential”. According to such reflection, in the present scenarios, the “design” becomes central to education, underlining the need of educational activities, which should include among their objectives the dissemination of what one may call “design literacy”.

A Framework for Digital Competence Assessment

Today, life is more complex and difficult due to uncertainties in society. Liquid life (Bauman, 2006) is frenetic, rapidly changing and highly influenced from information and communication technologies, and forces subjects to adapt to group behavior avoiding exclusion. Human beings are experimenting with the digital age and the pervasiveness of computers and IT/ICT equipment, which are influencing learning and knowledge construction. This raises questions in regard to a privileged role for digital competences in the knowledge society, whether or not there is a framework for digital competence assessment, and possible hints, suggestions, experiments, protocols, or curricula helping teachers in hitting this target with students. This paper answers these questions, describing the evolution of psycho-pedagogical paradigms and their comparisons. A framework for digital competence assessment is proposed and teaching activities are suggested. A proposal of a teaching-learning process called OTS (Open Teaching Process) is also presented.

Perspectives on Media Literacy, Digital Literacy and Information Literacy

The cultural landscape poses different challenges for teachers. Beyond developing reading and writing skills, it is necessary to emerge in the digital culture and master the different codes of different languages. In this context, media education studies discuss the educational possibilities of interpreting, problematizing, and producing different kinds of texts in critical and creative ways, through the use of all means, languages and technologies available. Considering that media cannot be excluded from literacy programs, it is essential to reflect on the definition of “literate” today. These reflections examine the resignification of concepts like literacy, media literacy, digital literacy and information literacy.

Digital and Inter-Generational Divide

Digital divide can be considered a macro economical index representing the social differences and the separation between the North and the South of the world. Since the first definition of digital divide, it has been shown that it is also a great and unrecognized problem in the developed countries, especially in the field of education. “Digital disconnection” is a key problem for School and University as institutions. In this paper, the above questions are widely analyzed with a special attention on the spreading gap between digital natives (i.e., young students), and digital immigrants (i.e., parents, teachers and policymakers in the school).

Cooperative Learning through Communities of Practice

A community made up of a group of individuals becomes a “community of practice” when a mutual engagement is established between its members. The mutual engagement unites the participants in the carrying out of a common task (Wenger, 1998). The main aim of a community of practice is to find the solution to a problem by sharing experiences (Midoro, 2002). This paper examines the definition, characteristics, management and effectiveness of communities of practice. They are understood as being communities of self-managed learning where professional development is not based on a pre-set training course but on sharing experiences, identifying best practices and helping each other face the daily problems encountered in one’s profession (Trentin, 2000). Such communities are useful in particular working environments as an opportunity to improve digital competences. In communities of practice, it is possible to encourage ways of co-building knowledge through teaching methods such as cooperative learning. Until now cooperative learning has been limited to traditional training contexts, but it can be realised via Web technologies.

Digital Literacy for Health

This paper outlines and challenges expectations and promises regarding the potential of the internet and Web 2.0 for empowering patients and citizens. It focuses on literacies required to make a meaningful (to the individual) use of these technologies for health and health care related purposes. The author briefly discusses how these should be taught and concludes that these literacies, including digital literacy and health literacy, are complex and challenging to many while the empowering claims are over-stated. Traditional sources of information and advice will remain essential to maintaining quality of health care.

Information Communication Technologies for the Lifelong Learning

In today’s knowledge society, better identified as a learning society, the opportunities for self-instruction and lifelong learning are playing an increasing role due to Information Communication Technologies. Old and new communication technologies offer possibilities for learning, as long as the worker is capable of learning in autonomy. Training has a central role as an educational activity, which aims at promoting and updating knowledge. Knowledge society does not only require citizens and workers to have basic skills; it asks for a life-long learning. Documentation is a form of communication that allows tacit, unexpressed, informal knowledge to emerge. It provides knowledge of the individual experiences of teachers and educators that can be widely shared. In knowledge management, audiovisual and multimedia documentation has proved to be a useful and efficient means of recording the experiences that are to be shared.