1. Exploring Open
Educational Resources and
digital literacy in the context
of professional education
Anna Gruszczynska and Richard Pountney,
Sheffield Hallam University, UK

2. About the project
Local teachers and pupils, Partners:
teacher educators and teacher
• Sheffield Hallam University
educations students involved in:
• University of Sheffield
•sharing and developing good
practice in teaching • 5 primary and 5 secondary
schools in South Yorkshire
•understanding more about
digital literacy • Creative Industries (Learning
Connections and RealSmart)
•exploring and sharing the
potential of digital technologies • Yorkshire and Humber Grid for
Learning
•Project outputs will be shared via
an open textbook and the • Sheffield Children’s Festival
"Digital Bloom" installation

3. Context: Open Educational
Resources (OER)
Involvement of team members in
UK OER movement
• exploring tacit aspects of
pedagogical practice
• exploring the "why" (socio-
cultural/institutional context)
rather than solely the "how"
(technical aspects) of OERs
• Issues related to copyright, re-
use and re-purposing
(www.jorum.ac.uk as a
repository)

4. Context: UK School sector –
issues and challenges
• Existing research on OERs in the UK focuses
primarily on higher education institutions (HEIs)
• Little coordinated development of resources for the
school sector (regional networks formed around
broadband consortia, partnerships with HEIs)
• BECTA-funded (British Educational Communications
and Technology Agency) project "Repurpose, Create,
Share" (demise of BECTA in 2010)
• Current debates focusing on issues of ICT in the
curriculum ("Shut down or restart?" Royal Society
report)

5. Outputs from the project
• Open textbook (watch out for
www.digitalfutures.org)
• Case studies
• Digital bloom
• Reflexive methodology
• Engagement with digital
literacy (DL) frameworks
• Guidance on OERs in the
school sector
• The DeFT movie!

6. Case studies
Mundella primary: Newman special school:
A.F.O.R – Alternative
Digital Bloom Forms of Recording

7. Frameworks for digital literacy
• Existing frameworks (FutureLab, JISC)
• 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, 2011).
• Critique of the concept of digital natives (Bennet &
Maton, 2011; Merchant, 2012)

8. DL as a communicative
practice
‘I gained a terrific sense of new
opportunities DLs now offering to the
classroom incl[uding] authentic audience,
remix, producing where used to be only
consumers; endeavours to enhance
students' criticality e.g. re commercialism’
(comment from project evaluator)

9. DL as a "theory of barriers"
‘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, secondary teacher)
•Web2.0 filters
•Technological barriers
•Access to devices

10. DL as a curricular driver
‘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).

11. 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?’

12. DL meanings:
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)

13. 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

14. For more information
• Read our blog:
www.deftoer3.wordpress.com
• Follow us on Twitter @deftoer3
• Have a look at our Slideshare presentations
www.slideshare.net/deftoer3
• Email us:
a.gruszczynska@shu.ac.uk;
r.p.pountney@shu.ac.uk

15. Help the Digital Bloom
grow – plant a flower!