LIBRARYSTUDY SMART

DIGITAL LITERACY

PDF resources included in this section

CONTENTS - DIGITAL LITERACY

1. Information Communication Technology

2. Information literacy

3. Media literacy

4. Communications and collaborations

5. Digital scholarship

6. Career identity management

Digital literacy

We are living in a digital world, but it can be hard to keep up. Don’t get left behind – find help here.

Digital literacyIn order to succeed in your studies and today’s digital world, you need to develop your digital literacy (or literacies). That means developing a range of digital behaviours and practices over and above the basic ability to use technological devices (Jisc, 2014).

This is really important now, while you’re a university student. It’ll also be really important in the future when you enter the professional world and have to interact with people in digital environments, use information in appropriate ways, and create new ideas and products collaboratively. Above all, you’ll need to maintain your digital identity and wellbeing as the digital landscape continues to change at a fast pace.

Here you can develop your awareness of different kinds of digital literacies and consider how you can develop your ability to succeed in the digital world, now and in the future.

STUDY SMART WEBSITE

Find this section on the Study Smartwebsite here:

http://westernsydney.edu.au/studysmart/home/digital_literacy

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) You probably already know how to do some everyday things using computers and other digital devices. Now that you're a university student, you'll be developing your digital skills to enhance your learning. There might be some things you've never done before, and some devices or programs you've never used or heard of, so you'll need some help to get started. Read Dan's story (or watch it online) and consider how you can move forward to improve your ICT literacy for learning. Dan's experience with ICT "When I started at Western I got given an iPad. Awesome!! I never had anything like that just for myself because at home we all shared a really old computer. But I couldn't even turn the iPad on, let alone figure out how to use it in my classes. I didn't want to ask my teachers so I found someone in one of my classes who showed me how to work it and check my email and stuff. Abed also told me to get apps and things like Blackboard so I could access vUWS, and get an app to store stuff in the cloud so I could get it on other computers. I put some of the apps on my phone but I didn't want to use too much data so using my iPad at uni was the best way to do it. It's much easier than I thought it would be. But it turns out you can't really write assignments on an iPad, so I had to go to the library or a computer lab when I needed to use a proper computer. We had Microsoft Word on the computer at home but the one on the uni computers looked really different. It took me ages to find the 'save' button and I lost a couple of drafts of my essay. Argh!! The Library staff helped me figure it all out though. I was pretty proud when I printed my first assignment out. I couldn't wait to get it back from my tutor." Reflect and act

→ What steps did Dan take to learn how to use his device for learning? Is this similar to what you have done in the past?

→ How did Dan find out which apps and software were useful and also appropriate for his device? How else might you find out this information?

→ Dan preferred to use a desktop computer for writing assignments rather than his iPad. What accessories could you use to transform your iPad into an effective mobile computer?

Explore further → Information on collecting and setting up your student device → Lynda.com playlist: Skills and tools for student success (see Student login instructions PDF on how to access

Lynda.com) → MS Office video tutorials (via YouTube) → Apple Store Education Apps → Google Play Education Apps → Apple on iPad in Business → Accessories and Peripherals for work and study (via Macintosh Addict) **note: commercial

