As digital technologies became more ubiquitous, particularly via consumer devices such as mobile phones and tablets, a myth developed that young people, born into this new age, were 'tech savvy' whereas those of us who were older were struggling to adapt. "Digital natives" and "digital immigrants" were the terms popularised at the time (Prensky, 2001). However attractive such an idea may be it is simply not borne out by evidence and the experience of those who work with and teach young people (or older people for that matter!), and many criticised the unquestioning 'meme-like' adoption of the terminology. Just because young people can upload videos from their phone to TikTok doesn't mean that they can use spreadsheets properly, or are excited about databases, or even can produce other forms of media. A counter model, of 'visitors and residents' was proposed by David White and Alison Le Cornu, which enables deeper consideration of how we, as people, engage with the range of technologies and social media available to us in professional and personal lives.

The introduction to a freely available online lessonand workshop outline on the Visitors and Residents alternative model.

Things have moved on, even since then, and we are now facing new challenges with technology, not least of which is disentangling truthful and correct information from misinformation and deliberate fabrication, something which is sadly now part and parcel of contemporary politics, but also infects other aspects of our lives. In its idealised conception, education should be about enabling us to make judgements, to be critical thinkers, and to be somewhat immune to myths and misconceptions. However, these characteristics of a successful learner are not purely emergent from their educational experience. It is perfectly possible for someone to earn qualifications in a particular subject or area of knowledge and still be susceptible to misinformation or feel disempowered in terms of making judgements about other issues. This is part of the rationale for ensuring that we provide out students with information literacy. Learning the techniques and skills associated with finding information, being able to judge veracity and reliability of sources, and being able to construct arguments appropriately based on available information and evidence, are life-skills for the modern era and not just specialisms of those working in academia or libraries! Further, so many aspects of modern life are mediated or communicated through media of different forms: digital video, broadcast media, publications, podcasts, TikTok, YouTube, and more, so an understanding also of how messages are constructed and conveyed would provide us not just with potentially new ways of being creative, but also with the insight to recognise the ways in which beliefs can be manipulated and shaped to suit particular ideologies or the marketing of products. Thus, DigCompEdu speaks of Information AND Media Literacy.

Whilst you might think that this is more properly addressed in the digital competency of citizens (DigComp), or perhaps in specific training offered by libraries or other learning support/academic skills units, those who developed DigCompEdu recognise that there is also a responsibility on educators, whatever their discipline, to help facilitate the digital competence of their students. This includes, not just information literacy, but the ability to make the most out of the tools at their disposal for learning (eg the VLE/LMS, word-processing, presentation, video, audio software, etc). We are using media and technology in the teaching of our subject and so even for students to get the most out of this, we need to be sure that they are confident and appropriately skilled in the tools that we are using and in applying those competencies more widely, creatively, and responsibly.

6.1 Information and Media Literacy

"To incorporate learning activities, assignments and assessments which require learners to articulate information needs; to find information and resources in digital environments; to organise, process, analyse and interpret information; and to compare and critically evaluate the credibility and reliability of information and its sources."

Libraries, and the knowledge that they shepherd for us, are at the heart of universities not just physically (in many traditional campuses) but also virtually managing journal subscriptions for researchers, e-books, databases, and providing expertise in literature searching, referencing, and knowledge management. We expect students to make use of these resources, and often point them directly to references and reading lists, but are we sure that students are using these appropriately or are even aware of them?

If we consider the knowledge building that university research and scholarship is centred on as, in some senses, systematic curiosity, then the 'systematic' aspect of that is based on searching, gathering, critiquing, and contributing to the recognised body of knowledge which underpins our particular academic discipline. Skills such as systematic literature search and appropriate referencing and citation are absolutely crucial. Many students, however, find it difficult to understand why academics can be so insistent on proper citations of works read or ideas considered. The various citation formats can frustrate all writers, however, but of course we need to make sure that students see the rationale, and can recognise which sources are legitimate and trustworthy. These are basic skills, but we mustn't presume students have already acquired them. We need to ensure that they are addressed or reinforced in our own courses.

As we said above, we are now in an era in which there is a plethora of misinformation and it is also becoming increasingly difficult to discriminate valid from untrustworthy sources. In academic research we now have, at scale, the issue of fake journal papers (indeed also fake journals and even fake conferences), fabricated data, and research misconduct. So our own powers of discrimination are put under pressure even in our research fields, requiring us to ensure we too have appropriate levels of information literacy. Generative AI is, of course, adding to the complexity by producing fake references, or writing materials which only mimic the style selected rather than being factually correct.

