Digital Literacies Baselining ODHE

Editor's Notes

• #2: *ODHE – requires a logo – if going to start using online tools, etc. need a good logo, preferably one that can be used in a square shape, as an ‘avatar’… Here: a rough draft provided by Meriel – to discuss further later.. Right now, quite a bit to get through. 1.5 hour session, to include interactivity.
• #3: Run an exercise here to get people talking about what digital literacies means: A4 paper, discuss in tables what you think the core elements of it are. Feed into a flipchart board… can discuss further later? We will see the JISC definition shortly, but … Notes from baselining session:Professional competencies/frameworksDefine professionalism, digital capabilities encapsulatedSupport given in staff development (Selves/wider) How do members support others? One learns then shares with groupNeed for champions?Develop own expertise?Attitudes to technology
• #5: How did you find the survey? We’re about to give an overview – I’ll be interested as we go through to see where you feel we missed a trick, and what other feelings, expectations, etc. we should be working with. A survey was used as we wanted to reach the widest geographical spread, and were aware that SDF, which has some overlapping membership, were undertaking semi-structured interviews. The survey was anticipated to take around 10 minutes, and we received a total of 24 returns. We had a return of 24 out of about 40. We’re curious as to whether the technological format put some of the group off?
• #6: *What support already giving – how can we piggyback on other events, networks, forums, etc to make best use of resources.
• #8: How did users find the survey? A survey was used as we wanted to reach the widest geographical spread, and were aware that SDF, which has some overlapping membership, were undertaking semi-structured interviews. The survey was anticipated to take around 10 minutes, and we received a total of 24 returns, out of a possible 40-ish. Interesting results, not particularly unsurprising, but that’s good – that means we’re on the right track. We’re curious as to whether those who DIDN’T complete the survey (despite several reminders) are those who are least technically confident, which means that we need to know more about what you might need to know.We’ll go through the survey, chip in as feels appropriate – keeping an eye to time.
• #9: As expected, the majority of staff, who have with responsibilities for supporting organisational-level development within their institutions, can be seen to have long-term involvement with their institution. Although not explicitly expressed in this data, involvement in the ODHE indicates likely seniority of role.
• #10: In the EMBED IT report provided by Bringing Organisational Development into IT (BODGIT), produced by the Universities of Loughborough, Winchester and Middlesex in November 2010, it was clear that there are three likely drivers for involvement in the use of technology: altruism, compliance or a good business case. “In times of pressure Altruism is unlikely to work. And Compliance will generate resistance and resentment. So the only really helpful approach is the Business case. But if the benefits to the individual are not obvious then even this driver is unlikely to work.”In the project bid, we noted that digital literacies are becoming increasingly embedded within organisational processes, potentially bringing with it less hierarchical models. “For many this is a positive, democratic change, for others, an unwelcome shift.” As organisational developers are key practitioners in change management, it’s important that they are comfortable with digital literacies, which for many is associated with “technology”. We wanted to see how this was perceived as “Anecdotal evidence suggests that many OD practitioners are not comfortable with DLs. Opportunities for the effective use of DLs can easily be missed or not enthusiastically promoted.” Many of the responses focus upon the technological tools, in a mechanical sense, but the range of tools, from typical computers right through to spaceships is interesting, in that it demonstrates how aware respondees are that technology affects our whole lives, as one respondent put it ‘work or leisure’. The association with ‘the new’ could be interpreted positively or negatively, as ‘yet another thing to have to do’, to ‘great, a new opportunity’. This can be teased out more with exercises at the National event.  Words such as ‘daunting’, ‘challenging’, ‘oh no’ and ‘asdasdasd’ (which we took as gibbering in fear) indicate that there are still fears about anything associated with using ‘technology’
