Category: Uncategorised

For the final summative product, I will provide a detailed blog post that covers the three main questions I covered in assignment one and provide a deeper dive into each question. The three questions I covered in EDCI 136 are…

1. What is digital literacy and why is it important? 
2. How does digital literacy impact mental health positively? 
3. What are the negative mental health consequences? 

1. What is digital literacy and why is it important?

Digital literacy is defined as the ability to access, manage and understand information received online in a safe and educated manner. In an world that is moving towards technology as a central tool for communication, education and many other facets, it’s important to understand the risks of navigating an online world. For example, when accessing information online, it’s important to be able to evaluate the credibility of the digital information effectively to ensure the information you are accessing is true and not mixed with misinformation. By learning digital literacy skills it can help prevent you against the risks associated with communicating and learning online. This blog post section will cover the tools that can help you become digitally literate through the SIFT method, the Inquiry Process, and the effects of artificial intellegence.

Misinformation and Disinformation

One of the biggest risks associated with online learning is the influence of misinformation and disinformation. Mis/dis-information is a prominent issue with verification on the internet relating to the spreading and publication of false information. There is a growing concern with mis/dis-information through social media and the influence it can gave to spread false information to mass amounts of citizens. Misinformation refers to incorrect information that is not intended to be wrong, essentially, it’s information that is mistakenly incorrect. Disinformation is false information that is intentionally wrong and intended to manipulate and guide people/organizations in the wrong direction.

In our EDCI 136 class, Mike Caulfield spoke on misinformation and disinformation and the SIFT Method. The SIFT method by Caulfield is an evaluation method designed to analyze and educate yourself against mis/dis-information. The acronym SIFT, stands for Stop, Investigate the source, Find better Coverage and Trace claims/quotes/media to the original context.

Viastat, April 14th, 2025: https://www.viasat.com/news/latest-news/

Inquiry Process

The Inquiry is another method to help someone become digitally literate by knowing the importance of asking questions relating to the source you are reading. Jeff Hopkins spoke to our EDCI 136 class about the openness of students and the errors that students can make by lacking asking questions and inquiring about subjects on a deeper level. Although most of his lecture related to learning alternate topics while studying in university, his application of gaining knowledge in places where you may lack and the importance of inquiring about subjects on a deeper level can relate directly to digital literacy. For example, if you are reading about a topic that you had no prior information, it’s essential to know how to ask deeper probing questions to understand the topic and the sources of the information you are gathering.

Artificial intelligence and digital literacy

AI has created a greater demand for digital literacy skills in a positive light as well, as AI can provide tools helpful for students and professionals alike. For example, Lucas Wright spoke on generative A.I. which includes tools such as ChatGPT and it’s influence on day-to-day work. Wright showed the example of a custom GPT where you can upload different documents and customize the commands to the bot. One example showed was the email responder, in which the bot will summarize and respond to emails.

However, AI can also have negative effects that demand a better understanding of the effects it can have, specefically towards education. For example the paper by “Asian Journal of Distance Education”, focuses on the role of Artificial Intelligence and its role in education in the present and the future. This paper highlights that A.I. has made significant stride in completing tasks on behalf of educators and because of the lack of quality control, educators should evaluate how A.I. and people should collaborate in an educational setting.

2. How does digital literacy impact mental health positively? 

Sobel, Tamara, April 14, 2025: https://medialiteracynow.org/why-media-literacy-now-supports-digital-wellness-and-media-literacy-in-health-education/

Because so much of our time is spend communicating and working in a digital world, it’s important to highlight the positive effects that it can have relating to mental health. Benefits of online support depend heavily on a person’s ability to navigate digital spaces wisely. Digital literacy can help to shape these interactions to promote wellbeing and ensure a safe online enviorment. For example, social media platforms, such as Youtube, can provide people with a vast community to create, share, and watch others relating to an endless ammount of topics.

In the book by Alison Yung, titled “Youth Mental Health“, she speaks on how “e-health” and how education and allow you to have a positive influence when being online. For example, the internet provides so many resources relating to mental health support and education, that when accessed properly, can have a lasting positive impact. Yung mentions sights, such as the National Institute of Mental Health which provides education, resources, and community to those suffering with mental health issues (Yung, p. 126-128).

