Today I am at the Scottish Government for the Digital and Information Literacy Forum 2017.
Introduction from Jenny Foreman, Scottish Government: Co-chair of community of practice with Cleo Jones (who couldn’t be here today). Welcome to the 2017 Digital and Information Literacy Forum!
Scottish Government Digital Strategy – Cat Macaulay, Head of User Research and Service Design, Scottish Government
I am really excited to speak to you today. For me libraries have never just been about books, but about information and bringing people together. At high school our library was split between 3rd and 4th year section and a 5th and 6th year section, and from the moment I got there I was desperate to get into the 5th and 6th year section! It was about place and people and knowledge. My PhD later on was on interaction design and soundscapes, but in the context of the library and seeking information… And that morphed into a project on how journalists yse information at The Scotsman – and the role of the library and the librarian in their clippings library. In Goffman terms it was this backstage space for journalists to rehearse their performances. There was talk of the clippings library shutting down and I argued against that as it was more than just those clippings.
So, that’s the personal bit, but I’ll turn to the more formal bit here… I am looking forward to discussions later, particularly the panel on Fake News. Information is crucial to allowing people to meaningfully, equally and truly participate in democracy, and to be part of designing that. So, the imporatnce of digital literacy is crucial to participation in democracy. And for us in the digital directorate, it is a real priority – for reaching citizens and for librarians and information professionals to support that access to information and participation.
We first set out a digital strategy in 2011, but we have been refreshing our strategy and about putting digital at the heart of what we do. Digital is not about technology, it’s a cultural issue. We moved before from agrarian to industrial society, and we are now in the process of moving from an industrial to a digital society. Aiming to deliver inclusive economic growth, reform public services, tackle inequalities and empower communities, and prepare people for the future workplace. Digital and information literacy are core skills for understanding the world and the future.
So our first theme is the Digital Economy. We need to stimulate innovation and investment, we need to support digital technologies industr, and we need to increase digital maturity of all businesses. Scotland is so dependent on small businesses and SMEs that we need our librarians and information professionals to be able to support that maturity of all businesses.
Our second theme is Data and Innovation. For data we need to increase public trust in holding data securely and using/sharing appropriately. I have a long term medical issue and the time it takes to get appointments set up, to share information between people so geographically close to each other – across the corridor. That lack of trust is core to why we still rely on letters and faxes in these contexts.
In terms of innovation, CivTech brings together the public sector teams and tech start-ups to develeop solutions to real problems, and to grow and expand services. We want to innovate and learn from the wider tech and social media context.
The third theme is Digital Public Services, the potential to simplify and standardise ways of working. Finding common technologies/platforms build and procured once. And design services with citizens to meet their needs. Information literacy skills and critical questioning are at the heart of this. You have to have that literacy to really understand the problems, and to begin to be looking at addressing that, and co-designing.
The fourth theme is Connectivity. Improving superfast broadband, improving coverage in rural areas, increasing the 4G coverage.
The fifth theme is Skills. We need to build a digitally skilled nation. I spent many years in academia – no matter how “digital native” we might assume them, actually we’ve assumed essentially that because someone can drive a car, they can build a car. We ALL need support for finding information, how to judge it and how to use it. We all need to learn and keep on learning. We also need to promote diversity – ensuring we have more disabled people, more BAME people, more women, working in these areas, building these solutions… We need to promote and enhance that, to ensure everyone’s needs are reflected. Friends working in the third sector in Dundee frequently talk about the importance of libraries to their service users, libraries are crucial to supporting people with differing needs.
The sixth theme is Participation. We need to enable everybody to share in the social, economic and democractic opportunities of digital. We need to promote inclusion and participation. That means everyone participating.
And our final theme (seven) is Cyber Security. That is about the global reputation for Scotland as a secure place to work, learn and do business. That’s about security, but it is also about trust and addressing some of those issues I talked about earlier.
So, in conclusion, this is a strategy for Scotland, not just Scottish Government. We want to be a country that uses digital to maximum effect, to enable inclusion, to build the economy, to positively deliver for society. It is a living document and can grow and develop. Collective action is needed to ensure nobody is left behind; we all remain safe, secure and confident about the future. We all need to promote that information and digital literacy.
