Today, I’m at a meeting of the Heads of e-Learning Forum, and “digital literacy” is on the agenda. Several of the projects that JISC has funded are presenting what’s called ‘lightning strike’ talks: a 10-minute introduction to what they’re up to. I’m going to try and provide a broad overview of our project, a quick summary of the background work we’re undertaking, and mention some of the theory that’s shaping this work. The slides are available here. It’ll be interesting to hear how the other projects who are presenting are doing.
The day included a very enjoyable talk by Gwen van der Velden, looking at engagement and consumerism in the context of recent policy developments. Here she is fostering engagement with her ideas by awarding Mars bars to people who could recognise policy makers:

…and here she is bribing Paul Bailey (here representing JISC) to pay attention with chocolate:

Who says behaviourism is outdated…
Maria Papaefthimiou gave an update on the “Digitally Ready” project at Reading.

Matt Newcombe told us about the CASCADE project at Exeter (even if the meaning of the acronym remained a little opaque).

…and Clive Young updating us on the “Digital Department” work at UCL.

In case you’re wondering, the odd “over-the-shoulder” gazes are because there are screens on two sides of the room, with an elliptical table in the middle. That in itself is interesting; it makes doing a talk really hard, because if you stand up so you’re visible, you’re always behind someone. All images were grabbed with my iPod touch, partly as a way of seeing how our data collection during the project might work out. Turns out photos of screens in a dark room are rubbish.