Mobile texts and migrant audiences : rethinking literacy and assessment in a new media age

This article highlights the importance of rethinking literacy assessment in a digital and global world. Although pressures currently abound to narrow conceptions and practices of literacy, especially in an era of high stakes testing, digital multimodality and connectivity offer the potential for new ways of thinking, representing, and communicating, as well as new avenues for participating in relationships across social, geographic, and cultural difference. We explore the challenges of redesigning assessments so that they better take into account children's multiliterate capabilities. In so doing, we offer examples from our work in afterschool contexts that demonstrate how we have grappled with the complexities of assessment in new times.

“Digital Literacy” in #legaled, begins here?

Discusses issues of interaction, enablement, social justice, flexibility, overload, and industrialisation in legal education and practical legal training, with reference to flexible, online and distance education and "digital literacy".

Towards an understanding of ‘Digital Literacy(ies)’

This report is concerned with the conceptualisation and definition of digital literacy in the context of Australian higher education. It draws on a diverse literature in proposing a working definition of digital literacy to inform the Deakin University Library in its work with the University’s faculties.

This report forms the first of a two-stage review. The second stage of the review is focused on identifying good practice in digital literacy. The findings of the second stage of the review are encompassed in a companion report titled: What is good practice in the development, assessment and evaluation of digital literacy for graduate employability?

The literature reviewed for the current report was conducted in late 2012 and draws on internal university policy documents, various national and international documents and literacy frameworks, previous reviews of the topic, and journal articles that are concerned with conceptualising information on digital literacy for higher education.

The report concludes by identifying the various factors and stakeholders that influence how digital literacy is conceptualised at Deakin University and proposes a working definition of digital literacy as a graduate learning outcome.

'Just dance' with digital literacy

In a rapidly changing higher education environment, Deakin University’s promise is to offer “brilliant education where the students are ‐ and where they want to go”. Targets set for learning, teaching and research, have significant implications across the University. Collaboration at all levels of the organization is core to achieving goals that deliver value to the student community.

The Library is charged with delivering one of the University's eight graduate learning outcomes, Digital Literacy, with initiatives required to build staff capability and contribute to student learning. Deakin University defines Digital Literacy as using technologies to find, use and disseminate information.

This paper provides an analysis of a case study in which liaison librarians collaborated with science academics to develop innovative digital literacy activities and assessment tasks for undergraduate units related to ‘Judging Reliability and Accuracy of Information’.

The case study reveals that engaging students in meaningful learning activities and assessment tasks creates dynamic and powerful learning experiences for first and second year students. In addition, the leadership that the liaison librarians demonstrate in activities that capitalise on problem based learning, elements of gaming, peer assessment, and new ways of communicating has prompted open conversations and collaborations with academics about further opportunities.

Digital literacy

While digital literacy may be understood and defined differently within disciplines, the concept is primarily about literacies rather than digital technologies or digital competence. Digital literacy involves finding, using and disseminating information in a digital world. Digital Literacy underpins teaching and research, regardless of discipline, and is an essential graduate skill for effective participation in employment and all aspects of life. Building on all Deakin Graduate Attributes, digital literacy already has a good foundation in many unit curricula, with many academic staff modelling aspects of this literacy both in their teaching and their research practice.

The Impact of Gender and Pedagogy on the Development of Self-Regulated Learning Strategies in Undergraduate Engineering Classrooms

The purpose of this paper is to examine ways in which pedagogy and gender of instructor impact the development of self-regulated learning strategies as assessed by the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) in male and female undergraduate engineering students. Pedagogy was operationalized as two general formats: lecture plus active learning techniques or problem-base/project-based learning. One hundred seventy-six students from four universities participated in the study. Within-group analyses found significant differences with regard to pedagogy, instructors’ gender, and student gender on the learning strategies and motivation subscales as operationalized by the MSLQ. Male and females students reported significant post-test differences with regard to the gender of instructor and the style of pedagogy. The results of this study showed a pattern where more positive responses for students of both genders were found with the same-gendered instructor. The results also suggested that male students responded more positively to project and problem-based courses with changes evidenced in motivation strategies and resource management. Female students showed decreases in resource management in these two types of courses. Further, female students reported increases in the lecture with active learning courses.

