Tag: ebook

v0.99 of ‘The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies’ now available! [E-BOOK]

Posted on May 27, 2014June 20, 2014 by Doug Belshaw

I’m delighted to announce that the latest iteration of my e-book The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies is now available. This takes us to v0.99! The text is 99% complete, with only a small appendix to write. I also need to work on some design elements.

Those who invested in previous versions have already received their free update, according to the OpenBeta process I devised (or at least they should have done – ping me if not!)

~~You can invest in v0.99 and then get the update to v1.0 by clicking below:~~

v1.0 is coming on June 27th!

What’s included in this version?

About
Preface
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: What’s the problem?
Chapter 3: Everything is ambiguous
Chapter 4: Why existing models of digital literacy don’t work
Chapter 5: The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies
Chapter 6: Curiosity created the LOLcat
Chapter 7: Remix: the heart of digital literacies
Chapter 8: Coding and the web
Chapter 9: Conclusion
Appendix: What to do next

I’d like to thank Liesl Scheepers (South Africa), Vicky Teinaki (New Zealand via Newcastle), and Penny Wheeler (Australia) for their very quick feedback on this iteration. It’s much appreciated.

Got questions? I might have answered them in this post announcing the e-book! Please note: I’m exploring payment options other than Paypal for v1.0.

Book cover background CC BY pranav

An update on ‘The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies’

Posted on May 20, 2014May 20, 2014 by Doug Belshaw

As regular readers of this blog will be aware, ever since finishing my Ed.D. thesis in 2012 I’ve been working on an iterative e-book called The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies. I’m excited to announce that I’m planning to launch v1.0 on 27th June 2014.

This is an ‘iterative’ e-book because people have been able to buy into it ever since v0.1. You can find more about this ‘OpenBeta’ model here. Fundamental to the process is getting feedback from readers. I’m glad to say that you haven’t let me down, and the book is better as a result. Thank you for that.

The aim is for the e-book to be practically useful while not being shy about theory. People have said that it’s proving useful for use with trainee teachers and other undergraduates, so I’m glad it’s already having the desired effect!

My plans for getting to a v1.0 release of The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies are as follows:

27th May
Release v0.99 of the e-book. This will be textually complete and form the basis of a crowdsourced copyediting process that will take a few weeks.

27th June
Release v1.0 of the e-book. This will have benefitted from more eyes than just mine in terms of coherence and copyediting. Should they agree, these people will be given special thanks in the foreword. It will definitely be available in PDF, and I’ll work with people to get it available in ePub and Kindle formats.

Ongoing
I’m not the only conduit for ideas in this space, so I’m planning to follow the lead of people like Yochai Benkler and create a wiki to accompany the book. This will be structured in a similar way to the wiki that is a companion to Benkler’s The Wealth of Networks.

A few points to finish off.

Now is be a great time to buy into the book. It’ll save you a couple of pounds compared to the price of v0.99 or v1.0 (you get the updates for free).
This was never about the money. Yes, I’ve been able to pay recurring digital subscriptions from my Paypal balance instead of my credit card, but that wasn’t the aim. The financial element here was to get people to buy into the process early. Once this happened, I could ask for feedback – which I’m delighted to have received on a fairly regular basis.
If you’d like to get involved with the launch, please do get in touch! Examples: the visual design of v1.0, translating the book into another language, or making Bitcoin payments a reality. I’m @dajbelshaw or you can email me at [email protected].

A special thanks once again to those who have encouraged me and provided feedback over the last couple of years. You’re all very kind. We’re nearly there – just this last hurdle to clear!

More on this next week with the release of v0.99. 🙂

v0.9 of ‘The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies’ now available! [E-BOOK]

Posted on January 6, 2014May 27, 2014 by Doug Belshaw

I’m delighted to announce that the latest iteration of my e-book The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies is now available. This takes us to v0.9!

Those who invested in previous versions have already received their free update, according to the OpenBeta process I devised. Or at least they should have done – ping me if not. 🙂

~~You can invest in v0.9 and then get the update to v1.0 by clicking below:~~

What’s included in this version?

Preface
Contents page
Chapter 2 – What’s the problem?
Chapter 3 – Everything is ambiguous
Chapter 4 – Why existing models of digital literacy don’t work
Chapter 5 – The Essential Elements of Digital Literacies
Chapter 6 – Curiosity created the LOLcat
Chapter 7 – Remix: the heart of digital literacies
Chapter 8 – Coding and the web (*NEW!*)

This means that the book’s main chapters are finished and all that’s left is the introduction and conclusion to write and a bit of copyediting to sort out. If you buy into the book now, you’ll receive the finished version as soon as it’s ready!

Got questions? I might have answered them in this post announcing the e-book!

Header image CC BY-NC-SA Tc Morgan,
book cover background CC BY pranav