Category: Digital Literacy

Digital Literacies in Foreign and Second Language Education

CALICO Monograph Series Volume 12. (2014). Digital Literacies in Foreign and Second Language Education.

This volume from CALICO is made up of 12 chapters that look at digital literacy in language learning from many different perspectives. Among others, there is a challenge to Prensky’s characterization of Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants, a description of a survey-driven study of the use of digital tools for language teaching and learning, a framework that proposes how to close the digital divide, and an exploration of the affordances of digital social reading using the example of an open source tool called eComma. In this last example, in chapter 9, author Carl Blyth looks at some of the ways that e-readers can enable users to annotate a text and share their annotations with others. This new practice, called digital social reading, is similar to the way that readers of print text can write in the margins or meet as a book club to share their thoughts. Blyth presents and then addresses some of the opposition to this practice using examples from four case studies.

Retrievable from: https://calico.org/bookfiles/pdfs/DigitalLiteracies.pdf

Defining Essential Digital Skills in the Canadian Workplace

Chinien, Chris, and France Boutin. (2011). Defining Essential Digital Skills in the Canadian Workplace: Final Report. Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.

This study reports on a proposed digital skill framework for Canadian workers. The proposed framework includes four skills clusters, three of which are foundational skills, technical digital skills and digital information processing skills. This report is of interest because it provides information about the types of skills adult learners who attend settlement language training will be expected to be able to demonstrate in the workplace. The report points out that prosperity from the digital economy will not depend only on specialists and advanced users of digital technology, but on general workers as well. This has resulted in an increased interest for all workers to possess essential digital skills for both technical systems skills and for everyday tasks so that they can work efficiently and effectively. At the time of the writing of the report, there was no consensus on a definition of digital literacy, as indicated in a chart of definitions of concepts, but attempts were being made to standardize, these while maintaining some adaptability to reflect emerging technologies, in the EU, Australia, New Zealand, the U.S and through UNESCO’s member states. The report provides short reviews of the digital literacy frameworks in each of these jurisdictions and goes on to propose such a framework for Canada.

Retrievable from:

http://apskills.ilo.org/resources/defining-essential-digital-skills-in-the-canadian-workplace-final-report

 

 

Digital Literacy: An Essential Skill for ESL Literacy Learners

Bow Valley College. (2015). Digital Literacy: An Essential Skill for ESL literacy Learners.

A short and lively  account of an innovative “Laptop Lending” program in the Bridge Program for  ESL learners  (ages 19-24) at Bow Valley College in Calgary. Through this program learners are each given a laptop to use while registered in the program and are encouraged and supported to use the laptops to develop digital literacy skills and to pursue their language learning using the online platform, Desire2Learn.

Instructors in the Bridge program are committed to helping learners to develop essential digital literacy skills to  increase their chances of success in further education and in the world of work. As one of the instructors says,  “Being able to read and write also means being able to read and write online, there’s a lot more involved in it than just simply pen and paper.”  

In this article the instructors provide an overview of the background to the laptop lending program, their  experiences with the program and they share some of the successes they have witnessed as a result of the program.

Retrievable from: https://centre.bowvalleycollege.ca/blog/english-language-learning/digital-literacy-essential-skill-esl-literacy-learners

Teaching Critical, Ethical, and Safe Use of ICT to Teachers.

Shin, S.-K. (2015). Teaching Critical, Ethical, and Safe Use of ICT to Teachers. Language Learning & Technology, 19(1), 181–197.

This article reports on a research project conducted with pre-service ESOL teachers in Korea which focused on the often neglected issues of digital literacy, ethical and fair use and e-safety when selecting and using online materials and learning activities in language teaching and learning. Although the authors caution that the relatively small-scale of this research which was limited to a small group of pre-service teachers, does not support broad generalization, it nevertheless raises important questions and awareness for second-language instructors who are using online materials and activities and points to the necessity to consider their own attitudes and practices in relation to digital literacy, fair use, and e-safety in order to model responsible behaviours for students, and also to consider how to include these important issues in instruction.
Retrievable from: http://llt.msu.edu/issues/february2015/shin.pdf