Helen Beetham Taken from our learning and teaching practice experts group meeting on 23 June 2015

1. Wellbeing and responsibility:
a new ethics for digital educators?
Helen Beetham | @helenbeetham
http://digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org
http://digitalcapability.jiscinvolve.org

2. The LLiDA project: Thriving in a digital age

3. The ‘Digital Student’ project
safety, diversity, belonging

4. What do (digital) students say they want?
‣ Inspiring teachers (perhaps teaching in hybrid spaces)
‣ A chance to explore and project new identities
‣ New ways of belonging (to their course, cohort, institution)
‣ Closed, private → open, public spaces
(‘walled garden : paths out’)
‣ Credibility
(established norms)
but also
distinctiveness
(‘make me stand
out’) and
resilience (norms
will change)

5. Digital student: outcomes
Beetham and Sharpe 2010

6. Elements of digital literacy
Beetham Littlejohn and
McGill 2009

7. Not all students thrive in digital spaces
‣ Digital divide narrower but wider: can amplify other
inequalities and cultural differences
‣ ‘Digital natives' story hides many contradictions:
learners' engagement w digital world is v differentiated
‣ Up to 85% MOOC participants already educated (at
least) to graduate level
‣ Active knowledge-building, creating, sharing are minority
activities typically introduced by educators (Selwyn).
‣ Consumer practices & populist values dominate in
digital space - many feel excluded or worse

8. Not all of us thrive equally in digital spaces
safety | respect

9. Not all students thrive in digital spaces

10. Everybody say ‘aahh’...
‣ Students cite digital distraction and time management
as major concerns (confirmed by Pew Foundation 2015)
cc yo-bro.deviantart.com: any cat picture really

11. Not all of us thrive equally in digital spaces
bored, cynical
dispersed
fearful, anxious
focused/obsessed
observed, exposedignored, unfriended
bullish, boorish
compulsive, evangelical
left behind permanent upgrade

12. Not all of us thrive equally in digital spaces
Online legitimises opinion: people feel free to say
and do things that have become unacceptable
face to face.
It's too easy to fall into just looking at 'are they
using the technology to be good learners?' It's
about respect, social awareness.

13. Digital student: outcomes
cc. Simon Rae 2015

14. Digital students are different
digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org

15. Digital students are different
digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org

16. Benchmarking the Student Digital Experience
digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org

17. Benchmarking the Student Digital Experience
belonging | inclusion | engagement

18. Elements of digital literacy
Beetham Littlejohn and
McGill 2009

19. Framing digital capabilities for staff
‣ Desk study and horizon scanning 60+ references:
summary of issues now, <3 yrs and >3 yrs out
‣ Frameworks review 57 reviewed, 43 scoped in less
detail: summary review
‣ High-level descriptive framework + consultation,
feedback, refinement
‣ Interviews (50+): key issues
‣ Further projects: 12 potential projects scoped with
prof bodies; interest from universities and colleges
digitalcapability.jiscinvolve.org

20. Issues identified in interviews
‣ Changing nature of work inside and outside institutions
‣ Changes in how individuals achieve, record, demonstrate
capability
‣Individuals continue to value recognition, validation and
belonging in their learning and professional development
‣Digital capabilities are both generalised and specialised:
organisations need both and links between them
‣On the whole education providers do not reward,
recognise and retain digital talent well, and struggle to
develop generic staff skills
‣Digital capability is not yet well embedded into strategic
thinking and planning

21. Issues identified in interviews
‣ Changing nature of work inside and outside institutions
‣ Changes in how individuals achieve, record, demonstrate
capability
‣Individuals continue to value recognition, validation and
belonging in their learning and professional development
‣Digital capabilities are both generalised and specialised:
organisations need both and links between them
‣On the whole education providers do not reward,
recognise and retain digital talent well, and struggle to
develop generic staff skills
‣Digital capability is not yet well embedded into strategic
thinking and planning

22. Issues identified in interviews
Digital wellbeing
‣ personal health and wellbeing
stress, workload, work-life balance, permanent
upgrade...
(cf students: distraction/attention, exposure, loss of
f2f relationships, safety/bullying...)
‣ data issues: responsibilities to learners and to
institutional data systems
‣ ethical issues: environmental impacts; globalisation
impacts; intercultural awareness
‣ organisational issues: access and inclusion; parity and
equality

23. Digital stresses in the academic workplace
Whereas once upon a time there were people who
collected and worked with data... [all of us] are now
increasingly expected to not just access the data but to
update and manage and use it for all sorts of monitoring
purposes.
Fundamentally I spend more time at work or at home in
front of a PC than in any other activity. So how I'm
engaging with that keyboard and the basic interface... is
how I spend my time.
... a lot of work to be done with staff who are either at a
very low point in terms of skills or in terms of morale.

24. Findings: framework analysis (DRAFT)
‣ ICT proficiency = core skills
‣ Information, media and data
literacy = critical use
‣Creation, scholarship and
innovation = creative
production
‣Communication,
collaboration and
participation
‣Learning and self-
development
‣Identity and well-being

25. Findings: framework analysis (DRAFT)
data literacy | creativity and innovation
well-being and values

26. ‣Comment on the blog
(later)
‣Amend the
benchmarking tool (at
break)
‣Define digital wellbeing:
for yourself, your
colleagues
and your students (now)
How can you get involved?

27. digitalcapability.jiscinvolve.org
for outcomes and next steps
#LTHEchat for online discussion
tomorrow (Weds) 8pm-9pm
helen.beetham@gmail.com