5 Practical ways teachers can encourage digital literacy in the classroom. (n.d.). https://vibe.us/ca/blog/digital-literacy/

In Nasulunds “The Future of mental health care“, they speak about the effects that a lack of digital literacy can have on an individual. For example, someone with limitied digital litercy skills is more vulnerable to misinformation, online hostility, and other issues when relating to online content, such as social media. Essentially, it highlights a growing need to support digital education alongside mental health care.

This short video by South Carolina ETV shows how citizens of all age are working to improve their digital literacy skills.

This video frames digital technologies in a positive way to help seniors fight dementia. By providing seniors with digital literacy skills it allows them to safely navigate their technologies to continue using them in a positve method.

#3 What are the Negative Mental Health Consequences

Although social media offers tools for connection, learning and peer support, it can create issue relating to mental health concerns. For individuals with poor mental health, platforms like Facebook, twitter and youtube can have negative effects and even make mental health worse when navigating these platforms

In the article by Curran, titled “The effectiveness of a digital media mental health literacy campaign“, they speak on how mental health can be improved in five areas:

1. competition
2. social media
3. perfectionism
4. loneliness and isolation
5. independence

The five areas listed provide a structured list of how certain aspects of being online can influence your well being in different ways. For example, competition is a growing concern when relating to mental health. Because being online provides you access to vast ammounts of people, the ability to compare yourself to another creates unfair comparisons and competition. Comparisons to others online may not have fair implication because you are often not able to see the full story of how someone acheived something and the resources they has available, but you are just able to see the final product. By adressing digital literacy skills and having an understanding that what you see online isn’t necessarliy the full story, it can help prepare you against possible negative mental health effects in an online world.

In Hammonda’s article titled “Knowledge Management & E-Learning“, they adress how digital technologies will be a long lasting and influential tool and therefore, it requires people to be educated on how to navigate it. By understanding digital technologies it allows people to protect themselves against the negative mental health influences of technology. Hammonda speaks about the Digital Literacy Global Framework (DLGF), which essentially outlines the importance of digital literacy and provides tools to better understand the risks involved with digital technologies. Hammonda also speaks about the demand for more frameworks relating to digital literacy and its effects on mental health because digital technologies are developing faster and therefore the risks are too.

Citations:

Curran, T., Ito-Jaeger, S., Perez Vallejos, E., & Crawford, P. (2023). What’s up with everyone?’: The effectiveness of a digital media mental health literacy campaign for young people. Journal of Mental Health (Abingdon, England), 32(3), 612–618. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2023.2182412

Hammoda, B., & Foli, S. (2024). A digital competence framework for learners (DCFL): A conceptual framework for digital literacy. Knowledge Management & E-Learning, 16(3), 477–500. https://doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel.2024.16.022 

Naslund, J. A., Aschbrenner, K. A., Marsch, L. A., & Bartels, S. J. (2016). The future of mental health care: peer-to-peer support and social media. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 25(2), 113–122. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796015001067 

Yung, A. R. (2021). Youth mental health : approaches to emerging mental ill-health in young people (A. R. Yung, J. Cotter, & P. D. McGorry, Eds.; 1st ed.). Routledge.

My research question: How does digital media impact mental health both positively and negatively?

3rd of 4 key research questions: What are the negative mental health consequences? 

This blog post will cover the third research question relating to digital literacy and why it’s important. Digital literacy is the ability to use technology to evaluate and share information in an increasingly technology dominated world. Digital literacy is concerned with being able to successfully navigate and use technology to complete tasks while also adhering to safety and privacy concerns.

The negative mental health consequences of social media

Although social media offers tools for connection, learning and peer support, it can create issue relating to mental health concerns. For individuals with poor mental health, platforms like Facebook, twitter and youtube can have negative effects and even make mental health worse when navigating these platforms.

