Final+Plenary

 = What opportunities exist for dealing with digital citizenship and fluency? =

Synopsis
When dealing with ICT in teaching and learning, we can often get lost in the skills and techniques that need to be imparted, but we can also miss teaching opportunities that arise in learning experiences. If we take advantage of these missed opportunities, then we can reduce the need for separate units of work addressing skill acquisition, cyberbullying, safety on the net and research skills. In addition, because these ideas and skills are developed as they are practised, learning transfer is much more efficient.

The process
With so many skilled teachers in the one place at the one time, we have a great opportunity to crowdsource good ideas. We'll use collaborative tools to build and share ideas.  At the AIS IT Manager's conference ear lie this year, we used the same process to develop ideas about Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). We did a SWOT analysis, problems solved and created, pros and cons. Have a look at the results here: [|bit.ly/mgl201105]  By the end of this session, we'll have another living resource that can be used immediately at your school. Bring your laptops/pads/anything that can be connected and can edit text. Go to this link: Stage 1: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xId2PcBws5-ylym9log9Jd2NLu4b-SEc4g8e2YfW-34/edit?hl=en_US Stage 2: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-v6rw03JBeehVSZlr8BL6ExDyWXUDjll9_MlbbTUOpY/edit?hl=en_US Stage 3: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h1RBsfHGaLDQGC096EyPkN5jaYIkwUh_uCTO8PXDbfk/edit?hl=en_US Stage 4: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NpSFD0b46QaA8jITMo1PD-jkyhDaTj-rIP2neQu2Bno/edit?hl=en_US Stage 5: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TWF5f32lZUU5a5D6oJILFMz7NvctoZdkrC3ww6uYfm0/edit?hl=en_US Stage 6: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vnp_KGXAXgOgNtZYSfey9Q5FDe27pEjJw8CK7tq4TxI/edit?hl=en_US  [] (entire list)  By the way, there's another in this vein on Parenting and the issues related to computer use (particularly social networking) by kids Add your thoughts: [|mgl2011pa..+]

Background
<span style="display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> ‘Multiliteracies’ is a term coined by the New London Group in order to describe what constitutes literacy in the 21st century. The term acknowledges the idea of textual multiplicity. This idea encompasses the technological explosion of what constitutes a text, and considers this in relation to cultural and linguistic diversity and what it means to be literate. Another facet of this definition refers to the agency of making meaning: that this can be a critical factor in social change. Multiliteracies thus closely link to e-Learning affordances and provide opportunities for students to learn in ways that have become natural for them. Well, so what? My reference to digital fluency is shrouded in the above quote. Fluency needs to encompass not only the spoken and written word but also the admixture of these with sound, visuals and other text types. Fluency implies that reading a URL conveys meaning just as does the first paragraph of "The Tale of Two Cities". It implies that there is more than meets the eye, literally. Wikipedia quotes that "Studies in the assessment of creativity list fluency as one of the four primary elements in creative thinking. The others being flexibility, originality and elaboration. Fluency in creative thinking is seen as the ability to think of many diverse ideas quickly." My view of fluency in a digital context is being able to adapt to the flow of information and "read the signs" to gain new insights, eventually creating new knowledges. "Being Digital" (Nicholas Negroponte, ISBN 0 340 64930 5) describes the difference between a traditional book experience as being generalist (like reading a printed encyclopaedia) and specific (like reading a biography) Negroponte writes: "In the digital world, the depth/breath problem disappears and we can expect readers and authors to move more freely between generalities and specifics" Fluency, then, accepts multi data forms and flows, is able to discriminate between truth and lie (and see if such a distinction actually exists ;-) and appreciate the gift of serendipitous learning. It is active, not just reliant on a passive googling. It is playful, looking for relationships that didn't necessarily exit previously in the learner's (or audience's) mind. It is multi-tooled, knowing which media is best when, and how to deploy it successfully. Does this sound like a good vision statement for embedded ICT? <span style="display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">

About Martin


Martin Levins is Director of Information Technology at The Armidale School He is a student who teaches Computing, Science, Maths and Design & Technology He believes that play is a really important part of learning (at least, that's his excuse)