Scottish Government Library Information Literacy newsfeeds

EU Media Literacy Week

Fri, 22 Mar 2019 00:01:12 +0000

This week is EU media literacy week - the webpage is here
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/european-media-literacy-week
and there is a listing of events (which you can add to) here
https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/european-media-literacy-events

I attended the conference in Brussels on Tuesday and liveblogged it here
https://information-literacy.blogspot.com/search/label/EUmedialiteracyweek
and the Sheffield University iSchool is offering a 30 minute webinar to
celebrate the week at 10am UK time on 22nd March "Media and Information
Literacy for Informed Citizens in the Digital Age": details are here
https://information-studies.blogspot.com/2019/03/celebrating-eumedialiteracyweek-at.html [...]

Social Media Literacy for Change MOOC #infolit #EUmedialiteracyweek

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 23:55:40 +0000

Many events are being recorded on the European Media Literacy Week listing database which is here https://ec.europa.eu/futurium/en/european-media-literacy-events
One that caught my eye is the Social Media Literacy for Change MOOC "co-created by European Schoolnet in collaboration with a group of teachers for teachers" which runs 29 April 2019- 12 June 2019. It is in English, with translation of content and transcripts of videos in Greek, Spanish, Italian, Latvian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Dutch and German. The 5 modules are: What is social media literacy? What is a social media literacy strategy? How to develop a meaningful social media literacy strategy at your school? Implementing your strategy. Assessing the effectiveness of your strategy. The project is part of the Future Classroom Lab initiative. To register go to http://fcl.eun.org/sml4change/mooc
Photo by Sheila Webber: pitch for the ScienceTruck project at the EU Media Literacy Week conference

3 fresh ideas to reinvigorate busy learners in 2019

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 16:09:19 +0000

Every day your employees face dozens of clients, managers, reports and projects competing for their attention. With 55% of workers saying they lack time to learn, it is clear heading into 2019 that we need to apply some fresh forward-thinking to recapture the attention of the learners and revive their passion for learning.

The post 3 fresh ideas to reinvigorate busy learners in 2019 appeared first on Towards Maturity.

Academic Liaison Manager vacancy

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 15:14:02 +0000

Dear All,

We are currently recruiting for an Academic Liaison Manager at the University of Derby: https://jobs.derby.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=0118-19

Please feel free to contact me with any enquiries or for an informal chat.

Regards,

Jacqui

Jacqui DaCosta
Library Academic Services Manager
Centre for Student Life

T: 01332 592028
E: j.dacosta@derby.ac.uk<mailto:j.dacosta@derby.ac.uk>

University of Derby,
Kedleston Road,
Derby,
DE22 1GB

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[cid:image017.jpg@01D41DB3.07190A20]<https://www.derby.ac.uk/>

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Sensitivity: Internal

The University of Derby has a published policy regarding email and reserves the right to monitor email traffic.
If you believe this was sent to you in error, please reply to the sender [...]

Don’t let your academic career determine your every move – Should early career researchers be expected to relocate regularly in order to land a permanent job?

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 11:58:38 +0000

To secure a permanent academic position, it has become an increasingly common requirement for early career researchers to work in a number of institutions, often across a number of countries. In this post, Eva Krockow weighs the benefits of an international career against the costs of constant mobility and suggests that fostering more stable working environments will ultimately prove beneficial […]

Bravery award for Fort William 'gun' incident librarian

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 11:06:51 +0000

Sandra MacLean "calmly" led the evacuation of her library after a man turned up holding what looked like a weapon.

Webinar: Media and Information Literacy for Informed Citizens in the Digital Age #infolit #EUmedialiteracyweek

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 19:07:57 +0000

To celebrate European Media Literacy Week, on Friday March 22nd 2019, 10.00-10.30 UK time (see https://tinyurl.com/y4s6gbwg for times elsewhere in the world) we (the Information School, University of Sheffield, UK) are presenting a webinar: Media and Information Literacy for Informed Citizens in the Digital Age.

In this webinar, experts from the University of Sheffield’s Information School will highlight the value of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) for citizens’ lives, and the contribution that information and library professionals can make to developing MIL. I (Sheila Webber, Interim Co_chair of the European Chapter of the Global Alliance for Partnerships in Media and Information Literacy) will chair the webinar, give my perspective on the European Media Literacy conference held earlier in the week, and introduce UNESCO’s MIL CLICKS campaign (Media and Information Literacy: Critical-thinking, Creativity, Literacy, Intercultural, Citizenship, Knowledge and Sustainability https://en.unesco.org/MILCLICKS).