One major issue with misinformation is exposure from digital platforms and the vast ammount of people it can reach. Without the ability to criticall assess the content, individuals could take harmful advice which can cause damage and worsen the symptoms of poor mental health. For example, cyberbullying, comparison culture and hostile comments can negatively impact emotional wellbeing which can amplify feelings of isolation and indaequacy. Essentially, noot having the correct skills to navigate social media could have detrimental effects on someones mental health, especially if they already had poor mental health.

To mitigate harm and reduce the effects of social media on mental health, it’s important to develop awarness into digital literacy and work on the skills that you can develop to reduce the negative effects of social media. By engaging in the content you are consuming critically, safely and supported, it can allow you to avoid some of the negative outcomes of learning online.

This Ted Talks video shows how technology can effect mental health in a negative way.

Citations
Hammoda, B., & Foli, S. (2024). A digital competence framework for learners (DCFL): A conceptual framework for digital literacy. Knowledge Management & E-Learning, 16(3), 477–500. https://doi.org/10.34105/j.kmel.2024.16.022 

Naslund, J. A., Aschbrenner, K. A., Marsch, L. A., & Bartels, S. J. (2016). The future of mental health care: peer-to-peer support and social media. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 25(2), 113–122. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796015001067 

My research question: How does digital media impact mental health both positively and negatively?

2nd of 4 key research questions: How does digital literacy impact mental health positively? 

This blog post will cover the second research questions relating to digital literacy and how it positively impacts mental health. Digital literacy is the ability to use technology to evaluate and share information in an increasingly technology dominated world. Digital literacy is concerned with being able to successfully navigate and use technology to complete tasks while also adhering to safety and privacy concerns.

Digital Literacy and how it impacts mental health

Digital literacy is becoming a more important when navigating social media due to the effects it can have on mental health and well-being. Although there is a lot of negative effects of social media use, there can also be some positive effects. For example, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are increasingly being used for peer-to-peer support where individuals share personal experiences, coping strategies and encouragement.

Benefits of online support depend heavily on a person’s ability to navigate digital spaces wisely. Digital literacy can shape whetere these interactions promote wellbeing or cause harm. For example, someone who is well equipped with digital literacy skills are more likely to identify false information.

In Nasulunds “The Future of mental health care”, they speak about the effects that a lack of digital literacy can have on an individual. For example, someone with limitied digital litercy skills is more vulnerable to misinformation, online hostility, and other issues when relating to online content, such as social media. Essentially, it highlights a growing need to support digital education alongside mental health care.

This short video provides a summary of why it’s important to consider mental health relating to media literacy.

Citations

Naslund, J. A., Aschbrenner, K. A., Marsch, L. A., & Bartels, S. J. (2016). The future of mental health care: peer-to-peer support and social media. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 25(2), 113–122. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796015001067

This blog post will focus on the content covered in the EDCI 136 course from week 9. This week focued on data relating to who owns the content and has two guest speakers, Dr. Bonnie Stewart and Charlie Watson.

The first guest speaker, Dr. Stewart, focused on Post-Digital framing with the influence of artificial intelligence in education. Dr. Stewart spoke on the norms and risk relating to AI in the field of education. For example, by accepting AI into the world of education it exposes us to certain risks, such as plagiarism.

In my opinion, the influence of artificial intelligence in education is becoming an increasingly large issue relating to plagiarism and misinformation. For example, tools, such as chatGPT and other AI bots, create easily accessible tools for students to have essays, assignments and other tasks completed by these AI bots. Furthermore, many of the resources accessed online must now be checked for the influence of AI relating to their authenticity. Essentially, the influence of AI in university studies is becoming a problem.

This news story by CBC highlights students and faculties concern with the influence of AI.

The second guest speaker, Charlie Watson, focused on the center for accesible learning. Watson spoke about adaptive technology and digital accessibility. For example, he spoke about how students with disabilities can access accesible technology to assist in learning, exams and other methods to make studying at university more accesible for everyone.

My research question: How does digital media impact mental health both positively and negatively?

1st of 4 key research questions: What is digital literacy and why is it important?

