Sunday, September 21, 2008

Digital and computer literacy resources

I have been thinking about free online resources that can be used to support students and midwives as they develop their digital and computer literacy skills.

Online Information Literacy
One excellent resource is the Online Information Literacy project , which has been developed by Otago Polytechnic and the University of Otago. Particularly useful is Module 9, which is the Digital Literacy module. The module takes you through a number of tasks which are presented in a scenario including connecting to the Internet, using a browser, copyright, social bookmarking, creating a blog and working with collaborative documents.

Study Skills
David McQuillan has developed a study skills component on Wikieducator which he uses with his students who are studying massage therapy at Otago Polytechnic. It doesn't look quite as slick as the OIL project, but it does take you right back to basics including thinking about your attitudes to using a computer, and computer health and safety.

Digital literacy and art
Another project that can be found on Wikieducator is the digital literacy course developed by the School of Art at Otago Polytechnic. This resource covers topics ranging from how to make a blog and dealing with digital images to working with video.

What computer and digital skills and tools do you have problems with and would like to know more about? What resources are you aware of and would recommend to people, especially to computer and Internet newbies?


Image: 'Funky Abstract Background' incurable_hippie
www.flickr.com/photos/49503155381@N01/2495304383

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sarah,

Thanks for sharing these great resources. We definitely cannot assume that all of our students are competent on the web; until we have courses dedicated to digital literacy, we have to teach these skills no matter what our specific teaching area.

On a different topic; do you use a web application to site the images you use on your blog? You do such a great job attributing them.

Sarah Stewart said...

Thanks for that, Claire.

As for images, I use Flickrcc: http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing Flickrcc. I've been using Simple CC flickr Search which gives you the embed code for the image with the attribution automatically posted right underneath it.
Cheers!

Sarah Stewart said...

That's a really good resource as well, Claire -thanks for that.