My TEDx talk on ‘The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies’ [video]

Posted by Doug Belshaw On March 23, 2012 In Education, New Literacies 20 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I presented at TEDx Warwick. The video is now available:

I’d love your feedback on this.

Possibly related posts:

Tags:digital literacies presentation TEDxWarwick

Doug Belshaw

Dr. Doug Belshaw is Badges & Skills Lead at the Mozilla Foundation and into open everything. Main interests? Digital/Web Literacies and Open Badges.

http://twitter.com/zsalmasi Zsolt Almási

This is a most fascinating and thought-provoking meditation about digital literacies. Thanks for this! I absolutely agree that remixing stuff is a way, and a very important one for that matter, of influencing cultural appropriation and signification. Once again, thanks for this talk!
- http://dougbelshaw.com/ Doug Belshaw
  
  Thanks Zsolt!
http://twitter.com/MJChupa Mike Jones

Very interesting! Lots of stuff to “remix” in my brain. Not quite sure I understand the difference between civic and cultural elements, though. Your examples of Success Kid and your Grandma remind me of the video I saw of a baby trying to “read” a magazine by swiping the cover like an iPad.

I’m also curious if your Grandma can use an iPad. That would make her at least somewhat digitally literate, wouldn’t it? :)
- http://dougbelshaw.com/ Doug Belshaw
  
  Thanks Mike. Use of digital devices on a procedural way is kind of the on-ramp to digital literacies.
  In terms of the difference between the cultural and civic elements, the former is about understanding conventions and nuance whereas the latter is about making the world a better place. (I explain it better in Chapter 9 of my thesis at http://neverendingthesis.com)
http://ictsteps.com Kevin McLaughlin

Great presentation Doug, it’s the first talk on digital literacies that I have been able to follow! The 8 elements capture it so well along with the remix of these. The effect these could have in teaching and learning is just begging to be explored.
I has teh digital literacies.
- http://dougbelshaw.com/ Doug Belshaw
  
  Thanks Kevin! I’d love it if you or others in the classroom used this and gave me some feedback.
http://dougbelshaw.com/ Doug Belshaw

Thanks!
http://dougbelshaw.com/ Doug Belshaw

Thanks Keith – if you do decide to use the eight elements, please do let me know. I’m looking for case studies for my e-book!
- Oliver Quinlan
  
  We will be using it on our Primary BEd with digital literacy specialism next September onwards .
  
  I thought this was a really good presentation, and a good starting point for the ideas in your thesis for those unfamiliar, as well as having something for those of us who have read it.
  
  As you asked for feedback, to be really nitpicking about style, I thought the reading of some quotes from the slides interrupted the flow slightly, and maybe paraphrasing them whilst the audience read would have been smoother.
  
  Very good presentation though, I think the range of examples was very engaging, and I’d love to know the story behind how you found that very early black and white lolcat.
  - http://dougbelshaw.com/ Doug Belshaw
    
    Thanks Oliver, that’s useful feedback.
    
    Really glad you’re considering using it at Plymouth!
Christian Petersen

Hey Doug. Thanks for sharing this presentation – I very much enjoyed watching it.
Something you said at the end made my mind boggle. You said LoLcats had developed their own language, grammar and syntax. Somehow I draw the connection to Esparanto, where the goal was to develop a universal language for the whole world (though it is still work in process). Would you say digital literacy is taking over this attempt?
I sometimes play the infamous game League of Legends (LoL) and it seems to me as having its own context in which it operates ad, ap, tank, sup, etc. But it also utilizes some common online words like nerf, Rofl, nvm, np, kewl, gj, gg. I would very much like your thouhgts on that and how would LoL fit in the remix?
- http://dougbelshaw.com/ Doug Belshaw
  
  Hi Christian, thanks for the comment. I’m not aware of League of Legends, but it sounds interesting – where’s best to start to learn more?
  In terms of Stephen Downes’ work around memes as languages, check out this presentation: http://www.downes.ca/presentation/233
http://dougbelshaw.com/ Doug Belshaw

Hi Mark, interesting comment. Thank you.

In terms of what you say about ‘meme culture’ I would say that, actually, *each* meme comes from, and is an expression of, a particular culture. So just as we wouldn’t say ‘education culture’ but instead talk of Primary, Secondary, etc. so we need to be more specific.
Using memes in this particular presentation was a convenient hypocrisy and merely illustrative. I’d love to have gone into the ambiguous nature of literacies and skeuomorphism but there’s only so much you can cram into 18 minutes!
- Mark Allen
  
  If by ‘skeuomorphism’ you mean things referring to legacy contexts that are no longer necessary, then digital life is full of those, from lifelike desktop wallpapers with coffee stains to the way educational products are often shoe-horned into compartments reflecting the traditional layout of schools. I suspect you’re right, that internet memes are merely a vastly-amplified version of a need we’ve always had to mock, to parody, to tweak in clever or less clever ways. The democratization of the tools of production inevitably leads to a drop in average quality, but can occasinally throw up some real gems too. I am concerned, though, that none of this encourages innovation, but is more a service activity which chimes with the culture of consumption we have created…
  - http://dougbelshaw.com/ Doug Belshaw
    
    Well, that’s a whole other conversation about the three different kinds of innovation!
    Thanks for the comments.
damoward

Well done, Doug for a thought-provoking, amusing and well (de)constructed introduction to your essential elements. The 8 elements you identify are not so equal in status; consider the process of Remixing – surely dependent on the Creative element above all? There are more barriers to access for younger learners in UK school system than in previous 10 years; having returned to Secondary ed. from a City Learning Centre I have found blocks on mobile access, restricted web and lack of creative software. Of course, digital literacies will be developed at home and amongst peers but what role for the educator? As I say, very thought-provoking…
- http://dougbelshaw.com/ Doug Belshaw
  
  Hi Damo, thanks for the comment.
  
  You’re absolutely right about the elements not being equal, but that’s where the context comes in! The elements need that context in order to be ‘ranked’ (or at least attention to be paid in a slightly unequal way). Change the context, however, and the relative importance also differs.
Jcraighartley

Thanks for delineating digital literacy!
- http://dougbelshaw.com/ Doug Belshaw
  
  No worries!
Garyvspec

Thanks, enjoyed this presentation enormously, it rates as one of my all time favourite TED talks.
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