My colleagues Dr Laura Sbaffi, Dr Pamela McKinney and Dr Sophie Rutter will provide insights into the value of MIL in areas such as evaluating health information and monitoring wellbeing, as well contributing perspectives gained through educating information and library professionals to support citizens’ MIL.

It is free and open to all (you will need to download the free Adobe Connect app, if you do not already have it installed). At the seminar start time go to https://sheffield.adobeconnect.com/european_media_literacy_week and you will get accepted into the seminar as a guest. Email s.webber@sheffield.ac.uk if you are having problems.

There is no requirement to register, but if you want to get reminders and easily insert the event in your calendar, register here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/media-and-information-literacy-for-informed-citizens-in-the-digital-age-tickets-59128979369

Better Benchmarking

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 15:11:09 +0000

I was on a phone conversation and was asked whether I compared my clients against others in the business to help them figure out where they’re at. E.g. do I offer my partners the chance to benchmark. And after a bit of thought, I said that no, I didn’t, and explained why. Moreover, they found my answer intriguing, so I thought I’d share it with you.

So, as I’ve said before, I don’t like best practices. In fact, as I’ve written before, I think we shouldn’t benchmark ourselves against others. That’s a bad practice. Why? Because then we’re comparing ourselves against a relative measure. And I think we should be comparing ourselves to a principled metric about where we could and should be.

In fact, in the Revolution book, I created such a benchmark. Using my performance ecosystem model, I took the six fundamental elements and elaborated them. The first core element I documented is a learning culture. That’s accompanied by the approach to formal learning, looking at your instructional design and delivery. Then you move to performance focus, how you’re supporting performance in the world. We move on to social, how you’re facilitating informal learning and innovation. The next step is how you measure what you’re doing. Finally, there’s your infrastructure, how you’re creating the ecosystem environment. For each here I have a principle and an approach.

What I’ve done in the benchmarking instrument is take each of these and extend them. So, for each element broke it into two components, as there are nuances. And, for each, I proposed four levels of maturity:

Unaware: here you’re not thinking ecosystem
Initiating: now you’re beginning to establish an ecosystem approach
Mature: you’ve reached a working approach
Leading: at this level you’re setting the pace, thinking ahead

Thus, rather than benchmarking yourself against others, you have a principled approach with which to measure yourself. This instrument is fully elaborated in the Revolutionize L&D book, and goes into detail on each of the twelve rows.

And that was my response to the query. As a person, on principle you’re not supposed to compare yourself to others, but to your own progress. How to set your benchmarks? Against formal criteria. The same is true for organizations. I’ve tried to make a scrutable framework, the Revolution Field Guide, so to speak. So, please, look to best principles, not practices, and evaluate yourself similarly.

The post Better Benchmarking appeared first on Learnlets.

Ireland’s Be Media Smart campaign

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 14:50:49 +0000

A new Irish public awareness campaign has been launched to coincide with European Media Literacy Week (18-22 March 2019), to help people identify sources of information that may be unreliable, as well as deliberately false or misleading information. The campaign will call on people of all ages to Be Media Smart and Stop, Think, and Check that information they see, […]

CILIP Training: GDPR and data protection: One year on, what now?

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 13:53:08 +0000

*apologies for cross-posting*

GDPR and data protection: One year on, what now?
Tuesday 30 April 2019
CILIP Head Office, London

One year after the implementation of the Data Protection Act 2018, librarians and information professionals still need to ensure that their organisations are compliant with their increased responsibilities under the legislation in their processing of personal data. [...]

UKSG Innovation Competition/Award

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 13:39:09 +0000

We [NLPN<https://nlpn.wordpress.com/>] are pleased to be working with UKSG<https://www.uksg.org/> and the Society of Young Publishers (SYP<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthesyp.org.uk%2F&data=02%7C01%7CH.M.M.Monagle%40salford.ac.uk%7C678f32d1627b494c7fc008d6ab7a5746%7C65b52940f4b641bd833d3033ecbcf6e1%7C0%7C0%7C636884939291639132&sdata=aQ1z33gKs70ojBOPiVTTy4YITh1PXonOgoSM0P1Xqfk%3D&reserved=0>) to offer a new competition/award targeted at new professionals (maximum 5 years’ experience).

