54001 Digital Literacies
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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 8 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.
Anti-requisite(s): 58102 Language and Discourse
Description
This subject explores the impact of automated technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) on society and contemporary communication practices. It covers the social, ethical, and political implications of rapidly evolving and emerging digital technologies. By examining the challenges and opportunities presented by AI in the communication industries and beyond, the subject aims to develop an understanding of the ethical and responsible use of technology. This also includes the potential for communication practitioners to influence technology development, in collaboration with different specialists. The subject aims to develop literacies among students that are not only crucial for everyday life and our full participation as citizens, but also required by every contemporary industry and workplace.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
| a. | Analyse how evolving digital technologies influence and are influenced by people, cultures and social norms within communication practices |
|---|---|
| b. | Compare and contrast the ethical challenges and opportunities of automated technologies/AI |
| c. | Explore concepts of data sovereignty and data justice in relation to Indigenous Australians |
| d. | Collaborate in interdisciplinary teams (digital and in-person) to produce innovative projects on the use of automated technologies/AI |
| e. | Demonstrate good scholarly practice in writing and referencing |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject engages with the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs), which are tailored to the Graduate Attributes set for all graduates of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences:
- Possess a well-developed awareness of professional practice in the context of the communication industries (1.1)
- Apply theoretically informed understanding of the communication industries in independent and collaborative projects across a range of media (1.2)
- Possess information literacy skills to locate, gather, organise and synthesise information across diverse platforms to inform the understanding of the communication industries (2.1)
- Employ professional skills responsibly and respectfully in a global environment (3.2)
- Possess well-developed skills and proficiencies to communicate and respond effectively and appropriately across different contexts (6.1)
- Demonstrate digital literacy and production skills across a range of media and media texts (6.2)
Teaching and learning strategies
This subject incorporates diverse in-class and independent learning activities which complement each other to provide students with opportunities for active learning, conceptual exploration, and collaboration. Conceptual exploration of critical and theoretical aspects of media use will be developed through lectures, case study analysis, discussion, presentations and collaboration. Students will develop their practical skills through weekly reading quizzes, presentations based on the weekly readings, and a final critical response. Face-to-face activities are complemented by flipped activities, including preparation for classes using online resources. Critical reflection will be encouraged through discussion of feedback that is provided in the earliest weeks of the semester (including prior to the census date). Assessment in the subject evaluates students’ development of practical skills as well as critical and theoretical understandings through tasks that demonstrate graduate attributes appropriate at the first-year level.
An aim of this subject is to help you develop academic and professional language and communication skills to succeed at university and in the workplace. During this subject, you complete a milestone assessment task that, in addition to assessing your subject-specific learning objectives, assesses your English language proficiency.
Content (topics)
The subject content comprises three themes considered throughout the course. Ethics and politics of digital media explores participation & transparency issues, that is, how media shape the world we experience; surveillance and control; ethics and politics of participatory media; research and knowledge formation; distributed cognition and collective intelligence. Multimodal texts and analysis examines inter- and trans-mediality; image culture and visual storytelling; analysis of multimodal texts, images, sound and movement. Human-technology interaction encompasses theories of human-technology interaction; from the first to the third industrial revolution and consequences for everyday life and being; and possibilities and problems of digital technologies.
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Weekly Reading Quiz
| Objective(s): | a | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type: | Quiz/test | ||||||||
| Groupwork: | Individual | ||||||||
| Weight: | 30% | ||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 2: Group Presentation
| Objective(s): | , a, d and e | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type: | Presentation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Group, group and individually assessed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 30% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length: | One 15 minute presentation and submission of slide deck and/or any posters, leaflets or other handouts created for the presentation. There is no word limit. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 3: Critical Response
| Objective(s): | a and e | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type: | Reflection | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Individual | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 40% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length: | Fewer than 1000 words | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Minimum requirements
Attendance at classes is essential in this subject. Classes are based on a collaborative approach that involves essential workshopping and interchange of ideas with other students and the tutor to build capacities towards meeting the subject learning objectives. A roll will be taken at each class (whether on campus or online). Students who have more than two absences from class will be refused marking of their final assessment (see Rule 3.8).
It is a requirement of this subject that all students complete OPELA [or a written diagnostic task]. Students who received a Basic grade in the OPELA [or the written diagnostic task] are required to attend 80% of the Language Development Tutorials in order to pass the subject. Students who do not complete the OPELA and/or do not attend 80% of the Language Development Tutorials will receive a Fail X grade.