Unit name | Digital Literacies for Learning and Teaching |
---|---|
Unit code | EDUCM0058 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | M/7 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24) |
Unit director | Mrs. Dourneen |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | School of Education |
Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
‘The Information Age’ has heralded a proliferation of new forms of digital communication and new textual genres. As these texts tend to be multimodal, multilinear and interactive they pose significant challenges for analysis and raise many questions about what it means to be literate in the 21st Century. They also raise issues around the use of digital texts in teaching and learning, and how learners and teachers make meaning from the range of texts they work with, including search engines, websites, learning software packages, computer games, social media. This unit encourages and argues for an eclectic approach to the analysis of such texts drawing on earlier theories of semiotics, discourse analysis, literary theory and film studies as well as theories about new media and new literacies.
The aims of this unit are:
On completion of this unit, students will be able to:
The course will be taught face-to-face, but will be supported by the University virtual learning environment. Students will be encouraged to work in groups to support collaborative learning and to provide user feedback on design ideas. The unit includes a variety of teaching and learning methods, including: lectures, tutorials and workshops, small group activities such as supported reading groups, group presentations and the collaborative inquiry –based research project, outlined in the description.
Contact Hours
20 hours
Summative assessment:
4,000 word written assignment analysing a digital text, using theoretical frameworks studied during the unit (100%)
Formative assessment:
A range of activities completed between taught sessions, self, peer and tutor assessed, using Blackboard for sharing and commenting. Choice of texts is usually made by the students, related to their own interests and/or professional setting. Tasks include a semiotic analysis; visual grammar analysis of a website homepage; multimodal analysis of a digital literary text (poem or novel); critical reading and PowerPoint presentation of an academic text related to multimodality; observation notes of a partner reading a digital text; presentation of ideas for assignment
The assessments will assess all of the intended learning outcomes.