• #11: The following question picked up that there is still a high number who would not describe themselves as ‘confident’.It is encouraging to see that the majority of users are confident. Confidence, particularly in engaging with new (and ever changing) software is important in gaining digital literacy. There is still work to do in encouraging the confidence of some users, and there is the possibility that in using an online survey, the non-respondents are so unconfident that they didn’t even respond. In talking to Andy Wilson, the same kind of data is coming through for the SDF baselining (completed with 10 semi-structured interviews), unsurprisingly as he said many overlap in job roles. Now, I thought this would be a good time to engage in an exercise…
• #12: Here’s an exercise that can take some time, but what I’m interested in seeing here is for each of you to think of the top 3 things you can see possibilities for using technology with (and what problem you think it solves), and top 3 fears you may have (what problems do we need to solve)? Take maximum 5 minutes to think of that, and then we want half the room to look at fears/half possibilities, and feedback what we think the common themes are. Requires flip chart, postits, blu-tak, marker pen
• #13: The majority of users appear to have good access to a range of technology devices, with an encouraging number having access to a smartphone. A further point to consider in future engagement is the question of how far Smartphones are being used to their full capacity. Extra CommentsOh for the budget (work and personal!) to have smart phone and iPadI love my Kindle and iPhone
• #14: Email adoption was anticipated to be universal, and an easy ‘entry point’ to DL, but one respondee doesn’t use email at all. Of the remaining 23 respondees, 22 checked their email multiple times per day, with the remaining respondee only checking once per day. 18/23 = a separate personal account. Be interested to have a few points as to how people feel about email. Have we moved onto other things? How much of your day is taken up? Do you have any strategies for managing the materials?
• #15: Those who are digitally literate often appear to be prepared to use a range of tools, and experience a blurring between professional/work life.
• #16: There’s an encouragingly high awareness of the range of tools here, but need some conversation about why that is not translating into using the tools… fear, no time to play, can’t see point, etc?It would be interesting in further discussions to identify whether a change in role triggered the need to no longer use this tool, or whether the tool itself fell out of favour.
• #17: I use texting a great deal in my personal life - this doesn't seem to be high profile in the list. What about Skype etc.?I've put "haven't used" if I haven’t posted, but on some of them I have viewed (e.g. Flickr, YouTube) - I hope this fits your definition of "used"Where does 'Skyping' fit? My experience of trying to get to grips with these if they are provided by the University is often poor. I try to choose the tools that will help me achieve what I need to do in the fastest possible time and in the easiest way. That is a mistake as the IT group only tend to roll out tools they get excited about instead of asking us how we would work with them and over what time period. The time it takes me to work out how to use the new tools often outweighs my enthusiasm to try them. It doesn't help that the 'training' provided is not designed properly or easily accessible for 'normal' English-speaking people.We acknowledge that Skype was a missing option here. We also had an initial issue where the survey had defaulted to only allowing one tick per column, which may have affected 3-4 of the early responders. The final comment chimes with the findings produced for BODGIT. What other tools might you add to a toolkit (maybe this needs to go onto the flipchart too)
• #18: *We’ll come back to this at the end when we look at some of the potential tools, but what we really want to emphasise here is that even within SOCIAL MEDIA (and we’re not just talking social media here), there are endless possibilities, so it’s all about finding the right tool as a solution to whatever your issue is. I’ve brought in social media at this point, as we need to think about where our students are – we need to ‘fish where the fish are’. Many students are confident using digital tools (though by no means all), so how do we encourage this from a pedagogic perspective.
• #19: In March 2010 (Yes prefees), and so may look quite different, but many of these stats can still impact our practices… including a demand for more virtual/distance materials, more repeated/recorded materials, help with languages (archived lectures can help with this), more flexibility (e.g. booking appointments digitally rather than a piece of paper on the door).