Library Study Smart July 2016 Page 1 of 1 ICT westernsydney.edu.au/studysmart

Information literacy There is so much information out there, and more is being created every minute. The internet has not only made more information available, but it has made more opportunities for people to create and share information. Your job as a student is to work out how to find relevant information, evaluate it, store it, and manage if for your purposes as a lifelong learner. Read Dan's story (or watch it online) and consider how you can move forward to improve your information literacy. Dan's experience with information literacy "It was my first assignment ever and I already knew that university was nothing like school. We were expected to 'think for ourselves'. At the time I didn't really get what that meant. In class the tutor was handing back the assignments with handwritten notes all over them and a big number on the front - 'THE MARK'. Finally it got to my assignment. I. HAD. FAILED!!!! The tutor had written all over my paper saying stuff like 'great ideas but no evidence'. I was confused as I had totally provided evidence. I had gone to like at least 15 websites! Then at the end of the paper where I listed the website addresses the tutor had written something really helpful. They had explained that I needed to actually read proper articles and try to understand them, not just rehash content I had found on the internet. They suggested looking at the search engine on the Library website and to use Google Scholar (I didn't even know it existed!) to look for journal articles and to read them. Now I'm in my second session and getting back my marks for my first round of assessments and I am totally passing these things and also getting some distinctions. I realised after that epic fail that I needed to actually understand what the assessment question was asking me to look for and then go and look for it. Also, I had to actually read and understand the content and then apply what it taught me in response to the assessment question, and show exactly where I got it from." Reflect and act

→ Why did Dan fail his first assignment? What did he learn from it? How did he learn from it? → What did Dan do differently in his later assignments? → Where do you look for information for your assignments? → How do you decide which information to use in your assignments? Where could you look for help to develop

your ability to process and evaluate information for your learning purposes? Explore further → Researching your assignment section for Assignment Help → Library Online tutorials:

→ Successful Searching → Library videos

→ Finding Information for Assignments [1:59] from Western Sydney University Library → Using APPEAL to evaluate resources [5:34] from Western Sydney University Library.

Library Study Smart July 2016 Page 1 of 1 Information Literacy westernsydney.edu.au/studysmart

Media literacy In the workplace, you'll need to independently and objectively review messages communicated in a range of formats. You'll also need to create multimedia to respond to the needs of different audiences. To do so successfully you need to practise investigating and analysing all kinds of information - popular opinion, peer-reviewed by academics, reported by governments, etc. Read Dan's story (or watch it online) and consider how you can move forward to improve your media literacy. Dan's experience with media literacy "So we were told in the lecture about some place called the Australian Bureau of Statistics that collects information that tells us all about people in Australia. We were told by the lecturer to go to the ABS website and search for a Local Government Area community profile. I tried to follow the lecturer in class but it moved so fast I couldn't keep up very well. All of a sudden we had a file in front of us with like a billion different tabs (I think that's what they were called). Then the lecturer was talking about sex and how many people had sex at what age… Well not really, but by the time I had caught up I realised we were looking at a tab with people's gender and how many people in Australia were that gender, it was just called 'sex' in the document, and we had already moved on. Seriously, I didn't know what was going on! Before the tutorial I saw that some people already had data. I didn't want to ask them but knew I had to find out what was happening. An awesome guy in my class took me through it all. I realised that all we had to do was to download a file (hey, I can do that) and then find the relevant tab thingy and put the numbers in a different format using a program called Excel. It was just using information and looking at it in a different way to make something easier to understand. In the tutorial we went through it all in a lot more detail and I now know what it all means. But I'm glad I asked another student because it all came together for me and wasn't as hard as I thought it all looked. We also started to learn how to create visual representations of the data we found to make it easier for others to understand. Our tutor showed us how to do this in Excel (can you believe it – numbers into a graph with a few clicks!). They said we could use other software or apps too and that we should really start playing around with tools now – it was pretty fun, even when we made mistakes." Reflect and act

→ What skills did Dan already have, and what skills did he lack? → What did he learn to do? How did he learn to do it? → What skills do you already have, and what are you less confident with? → If you had to check up on the data or statistics used in a media report or other article, what steps would you

take? Explore further → Using ABS statistics: Telling the right story (via ABS) → Tools and apps (via Drawing by numbers) → Western Facilities for construction, design, creation, and communication: SCEM facilities and HCA facilities → Lynda.com Playlist: Learn data visualization

Library Study Smart July 2016 Page 1 of 1 Media Literacy westernsydney.edu.au/studysmart

