Week 2: Getting up and running

Introduction

The importance of digital skills is now recognised at a national level by the House of Lords who held a Select Committee on digital skills in 2015. They stated:

How can you build the skills needed to succeed in a digital world?

During Week 1 you had an opportunity to think about how you use the internet and social media. You made a note of a few of the online tools and apps you use.

This week you will be finding out about the skills you need to be effective in a digital world. Over the course of the week, you will find out how to improve what you do online and the way you do it, from finding information to communicating and collaborating with other people.

You will be given an opportunity to assess how confident you are in a range of skills. You will also be introduced to resources designed to help you develop your skills, which you can add to your Digital plan.

In this video Katharine and Wendy, from Open University Library Services, talk about ways in which people interact with their digital environments.

Download this video clip.Video player: Video 1: Introduction to Week 2

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Transcript: Video 1: Introduction to Week 2

WENDY

Hello, and welcome to Week 2: Getting up and running. This week, you’ll be taking stock of where your skills are at the moment. And you’ll be thinking about what you’d like to be able to do.

KATHARINE

You’ll have the opportunity to think about how you use the internet and social media and where digital skills are useful to you, whether that’s at home, at work, or when you’re studying.

WENDY

So how digital are you then, Katharine?

KATHARINE

Well, I guess I could survive without technology, but it would be hard. I do a lot of texting and I’m an active social media user. And I find it really handy to be able to look things up online wherever I am. How about you, Wendy?

WENDY

Well, I record family events - or those that I’m told about - in my online planner. So when I start my phone up at the beginning of every day, I know what’s coming up.

KATHARINE

That sounds really useful. I should do that.

WENDY

Make a note of it in your Digital plan then.

KATHARINE

Good idea. To help you get an idea of what the most important digital skills are we’ve put together a digital skills framework. And you’ll be using that to review how confident you feel.

WENDY

And Manuela, Michael, and John, your three digital pals, will be sharing their experiences to date with you and reviewing their own progress.

KATHARINE

So over to you. Time to get up and running.

End transcript: Video 1: Introduction to Week 2

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Video 1: Introduction to Week 2

By the end of this week, you will be able to:

• describe what digital literacy means
• understand how digital literacy can support distance and online study, for example, at The Open University
• identify which skills you need to develop to be an effective online learner.