Q&A
Q1) I have been involved in information literacy in schools – and I know in schools and colleges that there can be real inconsistency about how things are labeled as “information literacy”, “digital literacy”, and “digital skills”. I’m slightly concerned there is only one strand there – that digital skills can be about technology skills, not information literacy.
A1) I echo what you’ve just said. I spent a year in a Life Sciences lab in a Post Doc role studying their practice. We were working on a microscopy tool… And I found that the meaning of the word “image” was understood differently by Life Scientists and Data Scientists. Common terminology really matter. And indeed semantic technologies enable us to do that in new ways. But it absolutely matters.
Q2, Kate SVCO) We are using a digital skills framework developed that I think is also really useful to frame that.
A2) I’m familiar with that work and I’d agree. Stripping away complexity and agree on common terms and approaches is a core focus of what we are doing.
Q3) We have been developing a digital skills framework for colleges and for the student lifecycle. I have been looking at the comprehensive strategy for schools and colleges by Welsh Government’s… Are there plans for similar?
A3) I know there has been work taking place but I will take that back.
Q4) I thought that the “Participation” element was most interesting here. Information literacy is key to enabling participation… Say what you like about Donald Trump but he has made the role of information literacy in democracy very vital and visible. Scotland is in a good place to support information literacy – there are many in this room have done great work in this area – but it needs resourcing to support it.
A4) My team focuses on how we design digital tools and technologies so that people can use them. And we absolutely need to look at how best to support those that struggle. But is not just about how you access digital services… How we describe these things, how we reach out to people… I remember being on a bus in Dundee and hearing a guy saying “Oh, I’ve got a Fairer Scotland Consultation leaflet… What the fuck is a Consultation?!”. I’ve had some awkward conversations with my teenage boys about Donald Trump, and Fake News. I will follow up with you afterwards – I really welcome a conversation about these issues. At the moment we are designing a whole new Social Security framework right now – not a thing most other governments have had to do – and so we really have to understand how to make that clear.
Health Literacy Action Plan Update – Blythe Robertson, Policy Lead, Scottish Government
The skills, confidence, knowledge and understanding to interact with the health system and maintain good health is essentially what we mean in Health Literacy. Right now there is a huge focus in health policy on “the conversation”. And that’s the conversation between policy makers and practitioners and people receiving health care. There is a model of health and care delivery called “More than Medicine” – this is a memorable house-shaped visual model that brings together organisational processes and arrangements, health and care professionals, etc. At the moment though the patient has to do at least as much as the medical professional, with hoops to jump through – as Cat talked about before…
Instructions can seem easy… But then we can all end up at different places [not blogged: an exercise with paper, folding, eyes closed].
Back when computers first emerged you needed to understand a lot more about computer languages, you had to understand how it worked… It was complex, there was training… What happened? Well rather than trianing everyone, instead they simplified access – with the emergence of the iPad for instance.
So, this is why we’ve been trying to address this with Making it easy: A health literacy action plan for Scotland. And there’s a lot of text… But really we have two images to sum this up… The first (a woman looking at a hurdle… We’ve tried to address this by creating a nation of hurdlers… But we think we should really let people walk through/remove those hurdles.
Some statistics for you: 43% of English working age adults will struggle to understand instructions to calculate a childhood paracetamol dose. There is lot bound up here… Childhood health literacy is important. Another stat/fact: Half of what a person is told is forgotten. And half of what is remembered is incorrect. [sources: several cited health studies which will be on Blythe’s slides]. At the heart of issue is that a lot of information is transmitted… then you ask “Do you understand?” and of course you say “yes”, even if you don’t. So, instead, you need to check information… That can be as simple as rephrasing a question to e.g. “Just so I can check I’ve explained things clearly can you tell me what you’ve understood” or similar.
We did a demonstrator programme in NHS Tayside to test these ideas… So, for instance, if you wander into Nine Wells hospital you’ll see a huge board of signs… That board is blue and white text… There is one section with yellow and blue… That’s for Visual Impairment, because that contrast is easier to see. We have the solution but… People with visual impairment come to other areas of the hospitals. So why isn’t that sign all done in the same way with high contrast lettering on the whole board? We have the solution, why don’t we just provide it across the board. That same hospital send out some appointment letters asking them to comment and tell them about any confusion… And there were many points that that happened. For instance if you need the children’s ward… You need to know to follow signs for Paediatrics first… There isn’t a consistency of naming… Or a consistency of colour. So, for instance Maternity Triage is a sign in red… It looks scary! Colours have different implications, so that really matters. You will be anxious being in hospital – consistency can help reduce the levels of anxiety.
