challenging assumptions about it skills in he
DESCRIPTION
The presentation challenges the idea of 'the digital native' and the subsequent assumption of digital literacy skills amongst HE students. It provides a brief summary of the author’s experience as an IT tutor over the past seven and a half years, matching the author’s own findings to those within research and describes alternative evidence indicating that current student populations are far more complex and with varying levels of digital literacy experience and that treating students as a homogenous mass is problematic. It then explores digital literacy skills for academic purposes compared to social use of technology and asks whether generic technology skills are always instantly transferable to academic study. The presentation concludes with a warning that we're letting down some of our students by the ‘IT barrier’ within HE and that IT should be considered a core study skill along with maths and academic communication rather than something that students can ‘easily pick up’. It also suggests that we test for IT skills rather than assume. This is an accompanying presentation to the academic paper ‘Challenging assumptions about IT skills in HE’TRANSCRIPT
Challenging assumptions about
IT skills in HE
Don’t assume, identify.
Stevie Farrell, Leeds Metropolitan University
Stevie Farrell, Leeds Metropolitan University
1
Rise in use of technology
Digital native theory
My response as IT tutor
Research refuting DN theory
Recommendations
My background …
• Academic Skills tutor for IT
• My academic journey with IT
– Pre-technology undergraduate
– Mid-technology PGCE student
– Current-technology MA student
• Am very pro-technology
Stevie Farrell, Leeds Metropolitan University
2
My role as a tutor
• Tutorials and drop-in
workshops
• Customised IT sessions
• Development of IT
resources
Stevie Farrell, Leeds Metropolitan University
3
1. Rise in use of technology
• VLE
• Increase in e-portfolios
• Microsoft Office or similar
• Increasing use of other technologies
Stevie Farrell, Leeds Metropolitan University
4
The digital native
The theorists
– Tapscott (1998)
– Prensky (2001)
– Oblinger (2003)
Stevie Farrell, Leeds Metropolitan University
5
My response as an tutor?
Stevie Farrell, Leeds Metropolitan University
6
Stevie Farrell, Leeds Metropolitan University
7
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
Autumn & Spring
Terms 2009-10
Autumn & Spring
Terms 2010-11
Autumn & Spring
Terms 2011-12
Growth in IT support
Drop in IT workshops Customised workshops Tutorials
Common questions at the IT Helpdesk
• Individual page pagination
• Section breaks
• Table of contents
• Headings and other styles
• Advanced numbering
• Excel basics
• Insert text boxes/shapes Charts/graphs and data series
• Inserting images/text
• Shape/image effects
• Animations
• Printing and scanning
• Resetting passwords
• Wireless setup/use of
• File locations
• File suffixes
• What ‘Drive’ letters mean
• Using Google Email
• Email attachments
• Saving and downloading
• Accessing VLE and Portal
• Bookmarking websites
Stevie Farrell, Leeds Metropolitan University
8
3. The digital native?
• Non homogenous
student population
• Don’t learn by
exploration alone
• Social use of
technology versus
academic use
Stevie Farrell, Leeds Metropolitan University
9
4. Recommendations
• Establish an effective
digital literacy policy
• Don’t
assume, identify!
• Have support in place
for students who need it
• Up to date research
across UK HE needed
Stevie Farrell, Leeds Metropolitan University
10
Make IT a core
Study Skill
Challenging assumptions about
IT skills in HE
Don’t assume, identify
Stevie Farrell, Leeds Metropolitan University