I have used Digitally Ready funds to experiment with capturing lecture audio (https://blogs.reading.ac.uk/digitallyready/2013/06/11/2685/).
I also commissioned a report into Digital Paedagogy in Classics. It seems to me that we expect fairly high levels of digital literacy without systematically equipping our first year students with the tools to use – as well as saying ‘don’t use Wikipedia’ I’d like to start pointing them towards reliable online resources and, more importantly, developing a sense of critical engagement with digital content similar to that which we teach them bring to print material. This report is a useful step towards doing that, in several ways.
Firstly it enabled me to commission a report surveying the scene within our own institution and in similar departments elsewhere, to look at the sorts of learning technology they use. This is a helpful baseline in determining what my department can and should be seeking to do as we reshape our Part 1 curriculum and incorporate more digital literacy material.
Secondly, the report gave me some ideas to report to my colleagues and to the Digitally Ready community for exercises or tools we could look to employ in our reworked curriculum.
Thirdly, it allowed me to involve a current student in curriculum research and design, something that the University values. Finally, it provided the student concerned, my PhD student Maria Lloyd, with a useful and remunerative project that builds on her own professional interest in teaching and information design, and will be good on her CV.
I am grateful to the University’s Digitally Ready project for the opportunities this has given us.