This blog post will cover the first research questions relating to digital literacy and why it’s important. Digital literacy is the ability to use technology to evaluate and share information in an increasingly technology dominated world. Digital literacy is concerned with being able to successfully navigate and use technology to complete tasks while also adhering to safety and privacy concerns.

Digital Literacy in British Columbia

Following the COVID-19 pandemic BC’s post secondary and K-12 school system created a digital literacy framework to assist educators on how to safely and successfully teach online and how to integrate their classrooms with technology.

The BC Post-Secondary Digital Literacy Framework focuses on promoting the use of digital classrooms and environments. Integrating technology promotes accessibility by allowing people to access their learning materials from wherever they can access their computer/tablet/phone. The Digital Literacy Framework also covers concerns of privacy and security while teaching online.

The BC Digital Literacy Framework for K-12 focuses on providing education and digital skills to educators in the K – 12 system. Within the framework it provides a detailed account on how to integrate a classroom with online technologies, like technology-mediated communication.

5 Practical ways teachers can encourage digital literacy in the classroom. (n.d.). https://vibe.us/ca/blog/digital-literacy/

Why is Digital Literacy important?

The article titled “What is Digital Literacy?” by Liana Loewus focuses on the consumption and creation of online content and why it’s important to be digitally literate. For Loewus, consuming digital content requires you to understand where the content you are consuming is coming from. For example, with the increase in mis/dis – information, it’s essential to understand the source of the content you are consuming to insure its integrety. Creating content also requires you to be digitally literate because of issues such as privacy and its risks. For example, digital content you post publicly online can be accessed by future employers, friends, familys and more, so it’s essential that you are aware of the risks that come with posting content online attached with your name.

Loewus, L. (2024, June 10). What is digital literacy? Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/what-is-digital-literacy/2016/11

This blog post for the EDCI 136 course will cover week 3’s lectures including lectures from Jeff Hopkins which focused on the inquiry process and Mike Caulfield which focused on the SIFT methodology and misinformation.

Jeff Hopkins spoke about the inquiry process for university students. Hopkins talked about the openness of students and the errors that students can make by lacking asking questions and inquiring about subjects on a deeper level. For example, Hopkins said that some students don’t take certain classes because they may lack knowledge in that subject, however, being able to inquire and gain knowledge on an unfamiliar topic is essential for developing a strong inquiry process in education and learning. Furthermore, by taking unfamiliar subjects it allows students to develop unfamiliar skills, such as a computer science major taking english courses to develop stronger communication, writing, and citation skills.

Mike Caulfield spoke on misinformation and disinformation and the SIFT Method. Mis/dis-information is a prominent issue with verification on the internet relating to the spreading and publication of false information. Caulfield used the example of how we previously received information from known sources in a physical world, such as receiving the morning newspaper from your local publication company. Presently, due to the internet, information sources need to be judged and evaluated because there are so many papers and information sources to be found.

Misinformation refers to incorrect information that is not intended to be wrong, essentially, it’s information that is mistakenly incorrect. Disinformation is false information that is intentionally wrong and intended to manipulate and guide people/organizations in the wrong direction.

The SIFT method by Caulfield is an evaluation method designed to analyze and educate yourself against mis/dis-information. The acronym SIFT, stands for Stop, Investigate the source, Find better Coverage and Trace claims/quotes/media to the original context

Week 8 of EDCI 136 included lecture from two guest speakers, Dr. Remi Kalir who spoke on social curation and annotation, and Jessica Mussell who spoke about the software Zotero for curation and citations. This blog post will cover and summarize information from these lectures.

Social Curation is the process of sharing organized content with a relevant audience on social media platfroms. The benefits of social curation allows the creators of content to generate and grow a brand, attract new followers and to gain awarness of the content you are promoting.

Annotation for Kalir is a note added to a text which shows where you stand in a situation and also to contest and challenge the social context of text in the real world. Kalir used the example of a stop sign with text added below which stated that the stop sign in on indigenous land, essentially challenging the text (the stop sign) with a social issue (infrastructure being built on stolen indigenous land). Another example of annotation Kalir used was the photo of a former confederate statue being highlighted with projections of Black Lives Matter and a photo of George Floyd. Essentially, Kalir is trying too argue that annotations can be used to challenge social issues.

