Digital literacy pedagogy:
Key issues in the age of Gen-AI

Abstract

Registration:
https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_regform.aspx?guest=Y&UEID=91113

Abstract:
Digital literacy as a field of scholarship has seen rapid developments over the past several years, with numerous
frameworks now in existence that aim to capture and/or measure the skills, competencies and dispositions that
are thought to be essential to be digitally literate. Much less emphasis has been placed on developing pedagogic
approaches that can facilitate the development of digitally literate learners, particularly in formal educational
contexts. Yet the sharpening of focus on pedagogy, I argue, is even more important given the continued
proliferation of large language model-powered generative-AI tools. In this talk, I discuss how our
conceptualization and pedagogy of digital literacy may need to take on new dimensions in order to respond to
the myriad of opportunities and challenges that these new technologies present. Drawing on my experience
teaching digital literacy at the university level, I illustrate some of these pedagogical tenets with examples of
classroom and assessment practice.

About the Speaker

Trained as a sociolinguist, A/P Csilla Weninger’s research examines language in its
social contexts of use along two main strands. First, she is interested to explore how
spoken, written and visual discourse manifests, propagates and reinforces cultural
and political ideologies that can be traced and uncovered through the detailed
analysis of text and talk. A bulk of her publications in this area concern the impact
and imprint of ideologies on the conduct of schooling, primarily through textbooks,
policies and classroom discourse. Second, and as an extension of the first area, her
research aims to examine and develop critical approaches to English language and
literacy education. A key concern for such approaches is moving beyond literacy as a skill and fostering
students’ engagement with texts as a reflexive and affective situated social practice. In this regard, she has
been involved in researching and teaching digital media literacy as a foundational skill and disposition for
21st century education. Theoretically, her work is situated at the intersection of critical discourse studies,
sociocultural linguistics and critical literacy studies. She is co-editor in chief of Linguistics and Education,
and head of English Language & Literature, at National Institute of Education, Singapore.
Email: csilla.weninger@nie.edu.sg

Chair

Dr George L. Jiang