Digital Literacy Centre

The DLC Blog Has Moved

tmddlc — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:31:56 +0000

The DLC Blog is now hosted by the University of British Columbia. Please visit us there: http://blogs.ubc.ca/ubcdlc/

Control Freaks Need Not Apply

ubcdlc — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:39:35 +0000

“…if you try to control or constrain a social network too tightly, you will choke it. Far better to set in place the minimum precautions necessary to ensure nothing blows up or melts down, and then let the participants work their magic. If you start obsessing too much about policies governing access to or use of social media tools, chances are you’ve missed the whole point of social media and may well end up being a hurdle on the path to success for your Enterprise 2.0 initiative.”

From Above and Beyond KM :

What are the limits of this position?

Can community membership be construed as a literacy?

ubcdlc — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:57:56 +0000

This interesting research endeavour was “Originally started as a sociology research project by Jeff Ginger, a graduate student at the University of Illinois, the endeavor has expanded to include several researchers, students, librarians, and enthusiasts who all have an important interest in common: Facebook.” It has morphed into an extensive inquiry with an open invitation to participate. The Facebook Project.

Innovating e-learning online conference 2008

ubcdlc — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:59:39 +0000

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) held an online conference on e-learning November 4 – 7 of this year. You can look at its full program here. And documentation related to the query: Does Web2 fundamentally alter the learner-teacher relationship? (amongst other presentations) is here with a good discussion summary here.

What does it mean to read in the digital age?

ubcdlc — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:18:04 +0000

This article from the New York Times last July presents some interesting food for thought. I would like to see some further consideration of this topic, particularly also in the wake of the recently published book Proust and the Squid

Here is the link to the article: Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?

Google Searchwiki

ubcdlc — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:29:52 +0000

You may already think that Google is an essential tool as a leading search engine. But perhaps, like me, you are sometimes unsatisfied with the results of your search, and wish, for instance, that you could reorder them or add results that do not appear. Google’s new search function allows you to customize the results. This will certainly provide more welcome convenience. Will it filter out the element of surprise? It may have an interesting impact on strategies used by web developers to push their sites to the top of the list. Does this constitute a shift in what we might call Search Engine Literacy?

Read about it here:
Customize Your Search Results

Education In Second Life

ubcdlc — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:20:37 +0000

There is a piece about a Business class examining the value of virtual incubation within the Second Life environment posted originally here at Sloan-C
I found it through Educause Connect – the article is dated Oct. 6 2008, and entitled:
B-Schools in Second Life: It’s more than just Fun and Games; It’s the Confluence of Playing, Learning, and Working — by Vivek Bhatnagar, Vice President, Townsend Polymer Services & Information

The prospect of virtual classrooms is intriguing, particularly in the context of international participation. It is also a fascinating way of imagining innovative configurations of institutional spaces.

Here is an interesting (I think) quote/excerpt (go to the link above to read the entire article):

[Note "SL is the common way of referring to the 3D Virtual World Second Life]

“(H)ow can SL be used for business education? Some time back, Berry Beattie, a lecturer in leadership and organizational behavior in an interview with Jan Kingsley, Director of the Corporate Services at European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), responded to the above question with this answer: “There are over 200 educational institutions—mostly American universities—and another over 3,000 members in the Educator’s list present in SL. All of them are seeking ways to best use the technology for educational purposes. What is interesting to me is that the primary educational groups are in health, technology, the arts and social sciences. Apart from INSEAD and Boconni, I am not aware of any business school with an established presence (in SL). And yet the potential to use SL for business and management education is really major: here we have a global society with an average age of around 38, a real economy to experiment with, a wealth of real social relationships to establish, a technology which allows a cohort of students from around the world to interact synchronously, and an environment which itself fosters innovation and creativity. In addition, it provides a really cost-effective way to provide tutor-student interaction. So, the potential is enormous.”
Quoted from an interview with Barry Beattle found here

It could be interesting to try and imagine courses or research projects in International Cultural Literacy, for instance, in this context.

Digital Strategies for Teaching

ubcdlc — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:10:52 +0000

I picked this up from educauseconnect where it linked to MUVErsLLC, who mentioned it and linked it to blogger Scott Merrick at scottmerrick.net, who picked it up from David Truss, a blogger at David Truss::Pair-a-dimes for Your Thoughts
It’s a good introduction to new possibilities for learning and teaching in the digital era.
The original post is here: Blip.TV

more about "Digital Strategies for Teaching ", posted with vodpod

Welcome to the UBC DLC Web Log

ubcdlc — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:31:56 +0000

This Web Log presents a forum for the examination and discussion of research and development in digital literacy and digital humanities. It is hosted by UBC’s Digital Literacy Centre (DLC) in the department of Language and Literacy Education (LLED), located at the Vancouver campus. We encourage participation and collaboration in the understanding and construction of ideas and best practices, while we seek to contribute to a diverse field of interest, and help build community in this area of study. The DLC is interested in digital literacy related (but not restricted) to: online collaborative social networks for learning, the social production of cultural languages, new theories and developments in learning technologies, electronic literature, linguistics in online environments, and the exploration of the humanities in digital culture. We look forward to hearing your ideas.