Scalzo, J. L. (2020). Photograph of George Floyd projected Robert E. Lee statue. shutterstock. Richmond, Virgina, U.S.A.

Jessica Mussell spoke on the software Zotero which assists students and professionals in citing sources, such as bibliographies. Zotero is an open access website which is designed to save times when citing articles. Zotero can be used to organize different articles by importing, images, papers etc and provide proper citations ranging from different forms of citations, such as APA and chicago.

In my opinion, generative AI tools can have a positive influence on university studies, rather then a negative one. For example, AI tools can be used for research purposes and improve accuracy through tools such as grammar checkers and citation machines. It’s important to educate students on how to use these tools the correct way, rather then avoid using the tools altogether.

This video is a great example of how students can use AI tools to improve their studies by using generative AI. One benefit of using these tools could be helping language studies.

This blog post will focus on Week 6, which covers Artificial Intelligence, Academic Integrity and Copyright. This post will cover the two lectures from Dr. David Wiley and Lucas Wright and the article titled “Speculative Futures on ChatGPT and Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)”.

Dr. David Wiley – Open and AI

Wiley begin his lecture by speaking on the influence of the overreach of copyright in the modern technology based world relating to sharing materials.

Wiley speaks on Open Licensing, which essentially means that the content, such as textbooks, articles, academic sources open and available for anybody to use. Wiley said this was positive because it allowed people to use, share, and create content which created a more accessible and legal framework for education.

Open’s original problem with copyrighting everything in the world created issues because of the mass amount of content that is created and only about 1% of that content would actually need to be protected with copyright law due to commercialization. In context of educational resources, Open was created to allow access and sharing of these materials without dealing with the complications of copyright material when there is no context of commercialization.

Lucas Wright – Generative A.I.

Lucas Wright spoke on generative A.I. which includes tools such as ChatGPT and it’s influence on day-to-day work. Wright showed the example of a custom GPT where you can upload different documents and customize the commands to the bot. One example showed was the email responder, in which the bot will summarize and respond to emails. Creating different agents creates different methods to efficiently and accessible methods for time consuming tasks. One interesting point brought up by Wright was questioning if A.I. will evolve and/or change how we communicate. For example, if we are all using A.I. to respond to email and people are using A.I. to respond, then it brings up questions such as why we are using these forms of communication.

Another tool Wright provided was NotebookLM, which is a product by google that takes articles and creates content based on commands and prompts provided by the user. Wright’s example was uploading academic articles and using it to create exercises for students, based on the compilation of articles provided.

One research tool provided by Wright was called Gemini, which is another product created by google. By providing the search engine a prompt, it scans academic articles and provides information based on the prompts. Wright says that it provides reliable sources and more in-depth searches when compared to ChatGPT.

Speculative Futures on ChatGPT and Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)

This paper by the “Asian Journal of Distance Education”, focuses on the role of Artificial Intelligence and its role in education in the present and the future. This paper highlights that A.I. has made signigicant stride in completing tasks on behalf of educators and because of the lack of quality control, educators should reevaulate how A.I. and people should collaborate in an educational setting.

The paper suggests that with the new development of A.I. there should be an established literacy that helps educators understand the advantages and limitations of A.I. For example, A.I. is excellent for responding to emails and completing mundain taks, such as summarizing and simple responses, but limitations should be set because there are still errors in A.I. and the influences of ethics and sustaiblity should be considered.

Week 5 of this course focused on Open Licensing and Open Educational Resources. This blog post will focus on two lectures from Week 5 with Cable Green and Dr. Inba Kehoe

Cable Green – Open Licensing and Open Education Resources

In the video lecture with Cable Green, he spoke on the changes of communication in industries following the influence of the internet, affordable computing, and creative comments.

The creation of the internet created the issues of copyright and sharing materials in a digital world. Because people were able to access content shared online anywhere in the world, it created a demand for licensing and copyrighted material. Furthermore, it created a market for Open Licensing and Open educational resources.

