This presentation was delivered at the Higher Education Research Group Conference which took place at Sheffield Hallam University on 22 June 2012 http://hersg.wordpress.com/

1. Digital literacy frameworks in
the context of embedding
Open Educational Resources
within teacher education
Anna Gruszczynska and Richard Pountney,
Faculty of Development and Society

2. Introduction and background
Local teachers and pupils, teacher For more information:
educators and teacher educations • Project blog
students involved in: www.deftoer3.wordpress.com
•sharing and developing good • Twitter @deftoer3
practice in teaching
• Slideshare
•understanding more about digital
www.slideshare.net/deftoer3
literacy
•developing guidance on Open • Contact:
Educational Resources in the a.gruszczynska@shu.ac.uk;
school context r.p.pountney@shu.ac.uk
•Project outputs will be shared via
an open textbook (pulling together
case studies and supporting
resources) and the "Digital Bloom"
installation

3. Research questions and
framework
Key questions Research framework
• What is the relationship • Embedded within Bernstein's
between Open Educational theory of pedagogic discourse
Resources and digital • Drawing on the principles of
literacy within professional social sciences knowledge
development? production (teacher
• What understandings of education as its subset)
digital literacy and Open
• Exploring tacit aspects of
Educational Resources
pedagogical practice
emerge through a reflexive
approach to project • Exploring the "why" (socio-
methodology? cultural/institutional context)
rather than solely the "how"
(technical aspects) of OER/DL

4. Project methodology:
Principles
• The case study method - “taking a particular case and
coming to know it well” (Stake, 1995:8)
• Schön's 'reflection-in-action' (1983) as a strategy for
tapping the 'tacit knowing-in-action’ in the process of
learning about digital literacy practices where
understandings of DL are shared through stories of
"opening up" pedagogical practice
• Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic discourse
(Bernstein, 1990, 1996, 2000) underpinning conceptual
framework for analyzing and interpreting the data -
exploration of (in)visible pedagogical practices.
• Caveat - the process is underway (free-coding with the
aid of Nvivo) but the project is still ongoing and so any
conclusions are emergent

5. Project methodology:
Data collection
Reflexive moments
• Five staged prompts sent out to team members;
responses via e-mail or personal blogs
• Each moment is followed by a digest of emerging themes
and issues, shared with project participants via project
website
Materials emerging from the case studies of digital
practice:
• notes from project meetings and school visits
• notes from rich media content - photographs and videos
• comments from teachers/team members on project blog
and Twitter
• focus groups with PGCE students

6. Frameworks for digital literacy
• Engagement with existing frameworks (JISC, 2011)
• Digital literacy as a continuum between the purely
social and the purely technological
• Move from the singular „literacy‟ to the plural
‘literacies’ to emphasise the sheer diversity of existing
accounts (Lankshear and Knobel, 2008).
• Digital literacies as "the constantly changing practices
through which people make traceable meanings
using digital technologies" (Gillen and Barton, 2010).
• Critique of the concept of digital natives (Bennet et al.
2008)

7. DL and the rules of regulative
discourse
‘When it comes to e-safety, we seem to live
in a culture of fear where we [might be]
teaching road safety but never letting the
child out’ (project meeting, teacher)
•Web2.0 filters
•Technological barriers
•Access to devices

8. DL and locus of control over
selection of instructional discourse
„In terms of teaching and digital
literacy the ultimate question we
constantly need to deal with is -
is this going to help the students
when they get to an exam?
Because what I would like to see
happening is the fostering of a
community, personal growth etc.
but most of the time it is about
having to teach "for an exam“‟
(focus group with PGCE students).

9. DL Tensions: sharing resources
‘polished performance’ vs. accounts of ‘real life’‟
„you have to be sharing with the
kids anyway all the time‟
(focus group with PGCE students)
„You don’t know what reaction you would
get… can you imagine if you put it on you
tube and you got loads of thumbs down?’

10. Locus of control over pacing:
Stories of a digital divide
‘My pupils were shocked to discover that I
didn’t have a mobile phone as a teenager
and when you arranged to meet with your
mates you just agreed on a meeting time
and point and then waited. You would
actually talk to each other, you
know, rather than keep texting.’
(focus group with PGCE students)

11. DL investigations: new avenues
• Methodological approaches: exploring the
ways in which understandings around DL
are expressed and shared through
reflection in action
• Re-examining DL in the context of the
debate around ICT in the curriculum and
the removal of the programmes of study
• Exploring the place of DL and OERs in
professional development of teachers

12. www.digitalfutures.org
References.
Questions? Comments?
Bennett, S, Maton, K, & Kervin, L. (2008). The „„digital natives‟‟ debate: A critical review of evidence.
British Journal of Educational Technology, 39, 775–786.
Bernstein, B. (1990). The structuring of the pedagogic discourse: Class, codes and control. London:
Routledge.
Bernstein, B. (1996). Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique. London:
Taylor & Francis.
Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique. (Revised
edition). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield publishers.
Gillen, J. & Barton, D. (2010). Digital literacies. A research briefing by the technology enhanced
learning phase of the teaching and learning research programme. London: London Knowledge Lab,
Institute of Education, University of London.
Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). (2011). Digital literacy anatomised: access, skills and
practices. Available from
http://jiscdesignstudio.pbworks.com/w/file/40474828/Digital%20literacies%20anatomy.pdf (Last
accessed 29 February 2012).
Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. (2010) New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning (3rd
Edition). Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Schön, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner. New York: Basic Books.
Stake, R.E. (1995). The art of case study research. London: Sage.