Portfolios and pedagogy : an examination of ideology and use

Portfolio use in writing studies contexts is becoming ubiquitous and, as such, portfolios are in danger of being rendered meaningless and thus require that we more fully theorize and historicize portfolios. To this end, I examine portfolios: both the standardized portfolio used for assessment purposes and the personalized portfolio used for entering the job market. I take a critical look at portfolios as a form of technology and acknowledge some of the dangers of blindly using portfolios for gaining employment in the current economic structure of fast capitalism. As educators in the writing studies fields, it is paramount that instructors have a critical awareness of the consequences of portfolio creation on students as designers, lifelong learners, and citizens of a larger society. I argue that a better understanding of the pedagogical implications for portfolio use is imperative before implementing them in the classroom, and that a social-epistemic approach provides a valuable rethinking of portfolio use for assessment purposes. Further, I argue for the notions of meditation and transformation to be added alongside collection, selection, and reflection because they enable portfolio designers and evaluators alike to thoughtfully consider new ways of meaning-making and innovation. Also important and included with meditation and transformation is the understanding that students are ideologically positioned in the educational system. For them to begin recognizing their situatedness is a step toward becoming designers of change. The portfolio can be a site for that change, and a way for them to document their own learning and ways of making meaning over a lifetime.

I-Spi: innovative shared practical ideas: a support guide for literacy and numeracy in the early years of schooling, for home tutor/supervisors in distance education

Innovative Shared Practical Ideas (I-Spi) is a guide to help you and your children learn together. It is designed to affirm, support and strengthen your role as home tutor/supervisors in your daily learning sessions with your children. In this guide particular emphasis is given to the value of talk, formal and informal early literacy and numeracy practices (including ideas from distance school lessons, from home tutor/supervisors, research, and beyond), assessment of these practices together with informal assessment ideas for gauging your children’s literacy and numeracy progress, and stepping in and building on strategies

Teachers' knowledge, awareness, and pedagogy of global education in secondary schools

In 1979, the Florida State Board of Education approved the teaching of global education in the state of Florida. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that contributed to teachers' global knowledge, global mindedness, and pedagogy in global education. The Hanvey model of teaching from a global perspective was the theoretical framework for the study. ^ A total of 90 secondary teachers from Miami-Dade County Public Schools were randomly selected and placed in three groups: Globally Oriented Social Studies Program (GOSSE), Non-Globally Oriented Social Studies Program (non-GOSSE), and Teachers Who Teach Other Subjects (TWTOS). Seven teachers, two of whom team-taught a class, were selected for classroom observations and interviews. A mixed methods design that combined quantitative and qualitative data was used. ANOVA and Chi square techniques were used to determine whether the factors that contributed to teachers' global knowledge and global mindedness differ among groups. Classroom observations and interviews were conducted to determine whether the instructional strategies differ among the seven selected teachers. ^ The findings of the study show that teachers who were trained in teaching from a global perspective differed in their global knowledge and used more appropriate instructional strategies than teachers who were not trained in teaching global perspectives. There was no significant difference in the combined global knowledge of the non-GOSSE and TWTOS groups when compared with the GOSSE group. There was no significant difference in the combined global knowledge of the GOSSE and non-GOSSE groups when compared with the TWTOS group. There was no significant difference among the teachers in their global mindedness. Observation and interview data indicate that current events, role-playing, simulations, open-ended discussion, debates, and projects were the predominant instructional strategies used by globally trained teachers. Cable networks, Internet, magazines, and newspapers were found to be the dominant tools for teaching global education. ^ This study concluded that teachers who were trained in globally oriented programs had more global knowledge than teachers who were not. It is recommended that teacher education programs should incorporate a global perspective in the preparation of social studies teachers, with particular attention to developing their global attitudes. ^

Teachers’ Knowledge, Awareness and Pedagogy of Global Education in Secondary Schools

For the last fifty years, social studies teachers have been prepared to teach from a global perspective, but since September 11, 2001 have faced a difficult challenge teaching from a global perspective. This study examines ninety secondary school teachers’ global knowledge and their disposition toward teaching from a global perspective.

Metaphor: The Hidden Link between Visual Literacy and Learning

Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) have been proven to enhance learning abilities in children. This study will examine how the use of metaphor might affect the development of fourth graders’ verbal and written abilities at three schools in the Miami-Dade County Public School system.

Bringing ESL Students to Literacy and Social Integration: Barriers and Strategies

In this paper, the author explores the barriers that students of English as a Second Language (ESL) face in coming fully literate in English and fully integrated into American society. The barriers cited include inadequate training of reading specialists to work with ESL students, turf wars between reading specialists and ESL teachers, inadequate preparation of students for high school and higher education, as well as a lack of academic research on developing reading skills in ESL students. Strategies for overcoming these barriers include improvement in teacher training, understanding of the student population and students’ first language (L1), and promoting success in literacy.