Teaching Digital Skills for

Researchers

Dr Helen WebsterAnglia Ruskin University

Anglia Learning and Teaching

Digital Humanities

Digital Literaci

es

Digital Pedagogies

Researcher

Develop-ment

The brief“to increase awareness of the transferability of digital skills and encourage Early Career Researchers to develop advanced digital and social media skills to enhance their research, wider professional practice and employability”

• Advanced digital tools might include peer-to-peer networks and social media platforms, managing user-generated content, and engaging with the public and the media in online environments.

• “To develop and deliver training resources (a workshop and online resources)”

Is this project Digital Humanities?

Chris MartinDigital Asset Flowhttp://etcetera.caret.cam.ac.uk/blog/digital-asset-flow

Problematising the brief:Learners and Learning

Outcomes

Problematising the Brief:Modes of Learning

Problematising the Brief:Modes of Learning

Problematising the Brief:Modes of Learning

Problematising the brief:Concepts of transferable skill

PrinciplesNot just to teach digital tools, but also:•an awareness of the ways in which social media and digital technologies can enhance or impact on your work•an understanding of the issues raised by social media and digital technologies, including potential pitfalls, good practice and ways they are changing the profession•an awareness of, and ability to evaluate, new and future digital tools and make informed decisions about your own engagement with them

Theoretical Solutions• Digital Literacy and Digital Literacies

(Lea and Street; Lea and Jones)• Situated learning and communities of

practice (Lave and Wenger; Wenger)• Connectivism (Siemens) and

Rhizomatic learning (Cormier)

Practical SolutionsMOOCs, SPOCs and 23Things

• C-MOOCs (connectivist Massive Open Online Courses

• X-MOOCs (more traditional instructivist Massive Open Online Courses)

• 23Things• Small Private Online Courses

E-learning models: bridging theory and practice

Access and motivation

Online Socialisation

Information exchange

Knowledge Construction

Development

Gilly Salmon

DH23Things

Central Blog

1 or 2 Things posted on the central blog each week.

Participants write their own reflective blogpost on the week’s Thing and read and comment on each others’.

ThingsEach weekly blog post comprises:

•Things You Do: Brief introduction to the topic and tool•A Thing to Use: Instructions for using the tool (and links to other instructional material)•A Thing to Try: A small task to complete in the context of their work•Things to Think About: The reflective framework (Key skills, Discipline-Specific, Evaluation, Integration) tailored each week with questions and issues to think about•Things to share: Further reading, ‘extras’, other participants’ blogs

Reflective Framework• Key skill. Issues, problems, tips, advice• Discipline-specific issues. This section therefore consists of two

elements – the general ways in which digital technology impacts on academic work, and more specifically, whether this changes the nature of academic work, and might be considered ‘Digital Humanities’.

• Evaluation. You are invited to evaluate the tool for use in your own practice and to consider particular issues which it might raise, and which you may have to negotiate. These might include things like confidentiality, copyright, sustainability, accessibility, data ownership or ethics.

• Reflection and integration into practice. You will need to think about creating a strategy for engaging with the tool or tools like this in your future working practice. This might include the changes in your habits or routines to integrate it into your workflow, or change the way you work in the new way enabled by the tool. Alternatively, if you decide not to use the tool, you might need to consider other ways of enhancing that aspect of your work.

The Modules

Phase One: Digital Humanities, CRASSHo DH23Things online in 2-3 modules

• Module One: Building your online profile and network

• Module Two: Managing Information Online

o The Researcher Online workshops:• Building your Online Profile• Building your Online Network• Making and Sharing Content online• (Blogging)

Phase Two:STEMDIGITAL

STEMDigital blended learning programme comprising:•STEMDigital Module One launch workshop•STEMDigital online Module One: Building your online profile (commenting rather than blogging)•Associated Workshops:

o Social Media for Scepticso LinkedIno Beginner’s Guide to Twittero Beginner’s Guide to Blogging

ReactionsWas the format as a blogging programme helpful?

•Very helpful: 1•Helpful: 5•Unhelpful: 2

What did you like most about the format?•I could choose to participate or not. Wasn’t forced to blog. •Provided content to get blogging; reading other people’s work and ideas for applying the tools•The opportunity for interactive discussion•The interaction and sharing of ideas as I got some useful points from other bloggers

What did you like least about the format?•Blogging•The emphasis on individual blogging rather than discussion•Scrap the requirement for blogging. Just don’t think it useful or helpful. Maybe set up a group blog and get people to contribute a couple of entries as the programme goes along?

Findings• Drop-out rates and smaller numbers

• Access to hardware, software and the internet

• ‘Lurkers’

• Concerns about privacy, anonymity and professional identity

• Not embracing digital thinking, values and behaviours:

• Demand for support rather than self-directed exploration and creating a learning network

• Concerns about openness, IP and sharing user-generated content

• ‘Broadcasting’ and consumption rather than peer-networked, many-to-many, participatory engagement

Conclusions

Identity