An article from Times Higher Education discusses the digital divide within higher education. One of my goals is to provide training and support for students and faculty in learning how to effectively use social media tools for work and learning. This article resonates with my new career aspirations very closely. The article introduces a new term for me – “transliteracy” This term points to the ability to use a variety of skills to interact with everyday life and a person’s capacity to contribute to society (or conversely to be excluded from society). Research has a habit of turning up surprising or controversial findings, and none more so than this: Britain’s universities are populated with illiterates.

Academics at De Montfort University are researching the nature and impact of a new kind of literacy: the sharp end of modern communication known as “transliteracy”. The term describes the ability to read, write and interact on a range of platforms. Think of the media’s teenage stereotype, a young girl watching Hollyoaks on television while simultaneously discussing its plotlines on the social networking site Facebook, listening to music on MySpace and texting her friend to discuss home study.

Melville says academics need to look at using a range of technologies when they teach, and that universities must get up to speed with Web 2.0 technology at an institutional level.

“It does lead to a rethinking of the balance between the value of the face-to-face work and the ability to do a lot of other things effectively, and taking the advantages as appropriate; students can now go on to a social network and create something for their work – a study group perhaps.”

These new technologies, so central to many young people’s lives, can offer engaging learning opportunities. Tutors could encourage and monitor discussion about their subject between pupils and ensure that they are sourcing the most accurate and useful information online.

“Students, I think, will do this, and the key question is for staff to help to make it more effective in terms of the quality and dissemination of material,” Melville adds. “Students lack those critical skills. They have got used to getting huge amounts of material in this way, but not very critically.”

To teach students how to be critical in their approach to learning through technology, tutors need to understand it and to be relaxed about using it themselves. Although institutions are attempting to address these problems by providing training for their teaching staff, they come up against academic apathy. Read the full artcile here……..

Brent Uncategorized divide e-literacy