Tag: digital literacy

Johann Hari: Plagiarism or not?

It’s clearly not plagiarism or churnalism – but was it an error in another way? Yes. I now see it was wrong, and I wouldn’t do it again.

Why? Because an interview is not just an essayistic representation of what a person thinks; it is a report on an encounter between the interviewer and the interviewee. If (for example) a person doesn’t speak very good English, or is simply unclear, it may be better to quote their slightly broken or garbled English than to quote their more precise written work, and let that speak for itself. It depends on whether you prefer the intellectual accuracy of describing their ideas in their most considered words, or the reportorial accuracy of describing their ideas in the words they used on that particular afternoon. Since my interviews are long intellectual profiles, not ones where I’m trying to ferret out a scoop or exclusive, I have, in the past, prioritised the former. That was, on reflection, a mistake, because it wasn’t clear to the reader.

via independent.co.uk

The Fake Digital Britain Report

Of equal importance to the basic digital literacy skills is the awareness of Digital Identity. The HE and FE sectors are increasingly aware of this, and there are a number of projects actively engaged in improving the awareness of learners and staff in these sectors.

There are many issues which the individual should be aware of, including finding a balance between the need to promote ones own skills and abilities against the need to be able to retain a level of privacy and to be able to provide a view which shows how one fits in to a team. People occupy many roles in life, and whilst there is an overhead involved in maintaining multiple ‘facets’ of ones personality online, there appears to be an increasing trend to want to keep personal, educational and professional aspects separate from one another.

It is suggested that alongside basic digital literacy skills, material providing education on creating and maintaining personal profiles which will support the individual’s growth and development over their lifetime be made available to all. The country will benefit by providing the population with the skills to both present themselves well and prevent themselves from damage to their online reputations. Not only will individuals in the population be more ‘marketable’ but the risks of cyber-crime against them will be diminished.

via wiki.writetoreply.org

The Disappearance of Technology: Toward an Ecological Model of Literacy

We tend to think of technology as a set of tools to perform a specific function. These tools are often portrayed as mechanistic, exterior, autonomous, and concrete devices that accomplish tasks and create products. We do not generally think of them as intimately entwined with social and biological lives. But literacy technologies, such as pen and paper, index cards, computer databases, word processors, networks, e-mail, and hypertext, are also ideological tools; they are designed, accessed, interpreted, and used to further purposes that embody social values. More than mechanistic, they are organic, because they merge with our social, physical, and psychological beings. Thus, we need to look more closely at how technologies are realized in given settings. We may find that technological tools can be so embedded in the living process that their status as technologies disappears.

via ideals.illinois.edu

Literacy and Inanimate Alice

. If you have any responsibility for teaching literacy, imagine a text so powerful that your students, including the most difficult to motivate, are demanding to write! Laura Fleming, a library media specialist from River Edge, New Jersey, who is responsible for Alice’s School Reports and the Inanimate Alice Facebook page, sums it up well:

“As students are interacting with the story, they are active participants in telling the story. They fully understand what it is like to walk in the character’s shoes. In using this digital novel I have never seen them more engaged in text.”

via feedly.com