Gender differences in adolescents’ out-of-school literacy practices: A multifaceted approach

The present study examined the out-of-school literacy activities of 70 students in 7th grade of prevocational training schools in the Netherlands. Guttmann’s Facet Theory was applied to study literacy as a complex, multifaceted phenomenon. With the increasing influence of digital technologies, the facet design approach was found especially suited to track the many changes occurring in presentation modalities, functions, and productive versus consumptive uses of literacy. The study shows that the facet approach was useful in pinpointing how these shifts in literacy engagement turn out differently for boys and girls. Based on self-reports via an Internet questionnaire, the study shows that girls outscored boys in every aspect of literacy, including computer and Internet based literacy practices. However, while among girls a more balanced profile was found regarding the engagement in traditional and new literacy practices, the boys reported a high preference for the new digital media. Moreover, we found that girls, compared to boys, used new literacy activities more often for educational purposes. The findings suggest that, given this more balanced profile, girls, compared to boys, are less at risk of losing touch with traditional print-based educational literacy in school.     

Design of contents for ICT literacy in-service training of teachers in Korea

The importance of ICT literacy education for students and teachers in the information society cannot be overemphasized. The Korean government had developed an ICT literacy curriculum for students and teachers since 2000. It announced the ICT literacy curriculum for students in 2000 and the ISST for teachers in 2002. Most contents of the ICT literacy curriculum and ISST focused on teaching the use of application programs. However, as the IT environment changes rapidly, the parties concerned thought that the revision of the ICT literacy curriculum and ISST is indispensable. Therefore, the Korean government announced the revised ICT literacy curriculum for students in 2005. The revised ICT literacy curriculum emphasized the principles of computer science and problem-solving methods. However, although the ICT literacy curriculum was revised, there was no ICT literacy in-service training curriculum to reflect the revised ICT literacy curriculum.In this research, we designed the contents of the ICT literacy in-service training program based on the revised ICT literacy curriculum. The contents of the ICT literacy in-service training program consist of four sections: the Information society, Information devices, Information processing, and Information handling. The contents in each section of the ICT literacy in-service training curriculum are divided into two groups: mandatory and optional. There were several findings made in this study. After analyzing the opinions and requirements of experts and teachers, the ‘Information processing’ section was found to be the most important part of the ICT literacy in-service training program. It was found that the experts and teachers have different views on the contents of the ICT literacy in-service training program. Also, we found that effective teaching strategies and evaluation methods should be provided for the ICT literacy in-service training curriculum to be effective.     

Design of contents for ICT literacy in-service training of teachers in Korea

The importance of ICT literacy education for students and teachers in the information society cannot be overemphasized. The Korean government had developed an ICT literacy curriculum for students and teachers since 2000. It announced the ICT literacy curriculum for students in 2000 and the ISST for teachers in 2002. Most contents of the ICT literacy curriculum and ISST focused on teaching the use of application programs. However, as the IT environment changes rapidly, the parties concerned thought that the revision of the ICT literacy curriculum and ISST is indispensable. Therefore, the Korean government announced the revised ICT literacy curriculum for students in 2005. The revised ICT literacy curriculum emphasized the principles of computer science and problem-solving methods. However, although the ICT literacy curriculum was revised, there was no ICT literacy in-service training curriculum to reflect the revised ICT literacy curriculum.In this research, we designed the contents of the ICT literacy in-service training program based on the revised ICT literacy curriculum. The contents of the ICT literacy in-service training program consist of four sections: the Information society, Information devices, Information processing, and Information handling. The contents in each section of the ICT literacy in-service training curriculum are divided into two groups: mandatory and optional. There were several findings made in this study. After analyzing the opinions and requirements of experts and teachers, the ‘Information processing’ section was found to be the most important part of the ICT literacy in-service training program. It was found that the experts and teachers have different views on the contents of the ICT literacy in-service training program. Also, we found that effective teaching strategies and evaluation methods should be provided for the ICT literacy in-service training curriculum to be effective.     

A Collaborative Vision: Partnering with STEM Faculty to Teach Visual Literacy Through Multimedia Research Presentations

This article discusses visual literacy, its connection to information literacy, and its significance to scientific disciplines. It includes a case study from Washington and Lee (W&L) University that showcases how libraries can integrate visual literacy instruction into STEM courses. In the study, two W&L Library staff members partnered with one W&L visiting assistant professor of physics to transform a common assignment, the academic poster, into a digital form of visual communication. This shift resulted in a revised evaluative rubric and led to enhanced library led instruction focusing on information literacy, visual literacy, and digital literacy skills.     

Literacy and Scientific Literacy: A Response to Fensham

Abstract

Fensham (2002) criticizes scientific literacy curricula designed by scientists and science educators as ‘inadequately clear and hopelessly unrealistic.’ There is, however, good reason to believe that other groups are as likely to produce inadequate curricula as scientists and science educators, since the process for producing a curriculum is at least as responsible for Fensham's impasse as are the participants. Fensham mentions, but does not explore, an analogy between literacy in its prototypical form—reading and writing—and scientific literacy. An analysis of literacy leads to several propositions, from which the analogy with scientific literacy can be drawn. Literacy in its prototypical form focuses on the tools of reading and writing. Striking parallels between the two forms of literacy provide strong support for considering scientific literacy in relation to its tools, that is, explaining and predicting, rather than to a body of knowledge.     