Communications and collaborations In your professional life you'll need to build up a personal network of contacts, keep up to date in your industry, exchange knowledge and experience with others, and cooperate to achieve shared goals. You can build a foundation for this at uni through the work ethic you develop in group work and assignments. How will you ensure that all parties make an equal contribution to the process and final product? Read Dan's story (or watch it online) and consider how you can move forward to improve your skills in communicating and collaborating. Dan's experience with communications and collaborations "My fourth assignment ever was a group task, and I was pretty worried about working with a group of strangers, not to mention figuring out how to do all these different components for this assignment - it seemed pretty full on. My group decided to meet after our tutorial / prac class to sort out what to do. We had four parts to do (a report, graphics, an audio-visual presentation and a pitch), so we decided to make each person responsible for one part of the final copy. I took the report, Jessica took the graphics, Michael took the audio-visual presentation, and Sara took the pitch. Michael had already got into using Student Email which gave us all the full MS Office software and OneDrive for backing up. Jessica, Sara and I figured out how to access our accounts and used it as base for our project work. It was great! I made a folder for the project on OneDrive, shared it with everyone, and we all started putting in ideas - like how the report should go, what graphics we needed, how to present it, and what key points to use for the pitch. We also exchanged our schedules to meet on campus in one of the Library's Group Study Rooms so we could work on the graphics together, edit each other's sections of the report, and start to plan out the way the presentation and the pitch would work together. Jessica knew that the special software we needed was only on computers in the labs in certain buildings so she made sure we booked those in advance. Sara volunteered to scope out our presentation options and found an online program that was free, private (but we could still share it), and would keep our stuff there so we can all link it to our professional portfolios down the track. We also used the Email Calendar to organise our team meetings / working sessions. We also thought about Skyping in the evenings leading up to our pitch and presentation in class - but in the end we didn't need to. Our lecturer said we did really well and gave us lots of tips on how to do things differently next time, like using Pebble Pad for our project work and DropBox for sharing bigger files. We were still pretty happy with our results." Reflect and act

→ What do you think the team did well in their selection of tools and platforms from start to finish? What would you have done differently?

→ What do you think the team did well in terms of their arrangements for communication and collaboration to complete the assignment? What might you have done differently?

→ What steps might you take to complete your group assignment?

Library Study Smart July 2016 Page 1 of 2 Communications and collaborations westernsydney.edu.au/studysmart

Explore further → Student email (Western Sydney University Information Technology & Digital Services) → Access Lynda.com software tutorials through vUWS → Blackboard Collaborate → Zoom for videoconferencing → Presentation apps / tutorials (MS Powerpoint Online, Prezi, Projeqt, eMaze) → You can book a Library Group Study Room for your group to work in. Group Study Rooms are available at every

campus library.

Library Study Smart July 2016 Page 2 of 2 Communications and collaborations westernsydney.edu.au/studysmart

Digital scholarship Technology has transformed how we learn and develop new ideas. Some types of research depend completely on digital systems, while others use technology to make the research more efficient, to store information, or to enable people in different places to collaborate. As a student, you'll need to use digital resources for researching your assignment topics. You'll also have the opportunity to learn new things through online courses (often free!), to explore professional and academic networks on social media, and to discover the latest innovations. Read Dan's story (or watch it online) and consider how you can move forward to improve your digital scholarship practices. Dan's experience with communications and collaborations "In one of my units in third year we were studying a pretty new topic, and it was so new there wasn't much stuff published about it. So I got frustrated trying to find information and was just mucking around on Twitter and decided to try looking up hashtags to find stuff on our topic. #jackpot! Heaps of people were talking about our topic, posting TED videos, links to websites, and whatnot. I even joined in a Twitter chat session on the topic. Then I shared some of the links with some guys from class. One of them, Josh, did a Google search for some of the Tweeters who were talking about our topic to see if they'd written anything in journals or other more academic type places. Josh found some of them on LinkedIn - #forthewin - so we found out where they worked, and he Facebook messaged the links to me. Then we looked at their uni websites and found the uni's research website which had some PDFs of relevant conference papers and whole thesises.... or theses... (#whatevs). One of the researchers had a paper listed but no PDF, so I found her contact details on the uni website and sent her an email to ask if I could read the paper. She sent it to me the next day, which was awesome - #HDtown! Now I just have to find out how to reference conference papers and TED talks…" Reflect and act

