Group 3 – Lara, Asha, Chris

Hello everyone, below you will find our draft facilitation plan. For our topic, we’ve chosen digital literacies and facilitation, which is a heavily contextual topic with variable interpretations and implementations. For our primary resources, we’ve chosen a variety of different perspectives on digital literacies, and the goal of our teaching week will be to encourage our participants to become familiar with the concepts and consider how they apply within their own context. We’ve intentionally left vague the perspective from which participants can establish context, as some of our peers are educators who are familiar with the facilitator role, while others are technologists or administrators who are more familiar with the learner role. Finally, we are hoping to foster a critical discussion about the embedded values and assumptions of digital literacies and technology-mediated education. 

Please let us know what you think!

Learning Objective(s)

By the end of the week, participants will be able to think critically about the digital literacies required of learners and educators to participate in a hybrid learning activity.

By the end of the week, participants will be able to formulate their digital literacies within their own professional context.

Learning Resources

Required Resources 

• Please read only Chapter 1: Schwartz, M., Bali, M., Blocksidge, K., Brown, C., Caines, A., Dermody, K., Gelette, C., Levesque, L., & Peters, J. (2020). Digital citizenship toolkit. Toronto Metropolitan University. https://openlibrary-repo.ecampusontario.ca/jspui/handle/123456789/856

• Please watch: Jeroen de Boer. (2017, November 30). Doug Belshaw – The essential elements of digital literacies FBN maker party [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSLPc2OoLlk
  
• Please read: JISC (n.d.). Discovery Tool. Building digital capabilities framework. https://repository.jisc.ac.uk/8846/1/2022_Jisc_BDC_Individual_Framework.pdf

Optional Resources

If you would like to try a digital literacy self-assessment, please consider:

European Union. (n.d.). Europass: Test your digital skills. https://europa.eu/europass/digitalskills/screen/home 

Depending on your highest level of education, use the following EQF equivalencies: 

• EQF Level 6 – Bachelor’s degree
• EQF Level 7 – Master’s degree
• EQF Level 8 – PhD degree

For a Canadian K-12 context, take a look at:

Government of British Columbia. (2022, April 1). Digital literacy. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/teach/resources-for-teachers/digital-literacy 

If you would like to delve deeper into Doug Belshaw’s work on digital literacies, check out:

Belshaw, D. (2014) The essential elements of digital literacies. Self-published. https://dougbelshaw.com/essential-elements-book.pdf

Asynchronous Activity # 1

Read Chapter 1 of The Digital Citizenship Toolkit and consider your digital literacy skills, otherwise referred to as capabilities for participating in a digital environment (UNESCO, 2015).

Create a padlet post (100 to 200 words) in response to the following prompt:

 If you had to explain digital literacy in your context using only a GIF, meme, or emoji, what would you choose and why?

Synchronous Session

Date & Time: TBD – DoodlePoll Circulated September 4, closing September 12

Plan: Introduction to digital literacies, discuss the challenge of standardized definitions of digital literacies (context), review Belshaw, review JISC, and encourage participants to think about digital literacies in their academic and professional contexts.

Session Agenda

1. Introductions and ILAs
2. Session overview
3. What are digital literacies?
   1. Group discussion: (prompt) think about your first experience with technology and what literacies you needed to develop to use that technology. How has this changed compared to now?
4. How are digital literacies defined?
   1. Brief presentation on Belshaw’s elements
   2. Group poll: In his video Belshaw identifies “civic’ as the most important element for librarians. Using this menti poll, which element do you think is the most important for your context
   3. Group discussion: (prompt) based on the responses, who would like to share more details on why they chose their particular element?
5. What is an example of a digital literacy framework?
   1. Brief presentation on JISC capabilities framework
   2. Group poll: Within your academic or professional context, which of the six elements do you find the most challenging?
   3. Group discussion: (prompt) based on the responses, who would like to share more details regarding your choice?
6. Closing remarks, final questions

Asynchronous Activity #2 – Forum Discussion:

Digital literacies can have embedded values and assumptions. Where might there be ethical challenges related to digital literacies? 

Asynchronous Activity #3 – Assignment:

Using the JISC framework, write a brief blog post (300-400 words) or video (max 10 minutes) about which elements you think are the most important for facilitators. 

Technologies

• Doodle Poll (coordinating synchronous activity)
• Zoom (for live session)
• Moodle (course content and discussion forum)  
• Canva (for synchronous session presentation)
• Padlet (Activity 3)
• Google Docs (for collaboration or artifact creation)

Timeline & Communication Plan

Date	Task/Event	Communication Method
Sun Oct 5	Post schedule & reminders	News Bulletin + email
Mon-Tues Oct 6-7	Readings Activity 1 due	Self-paced Padlet
Wed Oct 8	Post Activity 2 prompt	Moodle Discussion Forum
TBD	Host synchronous session	Zoom
Fri-Sat Oct 10-11	Discussion continues	Forum facilitation
Sun Oct 12	Activity 3 due	Blog post

Community of Inquiry (CoI)

Teaching Presence “refers to the decisions educators make regarding the design, direction and facilitation of social and cognitive-processing interactions in online courses” How will you provide structure and feedback?

• Simple, easy-to-navigate Moodle site
• Clearly stated learning objectives and expectations around reading and assignment purpose and time required.
• Clear assessment criteria for online discussions and the optional assignment.
• Examples for discussion posts and the assignment.
• Use of accessible and clear language.
• Use scheduled activities and provide prompts per timeline & communication plan.
• Asynchronous activities: monitor forum posts and provide timely, appropriate encouragement or challenging questions to foster ongoing engagement, create connections, and expand thinking.
• Synchronous session:  provide an outline and expectations for the session purpose and learning outcomes, facilitator role and learner role, facilitate discussions and activities, and clearly link them to resources and learning outcomes.
• Include links to instructional videos on the use of additional technology.

Social Presence “involves the connections students and faculty establish in a learning space; social presence is influenced by the quality and quantity of interactions between and among students and faculty, helping all involved to feel more involved and engaged in an online space” How will you support open communication and social connection?

• Icebreaker activity to establish familiarity with digital literacies
• Start our synchronous session with brief personal introductions
• Model an environment of psychological safety, positive engagement and mutual respect
• Launch the week with a fun and engaging asynchronous activity to encourage participation, engagement and help to make the topic personally relevant.
• Create presence by providing prompt feedback and encouragement during synchronous and asynchronous activities.
• Encourage and facilitate interaction between learners, don’t over-prompt or comment and use open-ended questions.
• Use technology as tools for collaboration.

Cognitive Presence “refers to how students interact with and process the content of a learning experience”: How will you encourage critical thinking and reflection?

• We will use a variety of video, audio, text, interactive activities, synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities to appeal to different learning styles and preferences.
• Selection of engaging content that is accessible and applicable to diverse professional contexts.
• Mid-week check-in to provide an opportunity for learner feedback.
• Activities purposely created to link back to personal or professional context.
• What kind of wrap up activity to we have to pull the learning together?

Team Roles

• Project Manager / Timeline Coordinator – Lara with support from Chris and Asha
• Synchronous Session Lead: Asha with support from Lara and Chris
• Presentation design: Asha with support from Chris and Lara
• Forum Facilitator: Chris with support with from Lara and Asha
• Tech Support & Tools: Lara with support from Asha and Chris
• Communications: Chris with support from Lara and Asha