Some ways in which we can embed these skills in our teaching and assessment are presented in this summary document from CONUL (the Consortium of National and University Libraries, Ireland): https://www.conul.ie/media/Complete-Guide.pdf and include:

Breaking essay and report type assignments into key stages including information retrieval (defining and listing keyword search parameters, clustering information into categories, etc.), summarising and integrating information, etc.
Including information skills in the rubrics for assessment of assignments such as essays and reports
Setting tasks such as building annotated bibliographies as part of the process of study
Activities based on comparing and contrasting information, perhaps as group-work
Group and practical activities which critique Gen AI produced content and summaries, recognising that it mimics style as well as plagiarises ideas and content from its training data, and has no subject expertise or understanding.

On the aspect of students considering using Gen AI (such as ChatGPT) to write, or support their writing, a recent article summarises the problems by critiquing claims by OpenAI and would be useful to share with students and indeed discuss amongst your colleagues.

A Student's Guide to NOT writing with ChatGPT

Reflection

Do you, in the programmes and courses for which you or your team are responsible, train students on how to search for appropriate information and references (or guide them to such training)?

Are there learning or assessment-related activities in which students can demonstrate information retrieval, judging reliability, comparing and combining information from different sources? If this is not already the case, how might you bring these elements in? Can you think of specific activities students could do to build these skills, either in classroom sessions or online?

What support for information and media literacy is available in your university for students (if you don't know, then please find out)?

6.2 Digital communication & collaboration

"To incorporate learning activities, assignments and assessments which require learners to effectively and responsibly use digital technologies for communication, collaboration and civic participation." We've spoken before about using communication and collaborative technologies, but if we think now about how we can enhance our students communicative skills and confidence in using digital platforms and networks effectively and appropriately, then there could be scope for providing practice and guidance.

Clearly, this can be done in the context of the VLE/LMS and other tools such as Teams, Zoom, Slack, etc, but the challenge for embedding such skills development within courses and programmes is to ensure that any activities are meaningful and productive. For example, simply making a discussion board available for students in your course and asking them to discuss with each other online even if they are taking a largely on-campus course, is not likely to yield many contributions. Such activities need to be planned and well-designed. If the intention is to build communication skills then that needs to be clear, but another angle might be to encourage students to support each other through the course, and demonstrate how these tools and fora can be used for that purpose. Running student support for questions related to the course, on a discussion platform, perhaps even with scheduled 'office hours' for queries and responses, encouraging fellow students to respond and develop peer support, can also help, but one of the aspects stressed in DigCompEdu is that of learners understanding and respecting 'behavioural norms' by which they mean appropriate forms of communication to suit the context and which respect one another. That latter point is crucial in ensuring that their learning environment is a safe space and we know that there are widespread concerns regarding young people's wellbeing and mental health due to online abuse, cyber-bullying, and the like. Issues which we hopefully can prevent in the communications which we foster, but these are 'real world' challenges when it comes to students engaging with public platforms and social media and if you are expecting them to do so (e.g. contributing to discussions, articles, debates on relevant subjects) then guidance as to how to contribute and how to resist any temptation to be unprofessional or disrespectful in particularly divisive issues really is merited.

A not unrelated issue which arises in the context of higher education, can be student feedback on teaching. There are, unfortunately, many examples of students making inappropriate (sexist, racist, discriminatory or insulting) comments on anonymous feedback surveys. This can be upsetting for staff and disappointing in terms of the behaviour of some students and particular sub-cultures within the overall student population.

As we have mentioned before, one of the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been familiarity and large scale use of video communications tools such as Zoom, MS Teams, Google Meet, and in other aspects of students lives they may well use Discord and game-streaming platforms. Learning which to use in particular contexts, and how to facilitate and manage group discussions in ways which are respectful and effective, are aspects which we as educators can not only teach but model in our practice.

Reflection

Do your students get guidance on etiquette and respectful behaviour online?

Do you encourage or support students' use of discussion and communication tools as part of their learning and study support, and, if so, how do you do this?

As a programme leader what sorts of digital communication channels do you provide or promote to students, and is there consistency with the approaches taken by your colleagues?

Have you or your colleagues had to deal with inappropriate behaviour or comments in student communications? Do you have training, guidance, or policies for dealing with such?

References and further information

Heffernan, T. Abusive comments in student evaluations of courses and teaching: the attacks women and marginalised academics endure. High Educ 85, 225–239 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00831-x

Perret, A., (2024), ' A student's guide to NOT writing with ChatGPT', https://www.arthurperret.fr/blog/2024-11-14-student-guide-not-writing-with-chatgpt.html

Prensky, M. (2001), "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1", On the Horizon, Vol. 9 No. 5, pp. 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1108/10748120110424816

Selwyn, N. (2009), "The digital native – myth and reality", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 61 No. 4, pp. 364-379. https://doi.org/10.1108/00012530910973776

White, D..S, Le Cornu, A., (2011), 'Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement', First Monday, Volume 16, Number 9 - 5 September 2011, https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/download/3171/3049