Insights on Digital Media and Higher Education

Summer break is almost upon us, but how can we encourage students to continue using the skills, methodologies, and critical frameworks they have learned throughout the school year? Internships are a key solution to this question, in addition to being valuable assets to students’ professionalization and preparation for entering the workforce. 

Yet, not all internships are created equal. News media and educational magazines alike are rife with horror stories of unpaid internships that equate to little more than exploitation and glorified slave labor, all under the guise of gaining course credits and networking opportunities. This has never been more true than in the media, communications, and journalism fields—areas of specialty that often highlight the value of mentoring and apprenticeship.

How does the media we use in our daily lives translate to digital literacy in the classroom, and why is there such a disconnect between curricular and extracurricular technology use for both students and educators? These are the questions we found ourselves asking after examining the results of our State of Digital Media in Higher Education Report.

As a number of publications reported last month, including Education Dive, Inside Higher Ed, and Campus Technology, one of the most surprising takeaways from our survey findings was the discrepancy between students’ and educators’ estimation of their digital media know-how.

What interest could educators possibly have in the TED model for educational discourse? In recent months, we’ve written at length about the reasons students will underappreciate and undervalue their time in higher education, from vexation with the lack of technological resources on campus to a lack of faith in their instructors’ knowledge or passion. Regardless of the cause, the effect is that students are increasingly less engaged in their classrooms while many educators note that it is harder than ever to meaningfully connect with their pupils.

Last week we began our two-week feature on frustrations with digital media surfaced by our educational survey, the State of Digital Media in Higher Education Report. The report focused on gaining insight into how campuses are implementing digital technologies and what barriers, if any, prevented them from doing so. As we noted last week, our findings revealed two common trends and frustrations, voiced by both educators and students alike. The first was a common consensus among respondents that improving classroom technologies and resources were still too difficult to locate and use. This week we’ll be focusing on the second trend our survey highlighted: the problems many educators encounter when trying to successfully learn about and implement digital technologies in the classroom.

Last month we released our first State of Digital Media in Higher Education Report, which focused on gaining insight into how campuses are implementing digital technologies and what barriers, if any, prevented them from doing so. Our findings revealed two common trends and frustrations, noted by both educators and students alike, which we’ll be unpacking in a two-part series. In this first part of the series, we’ll examine the first frustration: Students, teachers, and staff all continue to be disappointed by the hurdles involved in locating and accessing digital resources.

The 2016 State of Digital Media in Higher Education Survey, gathered insights from more than 300 current educators, administrators, and students that hail from more than 200 universities. The survey examined topics critical to today’s universities, including digital literacy, media usage and access, and copyright compliance.

VideoBlocks EDU, the premier provider of royalty-free digital media for higher education, today announced the launch of its market research survey: The 2016 State of Digital Media in Higher Education to further advance its mission of delivering creative freedom to U.S. and international college campuses while encouraging the ethical use of digital content.

What exactly do we mean when we use the phrase “digital literacy”—is it a skill that can be taught, a set of tools to be used, or an educational framework for engaging students?