Digital Literacy | Page 2

Reading On Screen: Background and research

We presented the Reading On Screen site at the Higher York eLearning Conference on 4 June and it seemed to be well-received by the delegates.

Project Launch: Reading On Screen

In direct response to student feedback on the way that we are making extensive use of digital resources for teaching, we have developed a special guide and supporting website addressing ‘reading on screen’.

Summary PDF Guide [PDF]
Supporting website – feedback and user experiences warmly invited via the site

The site covers such topics as:

Guide: Resizing photos on a Mac

This may sound like an obvious guide, but not being a regular Mac user it took me a fair while to work out how to do batch resizing (or even single resize) of photos. So here are the steps:

Laws of the Web – Bandwidth

I’ve borrowed a book from the University Library. Published in 2001, Bernado A. Huberman’s ‘The Laws of the Web: Patterns in the Ecology of Information’, offers a window back a decade to when the internet boom started and mass-access in the developed world became a reality. I’m probably the only person to borrow this book in quite some time, but thought it would be a great way to see if commentary on the internet in ‘olden times’ still holds merit to today’s use of the technology – in particular here the context of content creation for students.

Email and why it’ll never disappear

Like an old faithful dog, email still persists as one of the fundamental communication methods online. But is it’s time limited? The attempts to create what is effectively a microcosm of the internet with Facebook (as one blog depicted rather well in 2011), would suggest that Facebook messaging should have surpassed the need for email by now. However, the reality is that internet users are still using a variety of communication methods.

Be careful what you like on Facebook

This post is about some very public privacy loopholes on Facebook, the knock-on effect for people searching on Google, and the question over accepted norms. There’s a rant, a helpful tip, and then I go all philosophical on you.

Guide: Facebook profile privacy – controlling your online presence

One of our lecturers is trialling the use of Facebook with our undergraduates this year. The rationale is to provide a space where student from other institutions can interact, something that cannot be achieved with our VLE due to the locked-down nature of it. In preparation for this, we wanted to ensure that students were prepared and aware of how to restrict information that is on their Facebook profile. Hence, a 10 minute video guide pointing out the locations of Facebook privacy settings.