Recently in Digital Literacy Category

On Saturday 15 September the world celebrates Software Freedom Day. Software Freedom Day aims to promote some thought about how important software is to our modern lives. It highlights the need to consider the importance of open software. As we come to rely more and more on technology to live our lives, fully engaged with society, it is crucial that we consider what closed systems mean and celebrate and support open platforms.

It’s Digital Literacy Awareness Week at Waikato and I’ve been forced to think about how to describe digital literacy.   For me, digital literacy is about the way that we approach our use of technology and the meaning it brings to us.  

About 4 years ago, I had taken my son (who was eight at the time) to his swimming lesson.  Afterwards, he wanted to know if Mum had gotten something ready for him.  I said that I wasn't sure but that we could phone her.  He immediately replied, "But you don't have a phone Dad"...

With the three strikes law and piracy issues popping up in the news it is really good to be able to find an alternative copyright system. Creative Commons is an international non-profit that provides free licences and tools that copyright owners can use with their work. This allows creators to tell their audience how they can legally share, reuse and remix their material.

You probably haven’t heard of the Digital Literacy for Staff project yet and that’s why we are having a whole week of activities and events to raise awareness.

The Digital Literacy project team have been working hard over the last few months to organise the first Digital Literacy @ Waikato week, 3 - 7 September. We have a number of speed seminars and workshops for you to attend, quick activities to do at your desk and printed resources too. Get enthusiastic and win some great prizes, including a state of the art 7 inch tablet. Keep an eye on our site for the details of how to qualify to go in the draw.

License  Some rights reserved by whatleydude

If you’re like me, you get hundreds of emails every single day.  The subject line of those emails is the first thing you read and it becomes very helpful when searching for messages at a later date.  With this in mind, it is really important that you consider what to put in the subject line when you create your message.

There are a lot of really useful rules that apply to email and here are a few that we think are the most helpful.

Recently the University has experienced a phishing attack, so it seemed like a good time to write about netsafety. Dishonesty isn't something new, we all know it exists. The thing that is new is the environment where we are facing dishonesty. Thinking about it, it really isn't that surprising there are those who are trying to rip you off online. People can be dishonest and people use technology to help them be dishonest.  Guess the trick is to ensure you protect yourself as much as possible and acquire the skills to recognise dishonesty when it presents itself. It actually isn't that difficult to be safe online there are some really obvious measures you can take. Mostly they are the same things you would do in a face to face situation.