→ What tools and strategies did Dan and his classmates use to find information on an emerging field of study? → What do you think Dan and his classmates did well? What would you have done differently? → Do you know where to look for the newest ideas in your field? If not, how could you find out? What digital

platforms or websites could you go to? Who could you ask?

Library Study Smart July 2016 Page 1 of 2 Digital scholarship westernsydney.edu.au/studysmart

Explore further → The Library provides a large collection of e-resources with the majority available via the Library search box. Also check

out the Library Subject Guides and browse the e-resources organised by subject. → Check out Western's online research repository, Research Direct, which contains research and publications by Western

researchers. → Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) - find out about open access journals (online, free) and which ones are

reliable. → TED talks - talks by scholars and other experts on all kinds of innovative ideas. → Ideas on using Twitter for professional development and finding new ideas, from Education world blog and Be social

be smart blog.

Library Study Smart July 2016 Page 2 of 2 Digital scholarship westernsydney.edu.au/studysmart

Career and identity management There are lots of ways that you can use the internet and digital technology to plan for your career. You probably already use social media for personal use, but you can also use it for professional purposes. You can start a professional portfolio online to showcase your achievements and skills. But you also need to be aware of the risks involved in putting your personal information online, and how to protect yourself, your reputation and your intellectual property. Read Dan's story (or watch it online) and consider how you can get wise to managing your professional and personal identity online. Dan's experience with communications and collaborations "When I started at uni I didn't even know what Twitter was. I check it all the time now to get updates on my favourite soccer team. I don't use my real name though, because I don't want employers to think all I care about is soccer. I have another account with my real name and that's where I post for my job. I got my current job because I knew how to use Twitter and could reply to people really quickly and find the information they need really fast. When I'm representing the company on Twitter I have to be polite and only say positive things, plus do my best to help people. It's good to have a job while I'm still at uni where I can show off all the stuff I've learned about using the internet. I've set up some accounts now on job search sites and resume sites because I'm looking for a full-time job for when I finish uni. I've got this portfolio online that lists all the stuff I know how to do. When I have spare time I watch videos on Lynda.com so I can pick up new skills - that's how I learned to use Excel when I needed it for uni. It's awesome because the Library has a subscription so I don't have to pay for it while I'm a student here. I use it at work now too, so it totally paid off. The one thing I don't do is put my assignments online, because I don't want anyone to copy me - I worked really hard on those!!" Reflect and act

→ What kinds of digital resources and tools does Dan use in his studies and work? How does he use them differently?

→ What precautions does Dan take to manage and protect his online identity? → Where do you have personal information online? List all the social networking sites you have subscribed to,

including any blogs you maintain. Which sites are public, and which sites are protected? → Do a Google search for yourself. What information about you could a prospective employer find online? → What precautions have you taken to protect your digital identity?

Explore further → Western Sydney University's Careers toolkit: Employers on online profiles (videos, login with your Western ID). → Minocha & Petre (2012). Handbook of social media for researchers and supervisors (PDF, 3.8 MB). → Tips and videos on LinkedIn for students. → Professional Development online: Coursera, edX, FutureLearn, Lynda.com (login instructions, PDF).

Library Study Smart July 2016 Page 1 of 1 Career and identity management westernsydney.edu.au/studysmart

Contact Information

ic@westernsydney.edu.au

Western Sydney UniversityLocked Bag 1797

Penrith NSW 2751 Australia

WESTERNSYDNEY.EDU.AU/STUDYSMART