A RICH LEARNING EXPERIENCE
A week-long opportunity to inquire, collaborate & create while you explore
digital literacy pedagogy and advance your own digital literacy competencies
WHAT IT IS
The Summer Institute in Digital Literacy is the world's longest-running professional development program in digital literacy. The program is a week-long interdisciplinary gathering designed to energize and celebrate educators, librarians, and digital media professionals who work in K-12 schools or higher education contexts.
During this intensive 42-hour program, you will get inspired by experts in literacy, learning, media, and technology and have frequent opportunities to advance your digital literacy competencies through hands-on, minds-on learning experiences. Participate in meaningful conversations and workshops as you develop collaborative relationships and learn innovative strategies for navigating digital literacy, media literacy legislation, and other new curriculum initiatives. Create a meaningful digital resource that you can implement or use in your own work context.
To align with evidence under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), we spotlighted these questions in 2023:
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How can educators employ digital inquiry to empower and engage students as they develop skills in decoding, language, comprehension, critical thinking, and disciplinary learning?
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How can we nurture students' social-emotional development as part of evidence-based reading instruction, media literacy efforts, and other new curriculum initiatives?
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How can school librarians support equitable access to diverse inclusive collections and the integration of technology for learning?
We met at the University of Rhode Island's downtown Providence campus for a full week of inquiry, collaboration, creation, and learning. Reflective walking tours through the city and evening social events across the week will ensure we make the most of our time together.
Explore the videos below to learn more about our core values, find out what to expect during the week, and hear from participants who attended in 2022. Scroll down to view the schedule, key components, and outcomes you will work toward all week long.
CORE COMPONENTS OF THE SUMMER INSTITUTE
Core Elements
Inquiry, collaboration, creation, leadership, and learning are some of the core elements in the framework that will guide your work this week. Work elbow-to-elbow with faculty, other participants, and a dyad partner to experience how "Everyone learns from everyone."
Keynotes & Digging Deeper Sessions
Gain knowledge and insights from Daily Keynote Sessions, then dig in deep to apply your new knowledge with hands-on, minds-on Digging Deeper Sessions, which include engaging experiences and time for conversation and reflection.
Conversation Sparks
Conversation sparks are fairly unstructured sessions that provide a place to have meaningful dialogue with colleagues. They provide a place for us to re-discover our passions and to find new opportunities to make a difference.
Workshops
Design Studio
Reflection
Workshops are one-time 50-minute sessions that offer hands-on exploration of a particular topic. In these sessions, you will deepen your understanding of that topic and also walk away with practical ideas and tools.
Daily Design Studio sessions provide the time and space for you to plan and create while working with a dyad partner to leverage the "Power of Two". Work elbow-to-elbow with faculty and other participants in small groups to develop an inquiry project relevant to your needs.
Each day of the Summer Institute, we take time to reflect on our learning, using the Flip Reflection process. Reflective walking tours through the city and evening social events will ensure we make the most of our time together.
At the Summer Institute in Digital Literacy, everyone learns from everyone!
All week long, you will:
More than 80% of Summer Institute in Digital Literacy participants rate it as the "best ever" when asked to compare the program to other forms of professional development they have experienced in their careers
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Share ideas for how to integrate digital inquiry and creative production into K-12 classrooms, libraries, and/or teacher education contexts through intentional planning, experiential learning, collaboration, and innovative assessments of student learning.
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Design and reflect upon culturally responsive teaching practices that empower learners as you examine the intersection between digital and media literacy, social justice, and democracy.
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Examine how literacy is changing as a result of media and technology and the implications of this cultural and technological shift for teaching and learning at all levels.
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Learn concrete strategies for cultivating environments where all students have equal opportunities to learn, share their voices, and work toward meaningful, authentic, and relevant goals.
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Build new networks and create new visions for “doing” education in changing and challenging times as you engage in daily conversations throughout the week.
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Enlarge your identity as a leader in digital literacy as you apply your learning to meet your specific needs.