Funding will be provided for individuals to develop ideas and concepts of benefit to our sector and with this initiative we hope to stimulate innovation and creativity in the scholarly communications sector plus offer an opportunity for new professionals to raise their profiles. [...]

CILIP CONFERENCE LIRG BURSARY - 2019

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 12:11:53 +0000

** Cross - Posted **

Dear All

The CILIP Conference (3-4 July, Manchester) is one of the largest and most eagerly anticipated events in the library and information sector and LIRG can offer one full delegate place with one night's accommodation as a bursary place.

CILIP Conference brings together around 500 professionals from across the sector to share experiences, knowledge and expertise. The keynote speakers include Liz Jolly, Patrick Lambe and Kriti Sharma. The programme is being finalised but you can see an outline of the session content at cilipconference.org.uk. Keep up to date by following @CILIPConf19. [...]

The Wrong Currency

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 12:02:37 +0000

I used to have an elderly neighbour, when i was a student, in a shared house. I’m not sure quite how old she was, but in my memory she was about 170. One of my friends would often check in on her, on one occasion, finding her poorly, and looking after her after a fall.

A few days later, her son came to visit: he worked in the city, drove a big car, and was an infrequent visitor to his elderly mother. Maybe his job precluded it.

When he learned what my friend had done, he tried to tip him, and my friend refused. Quite vocally. It was the wrong currency, being spent within the wrong exchange system.

My friend was operating on values: the way he acted as a neighbour was neither a duty, nor a job. It was part of his values and ethos. The way the son treated it was as a service. So he tipped, which may have been wrong on two fronts: firstly, it was not a service, so the tip was wrong, but even if it had been a service, he did not offer thanks.

If he had led by saying ‘thank you’, perhaps the outcome would have been different, but he led with money. He deployed financial currency in a gratitude economy. And he diminished his standing in the reputation economy (my friend, concurrently, increasing his).

Formal systems may operate on financial currency, but social ones do not: in my own research, when people help an Organisation build a culture that is ‘better’, only seven percent want more money for their efforts. Most want further opportunities to help.

As we evolve our Organisations, beyond domains, beyond utility, we will need to learn how to hold, and deploy the right currencies. And make no mistake, this is not a way of doing things cheaply: the currencies of gratitude, respect, trust, and fairness may be beyond value.

“If you use social media then you are not working” – How do social scientists perceive altmetrics and online forms of scholarly communication?

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 11:00:07 +0000

Altmetrics – web-based measures of research usage – have existed for a decade. However, a significant proportion of social science research fails to register any online attention at all. This impairs the usefulness of altmetrics as a tool to understand the relevance of social science research and also suggests social researchers are less inclined to engage in online arenas. In […]

its international Happiness day - share these free academic resources to encourage well being reserch

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 08:03:25 +0000

Thought we might need to encourage some more happiness after recent news so
Here are

International happiness day - try these free research resources<https://alissresearch.blogspot.com/2019/03/international-happiness-day-try-these.html>

International Day of Happiness<http://www.un.org/en/events/happinessday/> is celebrated on the 20th March

Research happiness using our free resources

Where are the world's happiest places?

World Happiness Report 2018<http://worldhappiness.report/>, ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels. the 2019 report is due to be launched on the 20th March Download the data and consult the methodology on the website. [...]

Exploring the roles of school leaders and teachers in a school‐wide adoption of flipped classroom: School dynamics and institutional cultures

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 17:34:57 +0000

Abstract

While the development of digital technologies provides generous resources for educational practices, how the use of information and communication technology (ICT) supports instructional reforms in schools still needs further exploration. The purpose of the study is to understand the roles of school leaders and teachers play in an instructional reform supported by ICT as well as how these roles interact with each other. The study selected a Chinese middle‐high school that successfully had a school‐wide instructional reform supported by ICT as an exemplary case and collected data through document analysis, interviews and observations. The results indicated that the school leadership was critical in the instructional reform. While the executive vice principal was in an essential position as an initiator and strategic planner, the leadership was distributed and stretched over in the school. The school built supporting pedagogical and organizational systems for continuous and collaborative learning and helped the teachers develop four new roles: learners, facilitators to student‐centered learning, collaborators and researchers.

