Digital Fluency
The Digital Fluency Initiative was commissioned by the University Executive in 2007. The aim of this initiative is to raise the profile of digital fluency, to embed it as a core graduate attribute and a key element of professional development for all staff. Put simply digital fluency at Sheffield Hallam University is characterised by the necessity to 'live learn and work in the digital age'. Digital technologies permeate every aspect of our lives and have a profound effect on how individuals and organisations communicate. This means that 'those who can understand and comfortably use e-facilities are significantly advantaged [1]'.
Digital fluency has as its core elements, information literacy and IT competencies; however, as the web has evolved from an information delivery vehicle to a place for collaboration and interactions, the new skills needed to perform effectively in these environments are increasingly important. They include being socially adept online, writing for appropriate audiences and contexts, and having the skills to engage in online debate and discussion. Addressing our capability to develop this range of digital competencies is likely to have a profound impact on the competitiveness of the university and the employability of our graduates.
There is clear evidence that our incoming students have high expectations about learning in e-supported environments. They also expect that, regardless of their starting point, their experience whilst at university will help them to build their own digital capabilities and confidence.
Although many staff are becoming more confident users of digital technologies, as with our students, there are differing levels of confidence and need. The ability of staff to confidently engage with digital technology has a significant impact on student engagement
[2] .In this context, the challenge of supporting our staff to build their digital capabilities is critical. 'If further and higher education institutions are to continue to successfully deliver their core business, staff i-skills have to become a fundamental feature of all staff development policies'. We must be confident that decisions about the future direction of the University and its responsiveness to changing external agendas and opportunities can be made on the basis that staff skills will not present a barrier to progress.
The focus of this work so far has been to raise awareness and to investigate our readiness as an institution to support our students to become digitally fluent. This has been through multiple conversations with academic and support services staff to develop an understanding of digital fluency in the context of the different professional specialisms and to explore issues, barriers and opportunities. The student experience of digital fluency has been investigated through interviews, surveys and small scale pilots within and outside the curriculum. More recently we have begun to explore new collaborative models of digital fluency support at local and institutional level.
Investigating the staff and student experience revealed that whilst there is dedicated institutional support for Information literacy and IT skills, it is difficult to identify support for on-line interactions or the development of critical thinking in digital domains. In addition, the emergence of digital environments has blurred the boundaries between these core literacies. We, therefore, need to review the blend of support and resources on offer and develop an approach that makes sense of this complexity for our students and for academic staff.
Given the convergent nature of digital resources it is imperative that IT and Information professionals forge even more dynamic relationships to provide coherent and transparent support to students. Whilst student support has traditionally been the core focus for these specialists, the additional challenge is to develop new approaches to understanding and enhancing staff digital fluency needs.
For academic staff, not only must they understand the need to develop these competencies to support their own efficiency and effectiveness but they must also be capable of fostering digital fluency skills in their students.
Change of this nature can only be delivered through partnership and collaboration and this has been built by creating integrated delivery teams to explore ways of providing more coherent and pervasive support that is clearly focused on developing the capabilities of all our students and staff to meet their individual needs.
These teams involve:
- Educational Developers
- Educational Guidance specialists
- Faculty Learning and Teaching Coordinators
- Faculty E-Learning Advisers
- Information Professionals
- IT Professionals
They are operating on two levels:
- An institutional Digital Fluency Group is developing the strategic approaches necessary to deliver the agenda. This involves senior staff from specialist areas, library, IT, educational development, student services and Faculty.
- This is supported by Operational Communities of Practice at delivery level - which have come together to develop a range of interventions including, university wide staff development fairs, new student mentoring models for digital fluency, faculty based digital fluency staff development programmes.
Whilst there is still much work to do, there is clear evidence that the imperative of digital fluency is starting to be recognised. The University's Corporate Plan 2008 - 2013 (currently in draft) sets out the institutional expectations of digital fluency for students and for staff. References to digital fluency frequently crop up in conversations and documentation. Underpinning strategies, such as the Information Literacy strategy are now being re-drafted to sit within the overarching framework of digital fluency.
Strategic change can only be delivered by recognising the importance of the underpinning cultural change and ensuring that message on digital fluency is consistent and pervasive across all areas of the institution. This will require continuous engagement to ensure that; digital fluency remains an institutional strategic priority; that there is a commitment to review the role profiles of all staff and to define the graduate attributes of our students.
[1] DigEuLit – a European Framework for Digital Literacy: a Progress Report
[2] Katz, R. (2006). The ECAR study of undergraduate students and information technology, 2006,