Computer literacy in secondary education: The performance and engagement of girls

This research study examines performance and engagement in computer literacy of boys and girls (N = 873). Performance and engagement in computer literacy are established with CAST. Computer Alfabetisme Schalen Twente, a Dutch version of the Minnesota Computer Literacy Awareness Assessment. The results of the study show that girls perform lower and are less engaged in computer literacy than boys. Research on sex differences in mathematics and science education shows that three factors are important for the design of action programs for girls, viz. the expectation and behaviour of significant others, the perception of the usefulness of the subject for a future career and a positive attitude towards the subject. This study shows that these factors seem to be relevant for computer literacy too. It has been found that a positive attitude towards mathematics and physics is positively related to a positive attitude towards computer literacy. An examination of the relation between performance in computer literacy and attitude towards mathematics and physics shows no differences in performance between boys and girls with a negative attitude towards mathematics and physics. For boys and girls with a positive attitude towards mathematics and physics however a difference in performance in computer literacy has been found in favour of boys.     

Health literacy and the internet: An exploratory study on the 2013 HINTS survey

Health literacy rates among American and European adults remain low, with almost half of adults having only basic levels in 2012. In this digital era, the Internet has been recognized as an important medium for improving health literacy. However, little is known about the mechanisms that underlie its impact on health literacy. With a general basis in the Cognitive Mediation Model, this study empirically tested a model that included motivation for health-related Internet use, health-related Internet use, perceived health information overload, and health literacy. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the US-based Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 2013 dataset. The results support for all the paths in our posited model. The effects of motivation for health-related Internet use on health literacy were completely mediated by health-related Internet use and perceived health information overload. The findings extend the Cognitive Mediation Model to the context of health literacy and provide significant implications for the design and dissemination of online health information. Recommendations are made for future research, including further validation of the five-item scale of health literacy.     

Electronic literacy, critical pedagogy, and collaboration: A case for cyborg writing

This study concerns the convergence of electronic literacy, collaboration, and critical pedagogy in the classroom. I argue that teachers in the humanities must relinquish the vestiges of non-electronic criteria in their assessments of electronic literacy. Instead, the interplay of human and technological factors in the classroom leads to a reaffirmation of literacy as a social process. The radical democratization and multivocality of the corporate or collaboratively-written text demands a critical problematizing of our roles and actions as teacher-readers. The viability of static criteria for good literacy practices vanishes with electronic literacy. Feminist cyborg theory offers a useful paradigm for understanding the corporate text by bridging theories of electronic literacy and theories of collaborative learning. The cyborg is a dynamic techno-fusion of difference and contradiction: much like the corporate text. A cyborgian perspective reaffirms the polyvocalic, instable nature of postmodern literacy and calls for contextual writing criteria.Carol L. Winkelmann, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. She teaches electronic literacy, linguistics, and seventeenth-century women's literacy. Winkelmann has written forLinguistics and Education, The Oxford Companion to the English Language, andThe Sixteenth Century Journal. Currently, she is writing about women's political language, violence, and social change education.     

Information literacy skills: Teacher understandings and practice

This article reports on a project, involving three New Zealand schools, which investigated teachers’ understanding of information literacy and their associated classroom practices. Recently published work, while lamenting school students’ lack of information literacy skills, including working with online resources, provides little research investigating classroom teachers’ knowledge of information literacy skills and their related pedagogical practice. The findings of this project indicate that while some of the teachers in this project had a reasonably good understanding of the concept of information literacy, very few reported developing their students’ information literacy skills.     

论计算机专业学生创新素养的培养和提高

创新素养是大学生素质教育的核心,是学生获取知识的关键和终身学习的保证。计算机专业实践性强、知识更新速度快,培养计算机专业学生的创新素养尤为重要。针对高校对大学生创新素养的培养始终是一个薄弱环节的现状,本文论述创新素养的内涵和建设的必要性,提出培养和提高大学生创新素养的一些设想和措施,旨在为高校培养创新型人才提供参考。     

Control your Facebook: An analysis of online privacy literacy

For an effective and responsible communication on social network sites (SNSs) users must decide between withholding and disclosing personal information. For this so-called privacy regulation, users need to have the respective skills—in other words, they need to have online privacy literacy. In this study, we discuss factors that potentially contribute to and result from online privacy literacy. In an online questionnaire with 630 Facebook users, we found that people who spend more time on Facebook and who have changed their privacy settings more frequently reported to have more online privacy literacy. People with more online privacy literacy, in turn, felt more secure on Facebook and implemented more social privacy settings. A mediation analysis showed that time spend on Facebook and experience with privacy regulation did not per se increase safety and privacy behavior directly, stressing the importance of online privacy literacy as a mediator to a safe and privacy-enhancing online behavior. We conclude that Internet experience leads to more online privacy literacy, which fosters a more cautious privacy behavior on SNSs.     

