The latest piece of research by CLT on Embedding Digital and Information Literacy in Undergraduate Teaching compared strategies being used by three projects that are part of the JISC Developing Digital Literacies programme and the opportunities and threats for adopting some of these strategies as part of the work to embed the ANCIL framework into undergraduate teaching.
The report recommends a dual approach for Information Literacy and Digital Literacy skills to be successfully embedded into undergraduate teaching at the LSE. As explored in the CASCADE programme, student change agents provide contextualised, peer-to-peer support, but also important feedback on the kinds of issues faced by students, and the tools and technologies being used to overcome them and gain IL skills.
The ‘top down’ approach advocated by McGuinness (2007) is also needed to complement and support change agents. There needs to be increasing communication between academic faculty, academic support staff and librarians to better understand each others roles and remits, and find areas for effective collaboration.
We have already starting to explore some of the recommendations of this report, and have got the ball rolling through the ‘Student Ambassadors for Digital Literacy project’ (SADL), which will be looking at the role of student ambassadors to support digital literacies, and provide vital feedback to the project team on the embedded approach.
The report is now available via LSE Research Online.
References:
McGuinness, C. (2007). Exploring Strategies for Integrated Information Literacy: From “ Academic Champions ” to Institution-Wide Change. Communications in Information Literacy, 1(1), 26–38. Retrieved from http://www.comminfolit.org/index.php?journal=cil&page=article&op=view&path[]=Spring2007AR3&path[]=14. Accessed 26 July 2013.
