DeFT Project

Exploring the opportunities

and challenges of creative uses of digital literacy in schools

Anna Gruszczynska, Sheffield Hallam University

Richard Pountney, Sheffield Hallam University

DeFT project

About the projectLocal teachers and pupils, teacher educators and teacher educations students involved in:•sharing and developing good practice in teaching•understanding more about digital literacy•exploring and sharing the potential of digital technologies •Project outputs will be shared via an open textbook and the "Digital Bloom" installation

Partners:• Sheffield Hallam University• University of Sheffield• 5 primary and 5 secondary

schools in South Yorkshire• Creative Industries (Learning

Connections and RealSmart)• Yorkshire and Humber Grid for

Learning• Sheffield Children’s Festival

Context: UKOER programme

Involvement of team members in UKOER1 and UKOER2

drawing on the principles of social sciences knowledge production

exploring tacit aspects of pedagogical practice

exploring the "why" (socio-cultural/institutional context) rather than solely the "how" (technical aspects) of OERs

Context: School sector and OERs • Existing research on OERs in the UK focuses primarily

on HEIs

• Studies of OERs in the school sector - mostly related to the implementation of OERs in developing countries (TESSA, BLOSSOMS)

• Little coordinated development of resources for the school sector (regional networks formed around broadband consortia, partnerships with HEIs)

• BECTA-funded (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) project "Repurpose, Create, Share" (demise of BECTA in 2010)

Frameworks for digital literacy

• Current debates focusing on issues of ICT in the curriculum ("Shut down or restart?" Royal Society report)

• Existing frameworks (FutureLab, JISC)• Digital literacy as a continuum between the purely social

and the purely technological • Move from the singular ‘literacy’ to the plural ‘literacies’ to

emphasise the sheer diversity of existing accounts (Lankshear and Knobel, 2008).

• Digital literacies as "the constantly changing practices through which people make traceable meanings using digital technologies" (Gillen and Barton, 2011).

• Critique of the concept of digital natives (Bennet & Maton, 2011; Merchant, 2012)

DL as a communicative practice

‘I gained a terrific sense of new opportunities DLs now offering to the classroom incl[uding] authentic audience, remix, producing where used to be only consumers; endeavours to enhance students' criticality e.g. re commercialism’

(comment from project evaluator)

DL as a "theory of barriers"

‘When it comes to e-safety, we seem to live in a culture of fear where we [might be] teaching road safety but never letting the child out’ (project meeting, secondary teacher)

•Web2.0 filters

•Technological barriers

•Access to devices

DL as a curricular driver

‘In terms of teaching and digital literacy the ultimate question we constantly need to deal with is - is this going to help the students when they get to an exam? Because what I would like to see happening is the fostering of a community, personal growth etc. but most of the time it is about having to teach "for an exam“’

(focus group with PGCE students).

DL Tensions: sharing resources

‘You don’t know what reaction you would get… can you imagine if you put it on you tube and you got loads of thumbs down?’

‘you have to be sharing with the kids anyway all the time’

(focus group with PGCE students)

‘polished performance’ vs. accounts of ‘real life’’

DL meanings: Stories of a digital divide

‘My pupils were shocked to discover that I didn’t have a mobile phone as a teenager and when you arranged to meet with your mates you just agreed on a meeting time and point and then waited. You would actually talk to each other, you know, rather than keep texting.’

(focus group with PGCE students)

DL investigations: new avenues

• Methodological approaches: exploring the ways in which understandings around DL are expressed and shared through reflection in action

• Re-examining DL in the context of the debate around ICT in the curriculum and the removal of the programmes of study

• Exploring the place of DL and OERs in professional development of teachers

For more information

• Read our blog: www.deftoer3.wordpress.com

• Follow us on Twitter @deftoer3

• Have a look at our Slideshare presentations

www.slideshare.net/deftoer3

• Email us:a.gruszczynska@shu.ac.uk;

r.p.pountney@shu.ac.uk