A student struggles with typing and struggles to write essays. Another is that they don’t know if the campus has fast and dedicated Wi-Fi, so they struggle to complete assignments on time. Someone else understands the course content, but doesn’t know how to take notes in their digital textbook.
These are just a few situations. As administrators and faculty at California State University Northridge encounter some students—a reality check that informs new digital literacy projects on campus. In a classroom survey of more than 200 students in the spring about how much technology skills they need to brush up, 91 percent listed basic computer skills.
Gaps in digital literacy — broadly defined as the ability to fully navigate and use technology — are not unique to Cal State at Northridge. Even before the invention of technology Inextricably woven In the event of an epidemic, to departments, a 2016 education report Nationally, nearly four in 10 students want to be better prepared for institution-specific technology, including learning-management and course-enrollment systems.
According to Joyce Marie Brusasco, a teacher at the campus, such gaps can have serious implications for student achievement. They can lead to late assignments, a distorted sense of belonging and self-confidence, and “misdirected” college goals.
But digital literacy is often overlooked in colleges because of misconceptions about how much students know about the technologies colleges are pursuing, said Helen Heinrich, Cal State’s interim vice president for academic technology at Northridge.
“There’s this gap between the assumptions” of institutions — that social media-savvy students are inherently tech-savvy — “and the reality of the student’s perspective,” she said.
Cal State at Northridge, importance Real-time intervention felt urgent. The university demonstrated a “peer-to-peer” educational model last spring by hiring a handful of student “digital ambassadors” to post TikTok-like videos. On Instagram How to access technology-related resources on campus. A video It shows a student bringing viewers across campus to a bookstore with him, where the university gives away free iPads.
This model was born out of the understanding that students don’t necessarily need adults for help. in 2017 Education Survey, A quarter of them use university help desk services as a Your go-to resource for tech problems. But more than half – 51 percent – mentioned their friends.
“They learn more than we do because the authority is us,” says Brusasco, a professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences. . “It’s not scary when a peer says, ‘Let me show you.'”
Early success
Heinrich group He spent about $10,000 in internal grants. To hire a few students to create Instagram posts. “Strong” social media presence, intrinsic interest in technology and recruiting students some Video editing skills.
Then, the staff gathered broader student input: first from 80 students in fall 2021, and again from 212 students last spring. (The surveys, of note, were “informal”; two faculty members, Brusasco and her colleague Autumn Fabricant, passed them on to students for extra credit in their courses.)
The responses weren’t all that surprising, both Brusasco and Fabrica admit. Much of what Brusasco has read, including problems with converting files to the right format and uploading a learning management system to Canvas, tracks closely with what she sees in the classroom.
Many times, she says, “they’re taking their documents from Google Docs on their app” on their phones, “and trying to upload them to the LMS.” The format “gets all Wonk-a-doodle.”
So are these videos reaching students? While the project is still in its early stages, Heinrich said early data looks promising.
For example, Cal State at Northridge saw a 196 percent increase in iPad checks, a 25 percent increase in laptop checks, and a 47 percent increase in hotspot checks after posting a video on how and where to check out free lending devices on campus.
“With the results we’ve had … we’re confident that we have to go this way,” Heinrich said.
Fabricant, former primary-seminar Teacher Now the campus’ coordinator of student success and equity, he has seen the success of the peer support model in action.
She recalls a situation last school year when a student asked a classmate if they could highlight and take notes in their digital textbooks in the Canvas system.
Fabricant “picked up her phone, was able to take the screen camera” and shared it with the whole class. I was like, “This is amazing.”
growing room
While Heinrich says it’s still “a little early” to say Student Digital Ambassadors are a permanent position at CSU-Northridge — the job is “not self-sustaining” and requires dedicated staff resources to manage and supervise students — the current plan is to continue. .
And there is room to grow. To date, a good portion of the student-generated social media posts have focused on highlighting technology resources on campus, such as free iPads. The goal of this summer and fall semester is to go over the many topics covered in the surveys and align posts with planned technology changes, such as web design and a new campus entrance.
Brusasco’s ambition, she said, is to supplement this bite-sized content with more in-depth, student-led workshops on topics such as converting and uploading files.
Madison Cabera, a junior and digital student ambassador, said she’d like to see more awareness of ways to expand the reach of social media posts — perhaps by adding platforms like Twitter and TikTok, which she knows many of her peers spend on. Scrolling time.
Based on the post, the number of Instagram accounts reached is more than 500 to almost 10,000. (It’s unclear how much of those accounts are accounted for by Cal State students at Northridge.)
Cabrera envisions the peer-to-peer resource extending beyond technology — like students sharing the best places to study on campus.
“It’s good to talk about technology,” she said. It is also good to talk about everything we have.
