{"id":3631,"date":"2014-04-03T11:00:26","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T11:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsletter.alt.ac.uk\/?p=3631"},"modified":"2014-04-03T11:00:26","modified_gmt":"2014-04-03T11:00:26","slug":"a-supportive-environment-for-digital-literacy-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2014\/04\/a-supportive-environment-for-digital-literacy-development\/","title":{"rendered":"A supportive environment for digital literacy development"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are many studies of how user expectations of institutional IT are changing: see for example the recent Educause review of IT issues<\/a> and regular surveys from UCISA<\/a>. The Developing Digital Literacies programme<\/a> has focused rather on how people acquire the digital literacies they need for academic success, and how aspects of the institutional environment support them in doing so.<\/p>\n

IT departments have a powerful role to play, for example in providing the network capacity, data environment and identity management that underpin access to services. Effective academic work demands seamless transition between personal, cloud-based and institutional applications, and the capacity to access all of these from multiple locations. But i<\/b>nstitutions need to rethink their provision beyond IT services. For example, learning and social spaces must adapt to allow secure use of personal devices and simultaneous real-time \/ virtual collaborations. Assessment regimes need to provide scope for different approaches to academic tasks, and to reward digital expertise where it is relevant to the outcome. A range of professional staff may be involved in minimising the disadvantages felt by those students (and staff) who are not comfortable in a digital setting.<\/p>\n

Above all we have identified that institutions need a sustained dialogue with staff and students about their digital practices, which is not confined to meeting expectations today but also supports emerging practices of learning and scholarship into the future. Guidance on embedding and maintaining such conversations \u2013 particularly with students \u2013 will be one outcome of JISC’s new co-design approach<\/a> in partnership with SCONUL, UCISA, RUGIT and RLUK. Here we review some emerging themes.<\/p>\n

Bring your own device<\/b><\/h2>\n

Our baseline report highlighted the rise of the ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) culture in universities and increasingly among colleges too. The assumption that personal devices will be used to manage academic work also implies that individuals will use their own software and services and rely to a large extent on their own ICT skills. We have seen BYOD being used as a reason to cut costs, but as students increasingly consider ICT provision and support in their choice of programme we find forward-thinking institutions refocusing rather than reducing their investment. For example, drop-in surgeries can support the range of devices and applications in use better than one-off workshops, and IT-literate students can be particularly effective in these roles. Priorities for technical staff have gone beyond integrating specific applications to developing a flexible data environment and data services which are agnostic as to users’ preferred devices and applications.<\/p>\n

BYOD enables staff and students to develop a personal repertoire of technology use. Practices are more readily adopted and refined if they can be transferred easily across contexts. So BYOD has a clear role to play in supporting digital literacy development. BYOD also supports innovation, as it allows pioneers to experiment in familiar settings and with familiar tools. However, a review of BYOD policies among projects has found:<\/p>\n