Our board member Renate Valtin published an interesting article in the April/May/June 2023 issue of Literacy Today (read and download the article here). Literacy Today is one of the journals of the International Literacy Association.
It deals with the right to digital literacy. This is one of the the policy statements of Elinet (see here).
By Fabio Nascimbeni (with the help of ChatGPT)
As technology continues to play a significant role in our lives, the use of AI tools like ChatGPT in education is becoming increasingly common. ChatGPT is a language model developed by OpenAI, capable of generating human-like text based on a prompt. This technology offers vast potential in the field of education, but it also highlights the importance of digital literacy for critical and proper use. In educational settings, ChatGPT can be utilized for various purposes, such as language learning, writing assistance, and generating discussion prompts. However, it’s crucial for educators and students to understand the limitations and potential biases of the tool. ChatGPT is only as good as the data it was trained on, and it may produce outputs that are incorrect or offensive.… Read the rest
Author: Jeroen Clemens, ELINET Web Administrator, Elinet Co-chair `Digital Literacy
ELINET is not happy with Twitter. We discussed this and decided to leave Twitter and move to Mastodon. We are waiting for you. Please share this message broadly in your networks.
Please find us here: https://mastodon.education/@ELINET. Our name (handle) is @ELINET@mastodon.education.
Why did we leave Twitter? Our board member and co-chair of Digital Literacy Colin Harrison formulated our thoughts very eloquently in a letter he sent to the Guardian, a major UK newspaper, on Wednesday, November 2. Read the letter here in the Guardian or below
Guardian Letters, Wednesday, November 2
Elon Musk’s dangerous view of democracy
If posting baseless conspiracy theory stories that gain tens of thousands of “likes” within hours (Nils Pratley on finance, 31 October) is Elon Musk’s idea of democratising social media, then I’m going to follow the lead of other European academics who have contacted me this week from Germany and the Netherlands to say that they are permanently unsubscribing from Twitter.… Read the rest
Members of the ELINET Association are delighted to share the publications they have prepared.
Enhancing Digital Literacy Skills: Good Practices for Early and Primary Years Education. This comprehensive report gives an overview about relevant studies concerning the development of digital skills of children, addressing age groups of 0-3, 3-6 and 6-12 years. You can download it here
Also, available is a shorter version of this report with recommendations. Using digital tools and experiences to improve comprehension and expression in young children: a review of the empirical evidence. You can download it here
These two research reports provide the foundational knowledge for the “Framework of Good Practice in Enhancing Digital Literacy Skills in Early and Primary Years’ Education” which we will develop in a forthcoming paper.… Read the rest
Two birds with one stone
By Ariana-Stanca Vacaretu and Maria Kovacs, Asociatia LSDGC Romania
In this blog, we first describe how we built on our experiences and partnerships to develop a European project called Get Readers on the Wavelength of Emotions (GROWE). Next, we share the conceptual model that underpins the GROWE project, and some findings about the impact of the GROWE teacher training program.
When we first thought of the GROWE project, our motivation was to collaborate with European partners to work out a way for the secondary classroom to tackle disciplinary literacy and social-emotional learning simultaneously. We had had the experience of the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking (RWCT) program, and that of the EUMOSCHOOL project to build on. And we had a clear picture of who would be good European partners in this project.… Read the rest
ELINET’s “European Declaration of Digital Literacy as a Basic Right of Children” and the related presentation about the work results of our cross-cutting topic project on “Enhancing digital literacy skills in early and primary years’ education” have been presented at the 22nd European Literacy Conference in July 2022 in Dublin and are now available on our website.
You can find both documents here:
Citizen Literacy Blog
John Casey, Diane Gardner
TETO: Test Early and Test Often!
The importance of user feedback in developing an adult literacy programme using modern technology.
Citizen Literacy is an adult literacy programme that uses integrated printed and digital resources to support tutors teaching adults how to read and write. Designing and creating such resources cannot be conducted in a feedback vacuum. The title of this blog is taken from the early days of user-centred feedback for the web and is more relevant than ever to those of us involved in using technology in education.
We have been working hard to meet the needs of low literacy adult learners and their tutors, by creating a structured, phonics-based programme which includes a focus on spelling, the alphabet and grammar.… Read the rest
Elinet will make several contributions (General Assembly, Symposiums, Papers & Poster sessions) to the European Conference on Literacy and the 46th Annual Conference taking place in Dublin, Ireland from July 4th to July 6th.
See all further details below. Elinet Members’ names are in italic.
Sunday, July 3th 17.00-18.00 Meeting of Members of the EUROPEAN LITERACY POLICY NETWORK ASSOCIATION e.V. (ELINET ASSOCIATION). Fortunately, this year we will finally again be able to organize a face-to-face meeting during the European Literacy Conference in Dublin. As we will have no elections, no amendments to Statutes or other formal business this year, the ELINET Board wants to keep reports and updates as short as possible (about 45 Min.) and use the main part of our time for reflection and exchange about the current status and the future of our work.
During our work on our cross-cutting topic “Enhancing Digital Literacy Skills of Children in Early and Primary Years’ Education” we collected, translated and reviewed good practice examples from all over Europe addressing children of 0-3, 3-6 and 6-12 years. 16 examples have been approved by our expert reviewers and you can look at them here.
Background
The ELINET Association decided in 2019 to focus its work on relevant cross-cutting topics to which the members of all Thematic Working Groups (TWGs) could contribute.
The General Assembly 2019 in Copenhagen decided to focus our work on the topic “Enhancing Digital Literacy Skills of Children (age group 0 – 12 years).” More information about the concept of this project you can find here.
The main outcomes of this project will be a “European Framework of good practice in enhancing digital literacy skills in early and primary years’ education” and a European policy paper as a short summary of the Framework (similar to ELINET’s European Literacy Declaration), both addressing policymakers, multipliers, practitioners and other stakeholders in this field.… Read the rest
Emmi Jäkkö, Development director, The Finnish Reading Centre
Two thirds of the families that received one of the book gift program’s Lukulahja lapselle book bags at a maternal and child health care clinic are reading more than before, according to the impact survey. All the public health nurses involved believe that the book bags encourage families to read. The goal of the book gift program was to ensure equal opportunities for reading in all families with babies and to support children’s language development by encouraging parents to read regularly to their children.
The book gift program Lukulahja lapselle distributed book bags to all children in Finland born between 2019–2021 via maternal and child health care clinics.… Read the rest