Media Literacy projects #EUmedialiteracyweek #infolit

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 15:08:15 +0000

The next session at the European Media Literacy Week conference is Testimonials from inspiring media literacy projects and initiatives.
Cecilia Roos (Head of Strategy) and Gabriella Thinsz, Head of Content, Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company (UR) https://www.ur.se/about-ur talked about their educational mission (creating educational media for those at primary to university level). They felt they could be "a counterwight to false information". They also talked about the importance of transparency (a word that has come up a lot today). An example was a weekly (Friday) news programme aimed at 8-12 year olds, where they extended the programme for a few minutes to give the young audience a chance to ask questions about the process of interviewing and news production at the end.
Žarko Čižmar (Director, Telecentar) emphasised the need for media literacy education and talked about the "media lab" concept which was project based education, needing teachers who are able to facilitate. They also have a project "In search of Truth", which uses digital storytelling, focusing on difficult questions - this is the Telecentar website http://telecentar.com.hr/
Christian Radler (Head of Research and Development, ARD) had to improvise, since they couldn't find the powerpoint he'd provided. He talked about a data journalism project, creating engaging data visualisations about climate change (with a focus on the question - if it isn't stopped, how hot will it be in 2080?).
"How in the world can we make the European Union more relatable" is the question they are focussing on now - it is a multilanguage project that should be online before the European elections in May (a pity this wasn't achieved 3 years ago....)
Pavel Pavlov of Hyperaspect was next up. They are developing a system for media monitoring and gave some examples of what they can map.
Finally a Masters student and a new journalist (I won't try and guess their names from having heard them briefly) talked about testing out some tools. They were part of a group of about 30 young people, some of whom were reporting on the conference, some of whom were using a particular tool to create content etc. A group was working with Truly Media (pictured above), a tool made for collaborative work, to examine content to see whether it could be verified.

Chasing Technology Good and Bad

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 15:07:05 +0000

I’ve been complaining, as part of the myths tour, that everyone wants the magic bullet. But, as I was commenting to someone about opportunities, there are huge tech opportunities we’re missing. How can I have bit both ways? Well, I’m talking about two different techs (or, rather, many). The fact is, we’re chasing the wrong technologies.

The problem with the technologies we’re chasing is that we’re chasing them from the wrong beginning. I see people chasing microlearning, adaptive learning, video, sims, and more as the answer. And of course that’s wrong. There can’t be one all-singing all-dancing solution, because the nature of learning is remarkably diverse. Sometimes we need reminders, sometimes deep practice, some times individualization makes sense, and other times it’s not ideal.

The part that’s really wrong here is that they’re doing this on top of bad design! And, as I believe I’ve mentioned, gilded bad design is still bad design. Moreover, if people actually spent the time and money first on investing just in improving their learning design, they’d get a far better return on investment than chasing the latest shiny object. AND, later investments in most anything would be better poised to actually be worthwhile.

That would seem to suggest that there’s not a sensible tech to chase. After, of course, authoring tools and creating elearning. And that’s not true. Investment in, say, sims makes sense if you’re using it to implement good design (e.g. deep practice). As part of a good learning design strategy. But there’s something deeper I’m talking about. And I’ve talked about it before.

What I’m talking about are content systems. They may seem far down the pike, but let me (again) make the case about why they make sense now, and for the future. The thing is, being systematic about content has both short-term and long-term benefits. And you can use the short-term ones to justify the long-term ones (or vice-versa).

In the short term, thinking about content from a systems perspective offers you rigor. While that may seem off-putting, it’s actually a benefit. If you design your content model around good learning design, you are moving towards the first step, above, about good design. And, if you write good descriptions within those elements, you really provide a foundation that makes it difficult to do bad design.

My point is that we’re ignoring meaningful moves to chase chimera. There are real value steps to make, including formalizing design processes and tools about good design. And there are ways to throw your money away on the latest fad. It’s your choice, but I hope I’ve made a case for one interpretation. So, what’s yours?

The post Chasing Technology Good and Bad appeared first on Learnlets.

