Digital Literacy
We have invited a panel of highly experienced speakers from a wide range of sectors to broadly discuss issues around digital literacies to support learning and teaching. Digital literacies include those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society. For example, the use of digital tools to undertake academic research, writing and critical thinking; digital professionalism; the use of specialist digital tools and data sets; communicating ideas effectively in a range of media; producing, sharing and critically evaluating information; collaborating in virtual networks; using digital technologies to support reflection and PDP; managing digital reputation and showcasing achievements.
Presenters
Helen Beetham
Helen Beetham is an independent consultant, researcher and author in the field of e-learning. Since 2004 she has played a leading role in the JISC e-learning programme, advising on programmes in e-Learning and Pedagogy, Design for Learning, Learners' Experiences of e-Learning, Reproduce (repurposing and reuse), Curriculum Design, Open Educational Resources and Digital Literacies. She also advises
HE Institutions on topics ranging from learning environments to graduate outcomes and curriculum design. She was Principle Investigator for the 'Learning Literacies for a Digital Age' project (2009), and joint holder of an
ESRC seminar series on Literacies in the Digital University (2009-2010). An experienced workshop leader and a regular keynote speaker at conferences in the UK and abroad, she also works at a strategic level to communicate JISC's work to partners, practitioners, and the educational research community. Helen's publications in the field of e-Learning include Rethinking Pedagogy for the Digital Age (Routledge 2007) and Rethinking Learning for the Digital Age (Routledge 2010), both of which are regular set texts on masters' programmes. She was a member of the expert panel for the
DCSF-funded Beyond Current Horizons programme (2009), which developed a series of reports and future learning scenarios to support Government education policy. Helen has been an evaluator or consultant to over 30 e-learning projects including Learning from WOerk and Porsche, funded under UKOER.
Alex Bols
Alex Bols is Assistant Director (Research) & Head of Higher Education at the National Union of Students.
Alex is currently a member of the UK team of Bologna Experts and sits on the sector committees: Quality in
HE Group;
HE Public Information Steering Group and
HE Better Regulation Group as well as
HEFCE's Teaching, Quality and Student Experience Strategic Advisory Committee, Teaching Funding Advisory Group and their Performance Indicators Steering Group; and is on the JISC Open Educational Resources Advisory Committe and
JANET Stakeholder Group.
In addition, he is the Permanent Secretary of the Aldwych Group (students' unions of Russell Group universities) and Chair of Governors in a primary school and children's centre in Islington. Previously he was Senior Campaigns, Conferences and Events Officer at Universities UK. Prior to which he was based in Brussels as Secretary-General of ESIB - the National Unions of Students in Europe between 2001-2004. He was on the National Executive Committee of NUS 1999-2001 and President and Vice-President of the students' union at the University of Southampton 1997-1999.
Andrew Eynon
Andrew is Library and Learning Technology Manager at Coleg Llandrillo. Andrew has been at Coleg Llandrillo since 1999, having previously worked for the British Library and in
FE in England.
Andrew is a former Chair of CoFHE and of the Colegau Cymru Learning Resource Managers network. Andrew was editor of Guidelines for Colleges: Recommendations for Learning Resources, London: Facet (2005).
Andrew is currently managing two JISC funded projects – one on student peer e-guides and one on embedding Digital Literacy across
FE in North Wales. Andrew has previously managed library projects funded by Museums, Archives, Libraries Wales (CyMAL) on reader development and the use of social media in
FE libraries.
Andrew also manages the Library and Information Studies curriculum at Coleg Llandrillo – teaching on the Foundation Degree in Library & Information Management and Applications of
ICT in Libraries courses. In addition, Andrew Chairs the College’s Research Group and the College’s ‘Blue Sky thinking’ group - looking at the future of teaching and learning in
FE.
Andrew’s academic interest is in the field of early 20th Century Russian theatre and film. Andrew holds a PhD in Russian from Keele University and his PhD thesis was published in 2010; Andrew Eynon, Meyerhold and Eisenstein: the creation of a non-realist aesthetic in revolutionary art, Saarbrücken: Lambert Academic Publishing
David White
David works in the overlapping space between education, academia and technology. He co-manages Technology-Assisted Lifelong Learning (TALL), an award winning elearning research and development group in the University of Oxford.
In 2007 he released some of the first data on what was then called 'web 2.0' platforms which included diagrams with 'social', 'studying' and 'professional' nestling alongside each other to highlight out how these boundaries are blurring. He has also researched the wild frontiers of Virtual Worlds and Massively Multiplayer Online games in the context of teaching and learning.
More recently David has been closely involved in the work of the
HEFCE Online Learning Task Force. Alongside overseeing the creation and delivery of over 50 online distance courses David is currently the Creative Director of the 'Maths in the City' project working with Professor Marcus du Sautoy. He is also leading a study of the use/reuse of Open Educational Resources and research into what motivates learners to engage with the web based around his Digital Visitors & Digital Residents principle.
Alison Mackenzie
Alison Mackenzie is Dean of Learning Services at Edge Hill University. She is currently Chair of North West Academic Libraries (NoWAL) and Chair of
SCONUL Information Literacy Working Group. She has been involved in the strategic development of information literacy at both a local and national level, initially as a project manager for the JISC funded 'Big Blue' and subsequent JISC funded projects and more recently as co-Director the University's Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), SOLSTICE until June 2010. Her interest in digital literacy stems from this initiative and her involvement with a JISC funded project, ReFORM, which focussed on use and reuse of open content. She has extended her interest in digital literacies to include open content literacy and, in collaboration with her colleague Lindsey Martin has developed a framework to support academics in their design of curriculum content using open education resources.
Matt Benka
Matt is Vice President Education, University of Bath Students Union. His role is to work with Academic Council and Academic Exec to identify and gather opinion and evidence on academic issues; and to represent students on those academic issues to the University.
Facilitator
Frances Bell
Frances Bell is a Senior Lecturer in Salford Business School, teaching, researching and running the programmes MSc Information Technology, MSc Managing Information Technology. Her research interests include virtual organising in general and the use of information and communications technologies in teaching and learning. She is particularly interested in the bridge between information systems (IS) and educational research, specifically the use of IS (online communities) theories in educational research, and the use of educational research in organisation-based IS research. She engages with her valuable personal network mainly through twitter @francesbell and her blog
http://www.francesbell.worpdress.com and posts her knitting projects online at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/francesbell/sets/72157603511046619/
Panel Chair
Derfel Owen
Derfel is Student Engagement and Participation Development Manager at the University of Exeter.
Derfel's career has been spent in student facing roles. He studied British Politics and Legislative Studies at the University of Hull where he went on to become President of the Students' Union and was then elected to the National Executive Committee of the NUS where he led efforts to improve students' union governance and their relationships with partner universities. Following this he joined Goldsmiths, University of London as Student Support and Development Manager to help improve personal and professional development opportunities for students and to oversee the development of effective advice and representation structures.
In 2007 Derfel joined the Quality Assurance Agency (
QAA), first as a Development Officer and went on to become Multimedia and Student Engagement Manager. At
QAA he led efforts to improve student engagement and participation in the agency's work, but also to raise the profile of student views and expectations in shaping and developing activities. As part of his efforts to improve
QAA's reach to students, Derfel pioneered new approaches to communication and engagement, including launching the
QAA podcast series, QAAtv, utilising social media, student led publications and a substantial redevelopment of
QAA's website.
