Effective characteristics of Digital Literacy learning and delivery

1. Supportive Learning Environment

1.1. Supportive and safe learning environments facilitate learning, increasing learning potential.

1.2. A supportive environment may help students who have low confidence.

1.3. Students that feel hopeless or helpless may feel encouraged to learn and participate in a supportive environment.

1.4. It can be difficult to balance a supportive learning environment. Constructive criticism must be well managed and delivered to maintain a supportive but effective learning environment

1.5. A supportive learning environment may veer towards too much being done for the student, over-riding the learning process.

1.6. Lack of/ inability to give constructive criticism being given, thus ineffective skills or knowledge being attained.

1.7. An overly supportive environment can seem false or patronising to some students, and have a negative impact on the learning outcomes.

2. Relevant activities

2.1. Activities that relate directly to the sessions aims and objectives enable students to see the distance travelled in terms of skills and knowledge acquisition.

2.2. Activities that relate to a students skills needs (work or personal) can lead to effective learning and skill/ knowledge mastery.

2.3. Relevance is a critical aspect in some key learning theories, particularly in John Keller's ARCS model, promoting motivational learning.

2.4. Relevant activities can increase student motivation and engagement. Increased motivation may lead to skills and knowledge being attained more effectively.

2.5. Depending on the type of motivation (intrinsic or extrinsic), skills and knowledge may be recalled for an extended period of time, or for a short period of time.

2.6. Activities that relate only to the lesson aims and objectives may limit other potential learning opportunities.

2.7. Over- relevance can lead to shorter term skill or knowledge acquisition and students may only be able to recall the skills or knowledge for a matter of days or weeks at best.

3. Explore new Digital Literacy Resources

3.1. Enables an andragogical approach, which favours adult learners.

3.2. Students can form their own concepts and find their own ways of working with the new tools/ software.

3.3. Being able to explore new tools enables students to be more autonomous and learn for themselves.

3.4. Can engage and motivate 'hard to reach' learners, particularly those who favour kinaesthetic teaching/ learning methods.

3.5. Students may gain additional knowledge/ skills to those initially intended or identified by the tutor.

3.6. Can be an excellent form of teaching and learning, particularly if SOLO taxonomy is utilised by the tutor.

3.7. The students can go off-task if the learning environment is not properly monitored.

3.8. The intended learning objectives could be lost or not achieved.

3.9. If a basic knowledge foundation is not formed prior to the activity, learners may struggle and become disinterested.

3.10. Some students prefer to be shown or told, particularly students with low self confidence in their digital literacy skills.

3.11. Assumptions may be made that the students already have the basic digital literacy skills needed. If they do not have the basic skills, barriers may form or the students' confidence may be negatively impacted.

4. References and External links

4.1. ARCS model- John Kellr

4.2. I'm ok, you're ok (transactional analysis in teaching

4.3. Main source on Learning theories

4.4. General source on teching theories

4.5. John Dewey's theory of learning by doing

4.6. Kolb's experiential learning

4.7. Solo taxonomy