IL Award 2019 nominees announced

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 14:52:42 +0000

Hi folks,

Here’s something to perk you all up on a Tuesday afternoon. The LILAC awards team is delighted to announce the shortlisted candidates for the 2019 Information Literacy Award https://www.lilacconference.com/awards/information-literacy-award

Whatever you are doing, give it a rest for five minutes and check this out (feel free to blame me if you get into trouble with pesky line managers). [...]

Quality media and #medialiteracy tools and issues #EUmedialiteracyweek #infolit

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 14:17:06 +0000

I'm liveblogging the 2nd (post-pleasant-lunch) panel session Quality media and media literacy tools: which roles and perspectives for stakeholders and civil society in the digital environment? at the European Media Literacy Week conference in Brussels. In fact the session didn't really focus on "tools", but it brought out various key issues in this area. James Ball opened the session to introduce the idea of using tools to counter the forces of clickbait, hackers etc., as well as talking about principles that platforms, journalists and regulators need to follow.
The session chair is Maja Cappello (Head of Department for Legal Information, European Audiovisual Observatory). Panellists were: Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck (CEO and Founder, Lie Detectors); Tessa Lyons Laing (NewsFeed product Manager, Facebook); Gianni Riotta (Journalist and Professor, LUISS, School of Journalism); Matt Rogerson (Head of Public Policy, The Guardian); Claus Grewenig (Vice President Governmental Affairs, Mediengruppe RTL).
von Reppert-Bismarck introduced her project/organisation, an independent non-profit, http://www.lie-detectors.org which has journalists visiting schools to raise awareness about the issues of false news. This is seen as having a dual purpose of educating students and encouraging journalists to step away from their everyday job and engage with young people to talk about what journalists do (and also what can go wrong). I will just throw in here that it is disappointing that they don't seem to be working with school librarians, who surely are obvious partners.
Riotta cited research about the correlation between loss of journalism (e.g. (I think) a local newspaper disappearing) and the rise in polarised ideas, the loss of trust etc. Therefore the importance of responsible journalism had become even more evident. They are working on a prototype for a tool which links the item of news you are looking at with that item's rating by others.
Laing talked about some of things Facebook has done, for example, to reduce the amount of false information (including disrupting the ways in which it could gain attention) or to link items with fact-checkers' information about the item. They are funding various research and awareness initiatives.
Grewenig talked about the importance of "traditional" media, and how media broadcasting from organisations like his, and quality journalism, should not be taken for granted. Ball (as a Guardian journalist) picked up on the word "traditional" and how it often got used pejoratively. He emphasised "traditional" media's accountability for their content, with clear channels for complaint and comment, and also (referring to the Guardian) their responsibility for what advertising appears with their content. This includes a philosophy of open information on the web, considering the diversity of the journalists themselves, and having an education centre that brings in younger people to see what happens in the newspaper.
Cappello asked about challenges. von Reppert-Bismarck felt that the fast moving scene was a challenge, including teachers keeping up with developments and encouraging younger people not to get blase and bored about the issue. Grewenig was asked to talk about whether anything was being done specifically looking to the elections in May 2019, and combatting a fake news effect there. He agreed with a previous speaker that media literacy had to be developed through people's everyday lives, or they would not pay attention to it (or would resent it being pushed in their faces). Part of it was explaining the complex processes, finding a balance between quick news and reliable news, and explaining and admitting when things go wrong.
Ball talked about the need for banning social media being used for microtargetted political campaigns. It worried him that things were still going on as they had been before recent scandals (about using social media politically).
Laing said that research had shown that changes Facebook made had had an impact on false news etc. She said that political advertisers now have to show who paid for the advert and some other key information, so there is "greater transparency and awareness". von Reppert-Bismarck asked why some apps which could be used to check facts had been disabled by Facebook (Laing talked about the tension between protecting information and enabling sharing). von Reppert-Bismarck also asked a question about Whatsapp (but I'm afraid I didn't grasp the Q & A coherently enough).
Riotta brought in the issue of how reality is warped and constructed by those who want to manipulate people's ideas and behaviour by using social media etc.
Someone from the audience asked about the role of the tech platforms. Ball mentioned concerns raised when feeds from sources like the Guardian were given less priority on Facebook, and that making news "flat" (so the branding wasn't evident) could also be an issue when people are trying to judge quality. Grewenig talked about findability and access being imprtant, to identify quality news.
One of the points raised in the wrap up was the tension between freedom of choice and free speech, and regulation (definitely a problem that can't easily been solved).

