Page 45 - Campus Technology, May/June 2019

“When we talk about digital fluency, the focus is on enabling our students to leverage technology effectively to create
Part of the way this focus can succeed is when we reframe how we, as an institution, approach the support of students along with the support of teaching and learning. In other words, helping connect IT directly with student learning both in and out of the classroom.
Historically, when we explored education technology, or learning technology, it was done from the standpoint of understanding the tool and its capabilities. We envisioned what tools would appear on the horizon, and in some cases we held great hopes for how they would impact teaching and learning.
Since then, as we’ve matured in our under- standing, instead of talking about those things from a technology perspective, we now ask: What are the affordances that technologies will put into the hands of the student?
CT: What does this mean for the learning technology organization and the learning technologists on campus?
Bowen: As technology organizations, that means moving away from presenting a list of technologies as the way you engage with IT, and transitioning that into looking at the ways that students can create, and meaningful activ-
new knowledge.” ities that faculty employ, with these kinds of
technologies to meet learning goals.
CT: And you are now engaging discus- sions on campus under the mantle of digital fluency?
Bowen: Yes. We’re designing our digital fluency efforts as a framework that is used to engage faculty and students on a range of new topics. We’ve defined digital fluency as an umbrella term. Within that we break down a series of specific fluencies while creating space for add- ing new topics as technology evolves.
CT: So are there specific digital fluencies that enable student learning?
Bowen: Yes. Take for example, the storytelling fluency — to tell effective stories and to do so on a range of different media, with one of the most common being video. For video produc- tion, we provide not only the tools — the cam- eras, software and so on — but also the sup- port it takes to make it all happen. That’s where we can bring to bear systems like One Button Studio, tools like Adobe Premiere and workshops for students to learn about the
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