Digital Gardening: Cultivating Digital Literacy in Higher Education

This episode of the Digital Gardener Podcast comes from the Digital Gardener Initiative AI/GenAI Webinar and Workshop Professional Development series. It features a panel discussion of higher education leaders taking stock of what we've learned so far and what might we do differently in relation to Generative AI going forward.

Panelists include: Vivian Nun Halloran, Professor of English and Associate Dean for Arts + Humanities and Diversity + Inclusion in the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington; Remi Kalir, Associate Director of Faculty Development and Applied Research at Duke University; and Adam Maksl, Professor of Journalism at IU Southeast and Senior Faculty Fellow for GenAI Learning Innovation through IU UITS Learning Technologies.

In this episode, we introduce a couple new voices as first-time DGI host Justin Hodgson (Director of the Digital Gardener Initiative) has a conversation with IU East Assistant Professor Dr. Justina Licata on the intersections of digital platforms, emergent technologies, and the teaching and doing of history. Justina talks about her work as a historian, the value and implications of doing public history work, the function of storytelling in this space, and her particular turn toward podcasting as a way of both making history exciting to students and bringing history alive through stories and voice. If you are interested in hearing more work from Justina, be sure to check out the "The Stories We Tell: A History Podcast," which she co-hosts with Dr. Jamie Mize. The Stories We Tell features episodes focused on historical narratives and legacies associated with diverse historical figures.

Join Adam Maksl and Paul Cook in this insightful episode of 'Digital Gardening' as they unpack the significance of generative AI in today's digital literacy landscape. This discussion highlights the immense potential and challenges of GenAI, including discussing the crucial need for smart regulation. This episide is our second on generative AI, the first being a humorous holiday-themed episode in December 2022, just a couple weeks after ChatGPT was released. We're sure there will be more. Dive into what we consider the most critical topic in digital literacy today.

In this special episode of Digital Gardening, Paul and Adam sit down with Renee Hobbs, Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Rhode Island and Founding Director of the Media Education Lab at URI's Harrington School of Communication. Dr. Hobbs' current project, Courageous RI, focuses on violence prevention via community-led discussions on such topics as "Feelings and Facts," "Conflict Entrepreneurs," and "Preventing Violent Extremism." All Courageous RI events are free, online, and open to the public.

Our conversation in this episode spans several timely topics. We talk about the role of universities and colleges in repairing the epistemic divide and mitigating the hyper-polarization of our current moment, even as institutions of higher education (like all knowledge-producing institutions) are experiencing a crisis of confidence and lack of trust from the publics they serve. We discuss the rise of influencers and the concomitant decline in expert knowledge. And we explore the future of higher education and what must change--in terms of disciplinary siloing and incentive structures--for higher education to truly seize the gravity of our current postdigital moment.

Thank you for listening to Digital Gardening. We hope you enjoy this podcast. Please reach out to us with your questions, feedback, and fan mail. You can reach us at [email protected].

Throughout history, libraries have been considered the heart of the university. Today, libraries are more important than ever before to learning, inquiry, and engagement in higher education, though certainly their roles have changed with the proliferation of digital media and online learning. Join Adam and Paul for a wide-ranging conversation with IU librarians Gemmicka Piper, Kym Kramer, and KT Lowe about the role of libraries and academic librarians in advancing digital and information literacy in the 21st century. 

Thank you for listening to Digital Gardening. Do you have an idea for an episode? Want to be on the show? Just feel like dropping us a line?

Send us an email! We would love to hear from you at [email protected]. You can also find us on Twitter at @dgi_iu. 

Get ready for an exciting episode with Adam and Paul as they delve into the world of artificial intelligence and its role in higher education. You may have heard about ChatGPT, a revolutionary AI-enabled chatbot from OpenAI that was released to the public (with much fanfare) on November 30, 2022. In this episode, we'll explore the potential impacts of ChatGPT on work and education, as well as how we can empower our students to thrive in an AI-powered future where technology becomes a collaborator, not just a tool. 

Plus, as a special holiday treat, we've got a few surprise gifts for our listeners tucked away in this episode. Don't miss it! Happy holidays from Paul and Adam--the Digital Gardeners. 

Paul and Adam discuss the 2022 midterm elections from earlier this week and how digital literacy, media literacy, information literacy, and news literacy can (and should) be brought to bear on how we engage with both politics and the broader media landscape. Often conversations surrounding election denial, "Stop the Steal," voter fraud, and other forms of election mis- and disinformation focus on the individual information consumer, but what about the social and structural  components that shape our relationship with media? What is the role of the community in developing well-informed citizens? And how are citizens supposed to stay informed when our most vital resources--time, energy, and attention--are sapped by information overload and the daily grind of just getting by? 

Thank you for listening to Digital Gardening. Do you have an idea for an episode? Want to be on the show? Just feel like dropping us a line? 

Send us an email! We would love to hear from you at [email protected]. 

In this conversation with Margaret Lion, Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Health at Indiana University Bloomington, we get down to the nitty gritty of the basic digital literacy skills students need to succeed in higher education today. In our headlong rush into the "postdigital" era, we sometimes forget that many students across the university lack what some might consider "baseline" skills of digital literacy: for example, file saving and sharing, version control, file naming, and the like. Margaret talks about a digital skills course she has been teaching at IUB since 2009, K200 Microcomputer Applications in Kinesiology, and discusses how this course prepares students for success in their college careers. Paul and Adam also talk with Margaret about the history of digital literacy, and the fact that Adam still boots Windows from DOS. Good times are had by all. 

Read "File Not Found," the Verge article discussed in the podcast. 

Thank you for listening to Digital Gardening. We'll be back soon with some deep-dive episodes, including one on the subtle and oftentimes confusing distinctions between digital literacy and media literacy. 

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In this conversation with Dr. Kevin Jones, Associate Professor of Management at Indiana University Purdue University Columbus, Paul and Adam interview Dr. Jones on topics ranging from how to keep students productively engaged with learning in a tech-heavy world, to essential job readiness skills in the postdigital era, to the often overlooked truism that all old media (i.e., books) were once new media. Kevin also lays out some specific classroom-based strategies for engaging students with digital media and how to keep them on task even when beckoned by the siren song of digital distraction. 

On a multiple choice exam, is it better to go with your initial response? Do people really have different "learning styles"? What's the deal with cognitive bias? 

In this episode of Digital Gardening, Paul and Adam interview Dr. Kathy Holcomb, Associate Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Psychology department at IU Kokomo, as they delve into some of the more prevalent myths students learn to bust in introductory psychology courses. Kathy is a social psychologist and a member of the 2021-22 faculty cohort of the Digital Gardener Initiative at Indiana University. In addition to learning about psychological myths, Dr. Holcomb also explains how she uses digital literacy in her classes to help students overcome cognitive bias and information overload, as well as how becoming acclimated to digital media can help students learn to take risks and overcome their fears of failing.