New Voices RGU Student Series – Emily Faulkner

Category: New Voices, New Voices, RGU Student Series

In the Robert Gordon University Student Series blog, we share the views of RGU students from the MSc in Information and Library Studies course.

Today, we hear from Emily Faulkner, a Library Technician from Québec, Canada who is currently studying remotely on the RGU MSc Information and Library Studies course. Emily’s professional interests include accessibility, virtual learning, children and young adult literature, genealogy, and user-generated content. In their blog, they discuss how the pandemic has exposed a desperate need for digital literary skills in many schools, and how school librarians are uniquely placed to support their communities by providing the training and advice that are needed now more than ever.

A distance student based in Canada, Emily discusses the pressing need for digital literacy in school communities and how school librarians can make a difference.

School Libraries and Digital Literacy in a COVID-19 World

Digital literacy has been relevant to schools for as long as technology has been used in the educational environment, but in our current COVID-19 world it has become a far more urgent beast. This year, digital literacy has become paramount to the survival of students, staff, and families because learning has become impossible without the skills and technology to access classes online.

The Digital Literacy Task Force has defined digital literacy as “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information” (cited in Price 2013) but what does that mean exactly? Any time you turn on a device or click something, you are using digital literacy skills. Any time you print or type or even open a Zoom meeting, you are using digital literacy skills. When you use a search engine or judge whether a site or app would be useful to you now? That’s right. Digital literacy skills.

At the start of the pandemic, depending on where you lived, most, if not all, schools went fully remote and were wholly unprepared to do so in such a short period of time. It has been made abundantly clear that the need for effective online learning and adaptable education practices is now more important than ever, both to modernise the education system and as a safeguard for the population in times of crisis.

As someone with several students in their family, I have personally witnessed the issues that primary, secondary and academic schools have had in adapting to online learning throughout lockdown. These issues include teachers who lack an understanding of the technology they now must teach on because of insufficient and ineffective training from their school boards. In this new remote learning wave, we can only imagine how well those who have kept to a strictly paper-based curriculum, unwilling to adapt over the years for fear of technology or deviating from traditional education, have fared. It is clear to see that people of all ages are in desperate need of digital literacy skills.

Who better to teach these skills than school library professionals whose livelihood revolves around information access? By using an existing digital literacy framework, they can create effective curriculums for all ages. According to the framework released by MediaSmarts (2012), the three key skills that schools and school libraries should focus on when formulating their digital literacy lessons for students and staff are:

-Use: Can they use technology, such as computers, programs, and the internet, to find and access resources?

-Understand: Do they understand how to evaluate what they have found?

-Create: Can they create and adapt to different situations by using technology?

During lockdown, school libraries made ease of access a top priority, with school library professionals shifting focus in order to instruct their colleagues and students on digital literacy (Witteveen 2020). School library professionals must continue this momentum kickstarted by one of the most outlandish years any of us have ever experienced and instead of letting the momentum peter out, it should be used to focus long term on educating users and facilitating access. Access to services has unfortunately become a more widespread barrier recently with COVID-19 furthering the digital divide in places like the United States, where a 2015 census analysis estimated that approximately “15% of U.S. households with school-age children do not have a high-speed internet connection at home” (Anderson and Perrin 2018). Coupling this with inconsistent business closures and a lack of open, available childcare services has forced some families to choose between staying home with their remote-learning children and going to work. These factors have culminated in a perfect storm causing a “Covid slide” (Ceres 2020) where those who usually face difficulties accessing education are in an even worse situation now.

This past year has proven without a doubt that the present and future of schools are in digital literacy, and that library professionals are standing by waiting to help, so long as we can turn on the screen and access them.

Reference List

ANDERSON, M. and PERRIN, A., 2018. Nearly one-in-five teens can’t always finish their homework because of the digital divide. [online]. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center Fact Tank. Available from: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/26/nearly-one-in-five-teens-cant-always-finish-their-homework-because-of-the-digital-divide/ [Accessed 16 November 2020].

BELSHAW, D. 2012. The essential elements of digital literacies: Doug Belshaw at TEDxWarwick. [online video]. 22 March 2012. Available from: https://youtube.com/watch?v=A8yQPoTcZ78 [Accessed 19 October 2020].

