Leveraging Research to Inform Better Practice

Panel focused on the importance of research being designed strategically from the very beginning and thinking about dissemination at the outset of every project design, not as an afterthought

Examining Adult Learners’ Digital Problem Solving in Libraries Using A Learning Typology

In this presentation, we shared our emerging findings around what constitutes digital problem solving and the approaches and strategies digital problem solvers use

Examining Digital Problem Solving Skills in Libraries to Promote Digital Equity

This presentation was part of the digital skills and inequality session and focuses digital problem solving and the approaches and strategies digital problem solvers use

Teaching for Digital Equity: Examining Digital Problem Solving in a Public Library

Presentation focuses on emerging findings around what constitutes digital problem solving and the approaches and strategies digital problem solvers use

Developing Sustainable Partnerships to Advance Digital Equity

In the early 2000s, inequities surrounding affordable Internet access brought the digital divide into public consciousness. Over time, practitioners and researchers working to address this divide have revealed a persistent, wider gap that includes inequities in social support networks (DiMaggio & Hargittai, 2001). Jenkins et al. (2006) identified a participation gap in using and interacting with digital tools. Evolving conversations have produced a broader conceptualization of the issues through the lens of digital inclusion and digital equity (Siefer, 2016). Those on the wrong side of the digital divide need digital literacy training, access to technical support, and the applications and content that will enable their success in the digital world. In Portland, Oregon, the Multnomah County Library (MCL), digital literacy researchers, and community partners created a bridge to digital equity and inclusion for traditionally excluded members of the community. This work represents a model for collaboration that can be replicated in other communities

Personal Inquiry and Online Research: Connecting Learners in Ways That Matter

This piece introduces a framework for how to envision Personal Digital Inquiry (PDI) in K-8 classrooms. To conceptualize what teaching and learning might look like in these classrooms, important practices are situated along a two-dimensional continuum of digital inquiry that varies in terms of levels of support and purposes of technology use. We then offer several examples of what teaching and learning within a PDI framework can look like; visions that move from teacher directed to student directed inquiry, always informed by purposeful choices about the role that technology plays along the way

What Factos Shape 21st Century Workplace Learning?

Adult learners take part in many different kinds of learning (in the workplace and beyond) Find out....what opportunities learners are offered and are taking part in. Encourage and Support….sustained participation and connections between and across settings

An Examination of Peer-to-Peer Scaffolding as Metacognitive Support for Learning

This descriptive study examines peer-to-peer scaffolding implemented in an undergraduate, online digital literacies course for future educators. It identifies the different features of students collaboration processes and how these processes function as peer scaffolding to support their learning. Analyses of students’ collaborative dialog and reflections on their collaboration processes. By analyzing dialog, this study examines how collaborative discussion that is high quality can act as a form of peer-to-peer scaffolding that encourages metacognition. Peer-to-peer scaffolding not only provides just-in-time support, but also triggers students’ regulation thus helping them to refine their understanding and enhance self-awareness of their learning processes. Findings suggest that productive collaboration can serve as a useful means of peer-to-peer scaffolding marked by five specific features: 1) complementing each other’s expertise, 2) co-constructing knowledge, 3) collaborating to problem-solve, 4) encouraging reciprocal support, and 5) triggering regulation. Findings further explore students’ perspectives on collaboration. Students felt they benefited from peer-to-peer collaboration when the collaboration yielded the development of new ideas and understanding, offered support for problem solving, and provided opportunities for self-reflection. These markers of quality collaboration assisted students in achieving their learning goals. Recommendations outlined in this chapter offer guidance for educators by describing ways to promote productive collaboration when designing and implementing instruction

Critical Race Theory: Convening 2

We seek to identify the factors that incentivize frontline service workers to engage in workplace-sponsored learning activities that support development of 21st century skills, including specific workplace skills, digital literacy, English language and literacy, problem solving, and adult basic skills. Central to this study is elevating the voice of the working learner

Final Report: The Ecosystem of 21st Century Employer Supported Education and Training Initiatives

The 21st Century Learning Ecosystem Opportunities (21 CLEO) research was launched to increase understanding of the complexities of learning ecosystems in employer-supported education and training initiatives. This work envisions workplace learning as ecosystems shaped by a constellation of factors that operate in dependent and independent ways