• #20: At the JISC E-Learning Fair in November 2009, Stephen Sheedy, Queen Mary College, Basingstoke was saying we shouldn’t be talking about what we MIGHT need to do, we need to be doing it now…Having said there there is a lot of differentiation, there are signs that expectations have changed… Previously “youngsters” would have been introduced to a widening world by adults slowly, but these days they are interacting globally with little guidance…
• #21: Recent webinar with Dave White from Oxford…. Digital Natives (even Prensky doesn’t subscribe to it)… more about a state of mind than an age thing, although there is a certain amount of truth that if it’s all you’ve ever known…
• #22: This calls for more need for flexible learning, and Personal Learning Environments is a growing activity, drawing more from the coaching mindset, I think I can say – start where people are – find entry points…
• #23: If you want to read more about that… can see here… Usually get about 200 views on Slideshare uploads – this time nearly 3000!
• #24: 2 respondees missed this question – assuming that they use none of these. I need a technician though to make video/podcast thingsIn the process of developing online Xerte courses. Also beginning to experiment with Prezi
• #25: Many universities have technologies embedded in the teaching room, but how much are these actually used?Very few always use this technology, whilst an equal split uses it occasionally or frequently. This chimes with both anecdotal experience and experience from the BODGIT project, and encourages us to think more about purchasing decisions and policies, if there’s not a clear policy on implementation, embedding and use.  Extra CommentsNone of the rooms available to us have electronic whiteboards but other AV/technologies utilised.I don't use a fraction of what our modern teaching rooms are capable of!It would be helpful if there was a standard specification. 'Special' set-ups are always a problem.
• #26: Comments re time factor, reliability … Eduroam is awful - unreliable, difficult.I have found that you cannot rely on other people's hardware or networks, so it is best to be self-sufficient if you canMultiple log ins even though we say we have 'single sign-on'. It can take me up to 20 minutes to get everything up and running.
• #27: 5 users skipped this question, but appear below…
• #28: It’s encouraging to know that we have a group of people who can clearly be persuaded to engage with the technology, if they can see a need for a particular tool. The sources of advice are important to consider as we can build resources which will engage people using tools they are familiar with. Coming out most clearly here are colleagues, YouTube, and ‘trial and error’. Playing is SO important, and I’m wondering if you have suggestions for how we can get senior management to see the value of spending time in ‘play’ – we weren’t allowed to call our day play day – ended up with drop-in day!
• #29: Importance of terminology – what terminology is help or turns you off – so what might we need to engage with to keep your attention?Re the basics of using a tool – have been running workshops in Winchester (and for CofE), and also developing worksheets, as most people can sign up for an account for e.g. social media – it’s using it well that takes time to learn, and usually being in the middle of it, understanding what you want to do with it.
• #30: *Here’s a list of someof the tools that I’m familiar with – trends document is something I didn’t quite get round to updating, but it’s due – gets lots of traffic to the site as it’s what people want to read. The top section is a series of online documents with basic sign-up for social media tools which I’m gradually developing. Dropbox/Google + = all sots of options…
• #31: 4 ½ minutes (if time) – but over conversations, think this is valuable…
• #32: A document working it’s way round Facebook at the moment, might help you see the difference.
• #33: Do we need to know how to use the tools or do we merely need to encourage others to use them? Do we need to use all tools?
• #34: In many ways, the results received in this survey have chimed with anecdotal evidence provided before the project, although the number prepared to self-teach, if provided with the right tools, is encouraging. We are seeking to develop short, easy to access worksheets for the JISC FASTECH project, and feel that these would be adaptable for ODHE. These worksheets are to contain (early on) the pedagogical, research or administration purpose to which tools can be put. Want an open discussion to add to this slide – where do we go with this information under our belt? Is the group convinced of the value of digital literacy? What already exists that we could piggyback on?
• #35: DISCUSS TECHNOLOGY’S INPUT INTO THIS:Already have an online presence: who looks after this, and could we use collaboration to build on this:Twitter?Blog?FB group? LinkedIn Group – how do we find the right tool for the people in the group? Online worksheetsSkype Based coaching/mentoring (for this, as a tool for you?)Value of iPads – saving money in meeting paperwork costs appears o be the swaying argument…
• #36: This is the kind of information that we could share on a blog – could set one up v. easily with multiple authors… then set up a strategy/timeline…
• #37: Phone = not the best option.