54001 Digital Literacies
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particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source
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Subject handbook information prior to 2024 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 addresses literacies that are not only crucial for everyday life and our full participation as citizens, but also required by every contemporary industry and workplace. Practical, critical and theoretical aspects of contemporary media use are explored and integrated. Students gain foundational digital media skills involving digital publishing and digital image production and compositing. They explore the shift in our understandings of being and knowing that both enabled and were enhanced by the development of digital technologies, and which provide the context for our use of them. Students also gain knowledge of the ethical responsibilities of using these media and learn to critically reflect on their own production of multimodal and participatory communication.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
| a. | apply skills in digital publishing and digital image production and compositing |
|---|---|
| b. | integrate practical, critical and theoretical aspects of contemporary media use |
| c. | critically reflect on their own production, especially the ethical responsibilities of multimodal and participatory communication |
| d. | examine the diverse experiences of Indigenous Australians with relation to digital literacy |
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:
- 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)
- Be reflexive critical thinkers and creative practitioners who are intellectually curious, imaginative and innovative, with an ability to evaluate their own and others' work (2.2)
- Employ professional skills responsibly and respectfully in a global environment (3.2)
- Possess a critical understanding of the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples within contemporary Australian politics, history and culture (4.1)
- Possess the awareness of ethical practice in the personal, political and professional contexts of civil society (5.1)
- 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, workshops and collaboration. Students develop their practical skills in setting up an individual Wordpress blog to be used as a publishing platform throughout the semester. The blog will be set up either independently or in class, and follow a standardised URL convention which will be explained in the first 3 weeks of the teaching session. Face-to-face activities are complemented by flipped activities, including preparation for classes using online and open education resources, and self-paced independent study using digital resources for technical skill development. Two of the teaching weeks in the semester consist of non-face-to-face teaching activities. Critical reflection will be developed through discussion of formative feedback that is provided in the earliest weeks of semester (including prior to the census date) and through in-class peer-review and tutor-review activities. Assessment in the subject evaluates students’ development of practical skills as well as critical and theoretical understandings, through authentic tasks that demonstrate graduate attributes appropriate at first-year level.
An aim of this subject is to help you develop academic and professional language and communication skills in order to succeed at university and in the workplace. To determine your current academic language proficiency, if you have never completed the OPELA, or this is your first session at UTS, then you are required to complete this online language screening task, OPELA (information available at https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/learning-and-teaching/enhancing/language-and-learning/about-opela-students). If you receive a Basic grade for OPELA, you must attend additional Language Development Tutorials (each week from week 4 to week 12 in order to pass the subject. These tutorials are designed to support you to develop your language and communication skills. Students who do not complete the OPELA and/or do not attend 80% of the Language Development Tutorials will receive a Fail X grade'.
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: Critical Digital Publishing Task
| Objective(s): | a, b and d | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight: | 50% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length: | 1600 words (4 x 400 word posts) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 2: Digital publishing production
| Objective(s): | a, b and c | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight: | 50% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length: | Create three originally composited digital images as a set of viable options; In addition to the three final images, you also need to submit 1 x 1000 word documentation/reflection on the images and process; and contribute 3 x 150 word comments on work made by your peers. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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.
References
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