Letters are also confusing… They are long. Some instructions are in bold, some are small notes at the bottom… That can mean a clinic running 20 minutes late… Changing what you emphasise has a huge impact. It allows the health care provision to run more smoothly and effectively. We workshopped an example/mock up letter with the Scottish Conference for Learning Disability. They came up with clear information and images. So very clear to see what is happening, includes an image of where the appointment is taking place to help you navigate – with full address. The time is presented in several forms, including a clock face. And always offer support, even if some will not need it. Always offer that… Filling in forms and applications is scary… For all of us… There has to be contact information so hat people can tell you things – when you look at people not turning up to appointments was that they didn’t know how to contact people, they didn’t know that they could change the appointment, that they wanted to contact them but they didn’t want to make a phone call, or even that because they were already in for treatment they didn’t think they needed to explain why they weren’t at their outpatients appointment.
So, a new action plan is coming called “Making it easier”. That is about sharing the learning from Making it Easy across Scotland. To embed ways to improve health literacy in policy and practice. To develop more health literacy responsive organisations and communities. Design supports and services to better meet people’s health literacy levels. And that latter point is about making services more responsive and easier to understand – frankly I’d like to put myself out of a job!
So, one area I’d like to focus on is the idea of “Connectors” – the role of the human information intermediary, is fundamental. So how can we take those competancies and roll them out across the system… In ways that people can understand… Put people in contact with digital skills, the digital skills framework… Promoting understanding. We need to signpost with confidence, and to have a sense that people can use this kind of information. Looking at librarians as a key source of information that can helps support people’s confidence.
In terms of implementation… We have at (1) a product design and at (3) “Scaled up”. But what is at step (2)? How do we get there… Instead we need to think about the process differently… Starting with (1) a need identified, then a planned structured resources and co-developed for success, and then having it embedded in the system… I want to take the barriers out of the system.
And I’m going to finish with a poem: This is bad enough by Elspeth Murray, from the launch of the cancer information reference group of the South East Scotland Cancer Network 20 January 2016.
Q&A
Q1) I’m from Strathclyde, but also work with older people and was wondering how much health literacy is part of the health and social care integration?
A1) I think ultimately that integration will help, but with all that change it is challenging to signpost things clearly… But there is good commitment to work with that…
Q2) You talked about improving the information – the letters for instance – but is there work more fundamentally questioning the kind of information that goes out? It seems archaic and expensive that appointments are done through posted physical letters… Surely better to have an appointment that is in your diary, that includes the travel information/map….
A2) Absolutely, NHS Lothian are leading on some trial work in this area right now, but we are also improving those letters in the interim… It’s really about doing both things…
Cat) And we are certainly looking at online bookings, and making these processes easier, but we are working with older systems sometimes, and issues of trust as well, so there are multiple aspects to addressing that.
Q3) Some of those issues would be practically identical for educators… Teachers or lecturers, etc…
A3) I think that’s right. Research from University of Maastrict mapped out the 21 areas across Public and Private sectors in which these skills should be embedded… And i Think those three areas of work can be applied across those area… Have to look at design around benefits, we have some hooks around there.
Cat) Absolutely part of that design of future benefits for Scotland.
Panel Discussion – Fake News (Gillian Daly – chair; Lindsay McKrell (Strathclyde); Sean McNamara (CILIPS); Allan Lindsay (Young Scott))
Sean: CILIPS supports the library and information science community in Scotland, including professional development, skills and ethics. Some years ago “information literacy” would have been more about university libraries, but now it’s across the board an issue for librarians. Librarians are less gatekeepers of information, and more about enabling those using their libraries to seek and understand information online, how to understand information and fake news, how to understand the information they find even if they are digitally confident in using the tools they use to access that information.
Allan: Young Scot is Scotland’s natural charity for information literacy. We work closely with young people to help them grow and develop, and influence us in this area. Fake News crops up a lot. A big piece of work we are involved in is he 5 Rights projects, which is about rights online – that isn’t just for young people but significantly about their needs. Digital literacy is key to that. We’ve also worked on digital skills – recently with the Carnegie Trust and the Prince’s Trust. As an information agency we reach people through our website – and we ensure young people are part of creating content in that space.