Be Media Smart campaign (Mar 18th - April 7th)

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 13:31:54 +0000

*Apologies for cross-posting*

A new Irish public awareness campaign has been launched to coincide with European Media Literacy Week (18-22 March), to help people identify sources of information that may be unreliable, as well as deliberately false or misleading information. The campaign will call on people of all ages to Be Media Smart and Stop, Think, and Check that information they see, read or hear across any media platform is reliable. [...]

Vacancy: Head of Academic Liaison (maternity cover)

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 13:01:52 +0000

Good morning,

*Apologies for cross-posting*

We are currently recruiting to the role of Head of Academic Liaison (maternity cover) at Royal Holloway, University of London.

It is an exciting time at the College, as we transition from 3 faculties into 6 schools. This provides the Academic Liaison team with an excellent opportunity to strengthen our relationship with departments, and build our teaching and services to support this new structure. You will be responsible for managing a team of 5 information consultants, overseeing a number of projects including transitioning the team to support the new academic structure, increasing engagement with our [...]

The Social Learning Guidebook: A Free Resource

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 11:20:52 +0000

You can download my new Guidebook on Social Learning here. It’s intended to form a concise, practical, guide for practitioners who are trying to transform learning, through more social and collaborative approaches. It builds upon work i’ve shared previously, both in long form books (‘Julian Stodd’s Learning Methodology’, ‘Welcome to the world of Social Learning’, ‘Learning Technology’, and so on), as well as numerous articles on the blog (including this is key ‘Introduction to Scaffolded Social Learning‘).

For some time i have been considering writing a full book on Learning Transformation, but two factors have prevented me: firstly, time, and secondly, uncertainty. My time is currently taken up with half a dozen writing projects that are progressing well (‘The Change Handbook’, ‘The Social Age Guidebook’, and ‘Apollo: Leadership Lessons from the Space Race’ among others…), and uncertainty, because my work around Learning Transformation, and the core emergent skills, is still evolving rapidly.

But there are plenty of ideas that i wan to get ‘out there’, without waiting to write a full book, so i’ve been playing with these ‘Guidebooks’ as a way of bridging the gap between the blog, and a full manuscript. Taken together, they form my exploration notes for various aspects of the Social Age: a diverse, and evolving, body of work, growing directly out of my primary writing and research, as well as my applied work with Sea Salt Learning.

‘The Trust Guidebook’, is already published, and ships with ‘The Trust Sketchbook’, but i may well make a free version of this in due course.
‘The Social Learning Guidebook’ you can download here.
‘The Community Builder’s Guidebook’ will be published freely in a month or so.
‘The Social Age Guidebook’ will follow, as a sketch map of key strategic challenges i see.
‘The New York Dereliction Walk’ is published, but just provided hard copy on request, but i would like to move this to a full publication: it was my favourite writing from last year.

I will build the series out beyond this in due course, but all of these Guidebooks will iterate over time, to form cumulative bodies of work, but freeing me up from the time needed to try to rationalise them into one coherent book.

The ‘Guidebooks’ are all written to be under 10,000 words, allowing them to be read fast, and include sections for ‘What you need to know’, and ‘What you need to do about it’, after each short chapter. In that sense, these are aimed more directly at practitioners than some of my longer form books, but there is a lot of cross over: there are a lot of big ideas in here, but i hope also a lot of things that you can action this afternoon!

These Guidebooks are not complete work, nor are they definitive ‘answers’. i cannot stress that enough: i am holding comfort in the fact that they are not perfect, but they are shared openly. But i hope they will inspire you to find your own answers: they will iterate over time, so do go back and check your version number to access the latest thinking.

I adhere to a methodology of #WorkingOutLoud, whereby all my work is shared openly, and as it takes shape. Where possible, i try to identify which bits of this work are stronger than others, and i share my mistakes and evolving understanding as well.

The Guidebooks are grounded in my professional work through Sea Salt Learning: a global partner through change. Sea Salt Learning lets me engage in some of the key strategic challenges our time, with some of our most incredible global Organisations. I am lucky to be immersed in a community of people who want to drive change. This holds my thinking, and work, to account, in a very direct way. It is to that community that i am directly responsible.

If you enjoy my work, please consider sharing it: the work in these Guidebooks is shared openly and freely to provide one perspective on a complex challenge.