The Literacy Myth in the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives

One of the central endeavors in contemporary literacy studies is to interrogate traditional definitions of literacy and deconstruct literacy myths. The Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives (DALN), a publicly accessible online repository for literacy narratives, implicates itself in this effort. This essay examines instantiations of the literacy myth within literacy narratives and the archive itself. An analysis of the content and design of the DALN offers insight into how the archive provides contributors both subversive and traditional frameworks for understanding literacy and literacy narratives. Then an examination of three digital literacy narratives in the DALN demonstrates how a combination of narrative analytics can be directed towards revealing constructions of the literacy myth in the telling and meaning-making of individual lives.     

Meanings of criteria and norms: Analyses and comparisons of ICT literacy competencies of middle school students

This study focuses on ICT literacy competency that is an essential ability required for living in a modern information-based society. To analyze students' ICT literacy competency levels, the ICT literacy competency of 15,558 Korean middle school students was measured with results indicating that the percentages of excellent level, average level, basic level and below basic level based on the criteria set by experts were 6.3%, 31.4%, 57.7% and 4.5% respectively. In other words, the highest percentage consisted of the basic level. Second, as a result of producing a norm as a national standard for Korea and conducting analyses based on the norm, it was found that 3rd year students in ‘small & medium cities’ showed the highest level of ICT literacy competency. In relation to ICT literacy competency measured in various countries, this study suggested grounds for measuring the levels against an absolute standard and utilization of criteria for measuring relative levels. That is, this paper suggests that the purpose of a test should be explained clearly when an ICT literacy competency test is conducted.     

高职学生起始信息能力的调查与分析

该文针对高职新生入校时的起始信息能力水平进行了深入调查,并在此基础上探讨了如何培养高职学生的信息能力,旨在推进高职院校的信息素养建设。     

Exploring the role of health literacy on attention to and recall of text-illustrated health information: An eye-tracking study

Although the use of illustrations is often recommended for audiences with limited health literacy, it is unclear how health literacy impacts the use of different online formats. The aim of this paper is therefore to investigate how health literacy influences attention to text and illustrations in online health information, and whether such attention is related to recall of information. Sixty-one participants were exposed to either text-only or text-illustrated information. Using eye tracking, we recorded attention patterns on a health webpage after which recall of information was assessed. Results showed that health literacy influenced the attention–recall relationship. For people with limited health literacy, attention to the illustrations was positively related to recall, whereas attention to the text improved recall of information in the adequate health literate group. As attention to different parts of online health information leads to different information processing routes for people with different levels of health literacy, effective health communication should consider both text and illustrations that attract attention and improve understanding of the health message.     

新媒体环境下辅导员培养大学生网络素养方法研究

新媒体环境下,大学生网络素养教育作为辅导员网络思想政治教育工作开展的基础。除此,辅导员是大学生成长路上的明灯,也是大学生网络素养教育的网络导师。高校辅导员应紧跟时代的步伐,使自身网络素养水平在不断提升的同时,也学会利用网络媒介素养的能力,提升大学生的网络素养水平。文章通过新媒体环境下辅导员培养大学生网络素养方法开展研究。     

高职图书馆和大学生信息素质教育

本文分析了信息素质教育的内涵与主要内容,指出高职院校信息素质教育普遍存在的问题,提出了加强大学生信息素质教育的一些建议。     

The structure of computer anxiety: a six-factor model

A six-factor model of computer anxiety was tested in two samples of university students. The dimensions involved were: computer literacy, self-efficacy, physical arousal caused by computers, affective feelings about them, beliefs about the beneficial effects of computers, and beliefs about their dehumanizing aspects. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that, compared to a number of alternative models proposed in the literature, the data fitted this six-factor model relatively well. In addition, it was demonstrated that computer literacy has a strong directional influence on both physical arousal and affects. Beliefs about computers, in turn, were shown to be dependent on affects and physical arousal. Self-efficacy mainly contributed to increased computer literacy. These findings suggest that training programs that enhance self-efficacy and computer literacy may in principle reduce computer anxiety.     

Understanding the effect of e-learning on individual performance: The role of digital literacy

With the diffusion of easy-to-use Web 2.0 tools, such as podcasts, blogs and wikis, e-learning has become a popular mechanism for individual training. While individuals use these tools in the hope that their training will improve their performance, this relationship is not a given. This paper proposes that an individual's level of digital literacy affects her performance through its impact on her performance and effort expectations. To explain the influence of digital literacy on the intention of individuals to continue using e-learning and their performance, we integrate the concept of digital literacy with the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and test our model using survey data from New Zealand accountants working in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The results indicate that these relationships were significant: digital literacy on users' performance and effort expectations, performance expectations on users' intentions to continue using Web 2.0 tools, and continuance intention on performance. These findings suggest that individual digital literacy facilitates the use of e-learning, and should be considered when examining the impact of the latter on performance.     

信息技术学科教学中核心素养的培养

在新课程改革中,对学生核心素养的培养成为了重点内容。核心素养的培养是学生学习的主要目的之一。核心素养的培养会社会的发展。本文对高中信息技术学科教学中核心素养的培养进行简单探讨,希望能够对信息技术学科教学产生积极的影响。