DLLE Module 2 - Commonwealth Centre for Connected Learning

Module 2 of the Digital Literacy Lab for Educators (DLLE) MOOC offers a unique socio-cultural narrative on the development of our digital world since Tim Berners Lee and Robert Caillau’s 1990 proposal for a system to share information digitally. This fresh overview is followed by a much-needed analysis of the concept of ‘digital literacy’ both in theory and practice. And in case you missed the introduction to digital literacy and the journey of the MOOC in Module 1, the study content can be found here.

Watch the DLLE Module 2 Videos

Dr Emma Pauncefort frames this second module by reflecting on the wonder and opportunity afforded to us through digital technologies: the ability to transcend time and space and connect with others.

Here, Dr Emma Pauncefort offers an overview of the founding principles of the world wide web and the launch of the first hyperlinked page in 1991. This potted history is placed within the context of the age-old human need to communicate with others and sits alongside a summary of the web’s basic infrastructure. She ends by reflecting on whether the world wide web has stayed to its founding goal. (For a great explanation of the difference between the ‘internet’ and ‘world wide web’, see this video from the BBC.)

Additional Videos in Module 2

What does our Digital World contain? introduces our exploration of what is contained on the 6 billion pages (and counting) pages online and interrogation of whether we have stayed aligned to the vision of an open space for creating, curating and sharing information.
A lot of Information (or is that data?) offers a whistle-stop tour of the difference between information and data, with an introduction to bits and bytes.
Media Reinvented Online: Wikipedia and the Reference Resource provides a first snapshot of how the world wide web has led to the reimagining of age-old media, starting with the reference resource and human endeavours to document ‘knowledge’.
Media Reinvented Online: News is a second snapshot of how online media has reinvented offline media.
Media Invented Online: Social Media offers an overview of how social media fits into our narrative of the reinvention of conventional media online.
Introducing the Concept Digital Literacy introduces an attempt to offer a working outline of ‘digital literacy’ which will allow us to navigate the opportunities and challenges posed by the digital world.
Digital Literacy (the theory) moves us beyond equating digital literacy with ‘technical know-how’ whilst embedding the notion of digital literacy as a skill i.e. ‘practical knowledge’.
Digital Literacy (in practice) outlines in broad terms the steps to becoming a ‘netizen’ or responsible participant in our digital world and re-emphasizes how digital literacy both complements and feeds back into traditional school subjects.
Opportunities and Challenges: Digital Literacy and Society digs into the debate on the misalignment of education with the skills demanded by our current 4^th Industrial Revolution, commonly dubbed ‘C21st skills’.
Opportunities and Challenges as Creators, Consumers, Teachers & Learners surveys the different roles we can perform as digitally literate citizens or ‘netizens’, both generally speaking and when wearing our education hats. Digital creation is placed at the heart of netizenship and counterbalanced with an overview of the extensive activity of bad actors online, including that which is state-sponsored.