Academic travel culture is not only bad for the planet, it is also bad for the diversity and equity of research.

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 10:55:13 +0000

Responding to Jürgen Gerhards’ post on the ecological damage being done by excessive academic travel, Race MoChridhe observes how the financial and social burdens of academic travel add an additional barrier to participation in research and argues that if academia wants to address issues of diversity and equity in research, it must first acknowledge the effects of academic travel culture. […]

Public Authority roles #EUmedialiteracyweek #infolit

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 10:52:02 +0000

Next for my liveblogging at the European Media Literacy Week conference is a panel discussion: Which role for public authorities in supporting quality journalism and fostering media literacy skills among citizens?. The panellists are: Helga Trüpel (Member of the European Parliament); Jean-Paul Philippot (Director-General, RTBF); Celene Craig (Chair, European Platform of Regulatory Authorities (EPRA); Luboš Kukliš (Chair, European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA); Mirta Lourenço (Chief, Media Development, UNESCO); Wout van Wijk (Executive Director, News Media Europe); chaired by Madeleine De Cock Buning (Professor of Digital Politics, Economy and Society at European University Institute, Florence).
Kuklis introduced the work of the 4-year-old European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA), and he emphasised the role and value of regulators. This theme was taken up by Graig, who advocated their value, particularly in working collaboratively. Graig also mentioned the Irish regulations and the work of Media Literacy Ireland: there seems to be information about that here: https://www.bai.ie/en/viewers-listeners/understanding-media/
Trüpel stressed once more the responsibility of journalists, tech companies and the media, and touched on the tension between free speech and free internet (on the one hand) and the need to regulate and control misinfomation and anti-democratic action in the media (on the other). She felt that "good regulation" was needed to tackle the problems, but most of all responsible action from the socialmedia platforms and search engines.
Philippot outlined his organisation's media literacy policy, which had the ambition "From media targets to media actors: develop people's ability to be media productive", which involves developing critical thinking skills. The action plan includes elements such as "highlight and explain our editorial choices", for example telling the audience why a sensational murder is not featured as the headlined choice. It also included involving all staff, and engaging the audience/creators actively with workshops, tours and dialogue (e.g. there is an "Inside - behind the scenes" initiative). Philippot also mentioned the European (and regional and federal) elections, and specific campaigns to encourage citizens to think critically about information and to make informed decisions.
Mirta Lourenço made the first reference to Media and Information Literacy (MIL) (at last!). She talked about the MIL Curriculum for teachers and how it has been implemented in some countries, the MIL assessment framework, the Global MIL conference, journalism handbook etc. (all of which I have blogged previously) She also identified that there is a need to focus on MIL of older people as well as younger people. One of the other things she mentioned is types of education for journalism. De Cock Buning asked about how UNESCO's initiatives could support vulnerable countries, and Lourenco emphasised that its initiatives were indeed aimed at these vulnerable countries. She added that because of a lack of literacy in many of these countries, and because of the many languages spoken in some of them, they needed to use a variety of media. Because of lack of electricity, unreliable bandwidth and because the mobile phones are not advanced models, basic media such as radio are still important. Lourenco also called for a harmonisation between the European Media Literacy week and Global Media and Information Literacy week.
Finally, I'm pleased that the need to look at the media of literacy of older people is being recognised, but I'm completely fed up with the lazy ageist anecdotes about people's fathers', aunts' etc. stupidity when engaging with media.

Call for participation: LILG 2019: Learning Information Literacy across the Globe

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 09:57:09 +0000

Call for participation: LILG 2019: Learning Information Literacy across the Globe

Call for participation:
### Learning Information Literacy across the Globe (LILG 2019)

DIPF, Frankfurt am Main, 10th of May 2019
https://informationliteracy.eu/conference/

Your are invited to participate to the inter-disciplinary conference between information-science, education-technology and psychology.

Registration is open and guaranteed till the end of March. It is done at no price. [...]

