A presentation on the importance of critical digital literacy from the University of Nottingham's School of Education has been selected as one of the six programme highlights at the World Literacy Summit which takes place in Oxford this April.
The paper “A four-level critical digital literacy scale: but do governments and big business even want users to have these skills?” is based on research carried out by Emeritus Professor Colin Harrison of the Learning Sciences Research Institute, and Chloë Patterson, a former University of Nottingham secondary PGCE student, who is now an early-career teacher of English.
Professor Harrison has been researching the uses of technology to support literacy for over thirty years, and met Chloë in 2022 when he was invited to lead a one-day guest session on ICT for English teaching for PGCE students. Chloë’s tutor, John Perry, had told Professor Harrison that he had never met anyone as knowledgeable as Chloë in relation to IT resources for teaching English, and so the two joined together to team teach the session.
In her new teaching role at West Bridgford School, Chloë was interested in Colin’s research into students’ use of the internet and was supported by head teacher, Tim Peacock, to identify volunteer students to continue the research. This work has already been presented at conferences in Phoenix, USA and Valencia, Spain.
Professor Harrison said “It is vitally important that we explore more deeply the ways in which students are beginning to be more aware of the dangers, values and power relations that underpin the internet. Many young people today know that there is such a thing as fake news, but that doesn’t mean that they have the skills to identify it, and to make critical judgments about what the internet throws at them. I’m delighted that the Oxford conference will take place during the Easter school holidays, and that Chloë will be able to co-present our work in person.”
Posted on Thursday 16th March 2023