CERES, P., 2020. A ‘Covid Slide’ Could Widen the Digital Divide for Students. [online]. San Francisco, CA: WIRED. Available from: https://www.wired.com/story/schools-digital-divide-remote-learning/ [Accessed 16 November 2020].

MEDIASMARTS, 2012. Digital Literacy Fundamentals. [online]. Ottawa, ON: MediaSmarts Canada’s Centre for Digital and Media Literacy. Available from: https://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/general-information/digital-media-literacy-fundamentals/digital-literacy-fundamentals [Accessed 16 November 2020].

PRICE, G., 2013. ALA Task Force Releases Recommendations to Advance Digital Literacy. [online]. INFOdocket. Available from: https://www.infodocket.com/2013/06/15/ala-task-force-releases-recommendations-to-advance-digital-literacy/ [Accessed 16 November 2020].

WITTEVEEN, A., 2020. Ahead of the Curve: School Librarians Innovate and Take on New Responsibilities ǀ SLJ COVID-19 Survey. [online]. New York, NY: School Library Journal. Available from: https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=ahead-of-the-curve-school-librarians-innovate-take-on-new-responsibilities-SLJ-covid-19-survey [Accessed 16 November 2020].

Bibliography

ANYANGWE, E., 2012. 20 ways of thinking about digital literacy in higher education. [online]. 15 May 2012. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2012/may/15/digital-literacy-in-universities [Accessed 16 November 2020].

BUTLER, M., 2020. Here’s how many Philly families have gotten free internet through PHLConnectED so far. [online]. Philadelphia, PA: Technically Media. Available from: https://technical.ly/philly/2020/11/03/phlconnected-internet-access-students/ [Accessed 16 November 2020].

DE LA ROSA, S., 2020. Survey: School libraries adjust to continue services, support teachers and students. [online]. Washington, DC: Education Dive. Available from : https://www.educationdive.com/news/survey-school-libraries-adjust-to-continue-services-support-teachers-and/586370/ [Accessed 16 November 2020].

MARTIN, A.M. and ROBERTS, K.R., 2015. Digital Native ≠ Digital Literacy. Principal. [online]. In press. Available from: http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslissues/MartinRoberts_JF15.pdf [Accessed 16 November 2020].

MEDIASMARTS, 2012. USE, UNDERSTAND & CREATE: A Digital Literacy Framework for Canadian Schools – Overview. [online]. Ottawa, ON: MediaSmarts Canada’s Centre for Digital and Media Literacy. Available from: https://mediasmarts.ca/teacher-resources/digital-literacy-framework/use-understand-create-digital-literacy-framework-canadian-schools-overview [Accessed 16 November 2020].

MILLER, J., 2020. Teachers propose ideas to combat ‘Covid slide’ when students return to school. [online]. Ottawa, ON: Ottawa Citizen. Available from: https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/teachers-propose-ideas-to-combat-covid-slide-when-students-return-to-school [Accessed 16 November 2020].

RENAISSANCE, 2019. What is digital literacy and why does it matter?. [online]. Wisconsin Rapids, WI: Renaissance. Available from : https://www.renaissance.com/2019/02/08/blog-digital-literacy-why-does-it-matter/ [Accessed 16 November 2020].

SEELY, G., 2020. Distance Learning: Supporting Education in Uncertain Times. [online]. New York, NY: School Library Journal. Available from: https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=distance-learning-supporting-education-in-uncertain-times [Accessed 16 November 2020].

SLJ STAFF, 2020. Where We Are Now: Libraries, COVID-19, and the Online Learning Challenge. [online]. New York, NY: School Library Journal. Available from: https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=where-we-are-now-libraries-COVID-19-coronavirus-and-the-online-virtual-learning-challenge [Accessed 16 November 2020].

WORLD LITERACY FOUNDATION, 2020. What is Digital Literacy and Why Does It Matter?. [online]. World Literacy Foundation. Available from : https://worldliteracyfoundation.org/digital-literacy-importance-for-studentswhy-does-it-matter/ [Accessed 16 November 2020].

YORIO, K., 2020. School Librarians Can Help During Crisis, But Some Fear Being Shut Out. [online]. New York, NY: School Library Journal. Available from: https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=school-librarians-can-help-during-crisis-but-some-fear-being-shut-out-coronavirus-covid19 [Accessed 16 November 2020].