Quick Things for Digital Knowledge is an entry point to important and emerging topics in our information-rich society.
Easy to use
The Things can be completed in any order, at any time. You can choose to read the text in your browser, stream or download an audio version, watch videos, or download all content in a PDF format for offline or screen-reader use. The text-only version includes descriptions of all visual content.
Quick
You can spend as much time or as little as you’d like, but it will usually take 20-30 minutes to review the information and complete the activities for each Thing. If you’re intrigued to learn more, you can continue with the recommended resources for additional reading, videos and podcasts, or longer online courses.
Are you an undergraduate student participating in the FutureBound program?
After reviewing the content and completing the activities for one of the Things, you can complete a
reflection form to have it count as one activity towards your Digital Capabilities & Mindsets certificate!
Because Quick Things for Digital Knowledge by Concordia University Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, you can access, reuse, and adapt the content for any purpose (unless otherwise mentioned on some images).
The Things provide introductory level information about emerging ideas and technologies. You can use them as entry points to more complex topics or as supplemental background information in your course. The topics can be relevant for every discipline and for any level (undergraduate, graduate, Continuing Education, or staff development).
This page contains some suggestions and examples for incorporating the Quick Things for Digital Knowledge in your teaching. We would like to hear from you to discuss further ideas and offer assistance in customizing activities, instructions, and resources for your course.
For flipped classroom approaches
“Flip” your classroom to have students read/view the Things in their own time, and then use class time to focus on clarifying concepts and discussion. You could assign one or more Things as pre-work to read/view/complete activities in advance and then discuss them further during the synchronous class. Prompts for discussion or written reflection are included in each of the Things.
Example instructions for students
These are sample instructions that could be posted for students as an announcement in Moodle, or however you prefer to communicate with students.
Purpose: The purpose of this activity is for you to learn about the basics of machine learning in preparation for discussion in class about technology ethics [insert your topic here].
Task: Go to the Machine Learning section of the Quick Things for Digital Knowledge site. Read the text, watch the video, or listen to the audio recording. Then complete the three quiz questions and Teachable Machine activity.
Time: It should take you around 30 minutes to complete the reading or viewing and the activity.
Next: In next week's class, you will discuss the predictive model that you made in the activity in small groups. Your contributions to the discussion will count toward your participation mark in the course.
For use the in-person or virtual classroom
Activities in the Things can be used for individual or group activities during classroom or in Moodle.
Example instructions for students
These are sample instructions that could be used to guide a student activity in class.
Students can work in pairs or individually to complete this activity on their own or provided computers in a classroom or during an online class. They should sign up for free accounts with Conifer in advance.
Purpose: This activity gives you an opportunity to see web archiving in action.
Task: Follow the instructions below to capture a website and compare previous versions.
Time: This activity should take about 15 minutes to complete.
Insert step-by-step instructions from Web Fragility
For additional learning resources
Relevant Things can be included as recommended resources in your syllabus.
Example instructions for students
This is sample text for including in your syllabus.
To learn more about accessibility in digital environments, read/view the Accessibility section of Quick Things for Digital Knowledge.
Further resources
- Webpage: Digital Divide
- YouTube Video: Technology, the power and the promise
- Udemy Course: Web Accessibility: Learn Best Practice, Tools & Techniques
For assignments or bonus points in your course
You could award course marks or bonus points to students who complete one or more of the activities or reflections. Please contact us for advice and support on collecting and assessing students’ submissions.
Example instructions for students
These are sample instructions for a graded assignment.
Purpose: In this activity, we'll take a critical look at some Information Visualizations communicating Covid-19 statistics in the media.
Task: Read or watch the introductory information on data visualization in Quick Things for Digital Knowledge. Next, head to the following website and have a look at the article on ”How Bad Covid-19 Visualizations Mislead the Public.”
Now think back on the steps involved with transforming data into Data and Information Visualizations and respond to the following questions in 150-200 words.
Do you think that any of the examples in the article demonstrate an intentional misuse of Data and Information Visualization?
Can you think of any Data or Information Visualizations that you have seen lately? Did the visualizations seem to draw conclusions by design?
Do you think that data storytellers and information designers should provide more transparency with respect to their data sources and choices with respect to how they have chosen to represent data?
Time: It should take you 30-40 minutes to complete the reading/viewing and answer the questions.
FutureBound
Encourage undergraduate student to participate in the FutureBound program! After reviewing the content and completing the activities for one of the Things, they can complete a reflection form to have it count as one activity towards their Digital Capabilities & Mindsets certificate.