Digitally Ready is proud to welcome Steve Wheeler, Associate Professor of Learning Technology at Plymouth University, who will be visiting Reading on 30 April to speak about ‘Digital literacies and skills for 21st-century learning’.

This seminar will explore the challenges universities will face in the coming years, the possible strategies they will need to implement, and discuss the new and emerging digital literacies that will form the skills for successful learning in a digital age.

Universities are facing a period of prolonged disruption. The 21st- century university will be characterised by an emphasis on technology supported education and a struggle to reconcile the tested, traditional methods with the unfamiliar and new. The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement, and the personalised learning agenda are just two of the disruptive challenges faced by higher education.

Many students generate their own content, repurposing, sharing and organising their learning using their own devices, something that is alien to much of the traditional content delivery approaches academics are more comfortable with. Those teaching, researching and studying within Higher Education need not only to be able to respond to these new demands, they need also to be aware that new challenges are posed by disruptive technology and previously unknown modes of use.

Academics and students alike need to be aware that many of our previously cherished rules and social mores are changing or in some cases, being supplanted. Our understanding of privacy, relationships, ownership, copyright, personal identity, literacy and plagiarism may need to be revised.

This seminar is open to all staff at Reading. Please book via Employee Self Service or by emailing cstd@reading.ac.uk.