Affordable computing allowed more and more people to access the internet and the digital contents on the internet. Affordable computing includes the creation of affordable and accessible devices, such as computers and phones which allowed more accessible means for people to access digital data.

Creative comments tackled the issue of copyright. Essentially this issue allowed an open license which created a free, open and legal content on the internet allowing people to

Green also speaks how these changes with influential in sciences for the impact of data accessiblity and sharing. For example, universities operate under budgets, which prior to the internet and Open Licensing, restricted the amount of information and data universities could access. Following Open Licensing and Open Educational resources it allowed the sharing and access of scientific data and data sharing which created a more affordable and faster method for universities to access and share their studies. Essentially, creative commons manage these licenses and works worldwide on educating and sharing their licensing and policies, such as journalism and climate change.

Dr. Inba Kehoe – Copyright Material

Dr. Inba Kehoe spoke on Copyright material, Fair Dealing, and Licenses. The implications of Kehoe’s lecture were how to manage the posting and sharing of content online with considerations for the materials that you are using and it’s copyright of that material. Kehoe also spoke on Fair Dealing, Publicly Accessible work, and Copyright Aspects.

Kehoe uses the example of sharing artwork, essay or a podcast online, saying that as a student once you share material you’ve created as a fixed form, they are automatically copyrighted to you in Canada. By providing a date and a copyright symbol it allows others to cite your work. Kehoe mentioned that you should consider how your content could be used and under the circumstances they are being shared.

Fair dealing is the consideration of using a portion of others copyrighted material. For example, using only 10% of a song that you add to your podcast requires you to copyright this and

Publicly Accessible means if you see it on the internet you must still check if the author will allow you to use it. You can find this in the terms of use which is often found on the site which provides guidelines for the use of the content. If you use the content for non-commercial use, it does still require to be cited in the work that you are using their content.

Copyright has two aspects, economics and moral rights. Economics is simply the aspect of buying/selling content for the purpose of commercial use. Moral rights mean that using someone else’s content and realigning it without the permission of the owner of the content can create legal issues. For example, if you were to take someone content and use if for immoral purposes without their permission, it can open you up to legal ramifications

BC Post-Secondary Digital Literacy Framework: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/post-secondary-education/institution-resources-administration/digital-learning-strategy/bc_post-secondary_digital_literacy_framework.pdf

This reading focuses on educating and enhancing digital literacy skills for post-secondary educators across British Columbia. This document seems to focus on providing tools and knowledge about how to educate people in an online classroom because of how guarded people were when classes were online during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I found through this reading that it promotes access and the use of digital classrooms and environments, not only because the world is moving towards a more tech-oriented world, but also because it creates a more accessible learning environment.

BC Digital Literacy Framework (K12): https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/kindergarten-to-grade-12/teach/teaching-tools/digital-literacy-framework.pdf

Similarly, I found this reading to focus on providing education and digital literacy skills to educators in the K-12 system. This document provides guidelines on how to safely and successfully integrate a classroom with online technologies, such as technology-mediated communication and collaboration and technology operation and concepts.

This Digital Literacy Framework also provides a comprehensive list of tools and resources that allowed educators to teach online following the COVID-19 pandemic. This document provides many educational strategies and knowledge for someone who has little or no digital literacy background but provides them with resources to successfully integrate technology into the classroom.

My Reflection

One of my biggest takeaways from Week 4 was the eight competencies provided in the BC Post-Secondary Digital Literacy Framework because of the structured approach to educating educators on digital literacy. The competencies include:

1. Ethical & Legal
2. Technology
3. Information Literacy
4. Digital Scholarships
5. Communication & Collaboration
6. Creation & Curation
7. Digital Wellbeing
8. Community Based Learning

Within the Digital Literacy Framework and the competencies, it allows educators to reflect on the role of technology in learning. For example, it calls for critical engagement with digital tools to promote lifelong learning and reflective thinking.

I found this portion interesting because the competencies affect my current education at the University of Victoria. Much of my education from 2022 to 2024 has shifted more and more to online resources, such as switching from physical textbooks to online readings. This has greatly impacted me in a positive manner because many classes have provided a more affordable and accessible method to complete my education.