Opening of Media Literacy Week Conference #EUmedialiteracyweek #infolit

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 09:38:24 +0000

Today I will be doing some liveblogging from the European Media Literacy Week conference in Brussels. As usual with liveblogging, these are just my on-the-spot impressions, and I will be using my iPad to do some of the blogging, and that often has a mind of its own (bah, autocorrect). The conference is livestreaming, go to the conference web page and scroll down for the link. Kate Russell, a tech journalist, is acting as MC for the day and she talked about the growth of news and information.
The opening talk was from Mariya Gabriel (Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society). She emphasised education in media literacy, the relevant regulations of the Regulations introduced in the European Union, and the specific objectives of this week. She talked about the importance of critical engagement with information and news, and the need for education in this area, and the requirement for education outlined in the regulations, requiring action from all stakeholders. In particular educators were singled out for their particular role, including developing media literacy resources (sadly I don't think she mentioned librarians at all.....) and the obligations of media platforms to do more to fight disinformation and promote transparency. European Media Literacy week is seen as an opportunity of promoting the ideas, vision and experience of those engaged in media literacy. providing access to media and information and developing media literacy was seen as vital for the democratic vision of Europe.
Valer-Daniel Breaz (Minister of Culture and Audiovisual, Romania) Also emphasised the importance of a coordinated approach to tackling misinformation, since media had become a more important force than any state. Therefore citizens need media literacy competences, whilst media producers need to use technology and ethical approaches in publishing information. Breaz mentioned the proposals in the area of media literacy and the combat of misinformation e.g. in the report produced at the end of 2018 (which I have blogged previously) and in the EU's audiovisual regulations. He also emphasised the need for free and transparent information in the lead up to the European elections, which take place throughout the EU in May. Again he noted the need for education of young people, so that they were media literate both in consuming and creating media and information. Braez said it would be valuable both to share resources across the EU, to have a means to evaluate information for the benefit of EU citizens, and to have a means to compare Media Literacy initiatives across the EU.
Finally in this opening session, Ronald van Roeden gave a talk on behalf of the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, The Netherlands). He also identified the need for a responsible press and media and media literate citizens in the run up to the elections for the European Parliament, and he also mentioned the forthcoming elections in the Netherlands. Journalists and media platforms were identified as having a particular responsibility in combatting fake news, and thus supporting openness and freedom. He advocated starting with the fundamental values of the European Union and saw effective use of technology to combat fake news (and understanding how technology is used to promote fake news). In the Netherlands they started a campaign earlier this month (linked to the elections), urging people to be curious and critical about news. Van Roeden talked about the differences between older people and younger people in their beliefs and reactions to media, and he said that there is more focus now in raising the awareness of older people about the dangers of fake news. He finished by showing a special edition of a Donald Duck comic focusing on diving into the digital.

Join the Information Literacy website editorial team!

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 09:02:42 +0000

Hi, Everyone.

The CILIP Information Literacy Group<https://www.cilip.org.uk/members/group_content_view.asp?group=201302&id=690012> currently has a number of vacancies on its Website Editorial Team, and is recruiting now! We are looking for three dynamic and committed individuals to join our team and help us make further exciting developments to the Information Literacy website<https://infolit.org.uk>.

We would welcome applicants from all sectors, including new professionals and students who have a particular interest in promoting information literacy. Applicants should be based in the United Kingdom. [...]

Engagement in business simulation games: A self‐system model of motivational development

Mon, 18 Mar 2019 19:37:57 +0000

Abstract

This research draws on the self‐system model of motivational development to explain how the use of business simulation games in class facilitates students’ engagement and enhances their learning. Based on a survey of 360 undergraduate students who played a business simulation game in a marketing course, the findings show that students’ perceptions of competence, autonomy, relatedness and self‐efficacy have a positive impact on their cognitive, emotional and behavioural engagement. In addition, cognitive and emotional engagement have a positive influence on skills development and perceived learning.

Technology‐mediated learning theory

Mon, 18 Mar 2019 19:27:48 +0000

Abstract

Technology‐enhanced learning research, such as that relating to the use of online technologies in formal learning contexts, is sometimes criticised for being under‐theorised. This paper draws together areas of research and theory that have previously been somewhat separately treated, to support the integrated analysis and research of situations where technology mediates learning. First, key areas of research and theory relating to technology‐mediated learning are introduced, along with their associated conceptual underpinnings and assumptions, in terms of premises. These areas are then explained with relation to one another regarding how they can be used to holistically understand learning in contexts where technology mediates learning. The implications of the theoretical concepts are discussed in terms of the future conduct of technology‐mediated learning research, as well as the scope and conditions under which the theorisations apply.