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.