Lindsay: I’d like to talk about digital literacy as well as Fake News. Digital literacy is absolutely fundamental to supporting citizens to be all that they can be. Accessing information without censorship, and a range of news, research, citizenship test information… That is all part of public libraries service delivery and we need to promote that more. Public libraries are navigators for a huge and growing information resource, and we work with partners in government, in third sector, etc. And our libraries reach outside of working hours and remote areas (e.g. through mobile levels) so we have unique value for policy makers through that range and volume of users. Libraries are also well placed to get people online – still around 20% of people are not online – and public libraries have the skills to support people to go online, gain access, and develop their digital literacy as well. We can help people find various source of information, select between them, to interpret information and compare information. We can grow that with our reading strategies, through study skills and after school sessions. Some libraries have run sessions on fake news, but I’m not sure how well supported thse have been. We are used to displaying interesting books… But why aren’t our information resources similarly well designed and displayed – local filterable resources for instance… Maybe we should do some of this at national level, not just at local council level. SLIC have done some great work, what we need now is digital information with a twist that will really empower citizens and their information literacy…
Gillian Daly: I was wondering, Allan, how do you tackle the idea of the “Digital Native”? This idea of inate skills of young people?
Allan: It comes up all the time… This presumption that young people can just do things digitally… Some are great but many young people don’t have all the skills they need… There are misconceptions from young people themselves about what they can and cannot do… They are on social media, they have phones… But do they have an understanding of how to behave, how to respond when things go wrong… There is a lot of responsibility for all of us that just because young people use these things, doesn’t mean they understand them all. Those misconceptions apply across the board though… Adults don’t always have this stuff sorted either. It’s dangerous to make assumptions about this stuff… Much as it’s dangerous to assume that those from lower income communities are less well informed about these things, which is often not correct at all.
Lindsay: Yes, we find the same… For instance… Young people are confident with social media… But can’t attach a document for instance…
Comment from HE org: Actually there can be learning in both directions at University. Young people come in with a totally different landscape to us… We have to have a dialogue of learning there…
Gillian: Dialogue is absolutely important… How is that being tackled here…
Sean: With school libraries, those skills to transfer from schools to higher education is crucial… But schools are lacking librarians and information professionals and that can be a barrier there… Not just about Fake News but wider misinformation about social media… It’s important that young people have those skills…
Comment: Fake News doesn’t happen by accident… It’s important to engage with IFLA guide to spot that… But I think we have to get into the territory of why Fake News is there, why it’s being done… And the idea of Media and Information Literacy – UNESCO brought those ideas together a few years ago. There is a vibrant GATNO organisation, which would benefit from more Scottish participation.
Allan: We run a Digital Modern Apprenticeship at Young Scot. We do work with apprentices to build skills, discernment and resiliance to understand issues of fake news and origins. A few weeks back a young person commented on something they had seen on social media… At school for me “Media Studies” was derided… I think we are eating our words now… If people had those skills and were equipped to understand that media and creation process. The wider media issues… Fake News isn’t in some box… We have to be able to discern mainstream news as well as “Fake News”. Those skills, confidence, and ability to ask difficult questions to navigate through these issues…
Gillian: I read a very interesting piece by a journalist recently, looking to analyse Fake News and the background to it, the context of media working practice, etc. Really interesting.
Cat: To follow that up… I distinctly remember in 1994 in The Scotsman about the number of times journalists requested clippings that were actually wrong… Once something goes wrong and gets published, it stay there and repopulates… Misquotations happen that way for instance. That sophisticated understanding isn’t about right and wrong and more about the truthfulness of information. In some ways Trump is doing a favour here, and my kids are much more attuned to accuracy now…
Gillian: I think one of the scariest things is that once the myth is out, it is so hard to dispel or get rid of that…
Comment: Glasgow University has a Glasgow Media Group and they’ve looked at these things for years… One thing they published years ago, “Bad News”, looked at for instance the misrepresentation of Trade Unionists in news sources, for a multitude of complex reasons.
Sean: At a recent event we ran we had The Ferret present – those fact checking organisations, those journalists in those roles to reflect that.
Jenny: The Ferret has fact checking on a wonderful scale to reflect the level of fakeness…
Gillian: Maybe we need to recruit some journalists to the Digital and Information Literacy Forum.
And on that, with many nods of agreement, we are breaking for lunch