You are digitally literate until you realise you aren’t. You have purchased your first tablet and don’t know how to ‘copy and paste’ text into a document. You have been playing Words with Friends for the last three months without knowing it includes a built-in dictionary. You ignore text messages from friends because you don’t know what all the…
Category: Digital Literacy
Knowing Is Not Enough
Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Knowledge and willingness are just the beginning of a quality learning experience. They do not produce learning on their own. If we want to truly learn we must apply and we must do. Anything less…
Three Links Worthy Of Your Attention
In the last week I’ve found a lot of resources that are really good for library staff wanting to upskill in tech and related areas so I thought I’d share my top three finds with you. An excellent set of eight modules from the Colorado State Library for library staff to help library members one on one with…
Do You Speak Emoji?
You’ve probably used the smiley face emoticon 🙂 in text messages, on Facebook and maybe even email. Emoticons use images and characters to express an emotion in a text-based medium. Emoticons are like emotional punctuation – they provide an emotional nuance or human element to text-based communication and help the reader to understand your message. Emojis on the other…
What Happened To The Dinosaurs?
Search engines are ubiquitous and we often use them without thinking about how they work and with little regard to the quality and display of a search engine’s results. Perhaps it’s time to change. When you ask Google ‘what happened to the dinosaurs’ this is what appears at the top of the results. Google has…
Digital Rights: Is trolling a valid form of expression?
Do you know where you stand when it comes to digital rights? Is trolling a valid form of expression? Should people be able to track your mobile phone? Should prisoners have access to the web? The web turned 25 last year. The inventor of the web Tim Berners-Lee, saw it as an opportunity to spark a…
Digital Literacy Has 8 Essential Elements
WARNING: Lavish use of parentheses follow. 🙂 As might be expected most digital literacy models have a school (such as New Zealand’s Netsafe’s digital citizenship model) or higher education bias (where JISC’s seven digital literacies is arguably the gold standard). I however prefer Doug Belshaw’s digital literacy model (shown above) because it separates digital literacy (Belshaw…
7 Techniques To Reduce Digital Literacy Anxiety
Having an open mind and a commitment to lifelong learning is in my view one of the most difficult aspects to overcome when attempting to improve the digital literacy fluency of library staff. I know dozens of library staff who have had the opportunities, skills and practice to advance their digital literacy, yet fail on the…
Digital Literacy Is A Process Of Development
When you learn a new language you need to learn all the components of that language. With practice you will be able to read, write, and speak in that language. After more hard work and practice you may begin to think in that language. Just as learning a new language is a process of development,…
What Is Digital Literacy?
Digital literacy is a slippery concept. Mostly I think we subconsciously know what digital literacy means but when we try to explain it, it sounds big and scary and hard. According to Blanchett (2013) digital literacy is the “capabilities, aptitudes and attitudes an individual needs to thrive in a digital economy and society.” But what does that…
10 Reasons Why Library Intelligence Has Never Looked So Good
Back in 2011 I travelled up and down the country running project management workshops for library staff. In 2012 I did it all again, this time sharing my knowledge of ereaders and ebooks. During this time I received many emails from library staff desperate to learn but unable to attend because they couldn’t afford the time…
Tackling Digital Literacy Head On
Digital literacy is a slippery concept. Mostly I think we subconsciously know what it means but when we try to explain it it sounds kinda big and scary and hard. We know digital literacy is being able to thrive in today’s technology rich, complex and constantly changing world. But what does that mean exactly? Where…
