Wellbeing and responsibility: a new ethics for digital educators?

Wellbeing and responsibility:a new ethics for digital educators?

Helen Beetham | @helenbeetham

http://digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.orghttp://digitalcapability.jiscinvolve.org

The LLiDA project: Thriving in a digital age

The ‘Digital Student’ projectsafety, diversity, belonging

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)

Digital student: outcomes

Beetham and Sharpe 2010

Elements of digital literacy

Beetham Littlejohn and McGill 2009

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

Not all of us thrive equally in digital spaces

safety | respect

Not all students thrive in digital spaces

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

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

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.

Digital student: outcomes

cc. Simon Rae 2015

Digital students are different

digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org

Digital students are different

digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org

Benchmarking the Student Digital Experience

digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org

Benchmarking the Student Digital Experience

belonging | inclusion | engagement

Elements of digital literacy

Beetham Littlejohn and McGill 2009

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 collegesdigitalcapability.jiscinvolve.org

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

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

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

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.

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

Findings: framework analysis (DRAFT)

data literacy | creativity and innovationwell-being and values

‣Comment on the blog (later)

‣Amend the benchmarking tool (at break)

‣Define digital wellbeing:for yourself, your colleaguesand your students (now)

How can you get involved?

digitalcapability.jiscinvolve.orgfor outcomes and next steps

#LTHEchat for online discussion tomorrow (Weds) 8pm-9pm

[email protected]