Digital Skills Hub (DiSH)

Digital Skills Hub (DiSH) Carl Grant, Dean (Interim), OU Libraries

Tara Carlisle, Head, Digital Scholarship Lab

▪  The need for a Digital Skills Hub •  Related efforts internationally, nationally, locally

▪  Charter for the Digital Skills Hub •  Partners •  Components / Events / Roll-out schedule •  Scaling DiSH

▪  Lessons learned thus far ▪  Conclusion

Agenda

●  A “culture of fear, distrust, tribalism, shaming and strife.”

●  Weave Project @ Aspen Institute: “What can we do today and tomorrow to replace loneliness, division and distrust with relationship, community and purpose?”

●  “This problem is being solved by people around the country, at the local level, who are building community and weaving the social fabric.”

●  DiSH is one of those local level efforts

Need for the Digital Skills Hub?

21 leading universities join to: “train the next generation of software engineers, policymakers, civic leaders and social justice advocates to develop, regulate and use technology for the public good.”

Need for the Digital Skills Hub?

“We spend a ton of time telling students, ‘If you care about civil rights in America today, or if you care about criminal justice reform, you have to understand technology and speak up about how technology is being deployed,’”

-  Alexandra Givens, executive director of the Institute for Technology Law and Policy at Georgetown Law School.

Need for the Digital Skills Hub?

Need for the Digital Skills Hub?

“Finally, even ostensibly fair, neutral A.I. has the potential to worsen disparities if its implementation has disproportionate effects for certain groups.” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/opinion/ai-bias-healthcare.html

Need for the Digital Skills Hub?

https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-10-year-meme-challenge/

Need for the Digital Skills Hub?

https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2018/4/vr-and-ar-the-ethical-challenges-ahead?utm_source=Informz&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=ER#_zsb73Le1_zlUFAT5

“However, immersive technologies will raise new ethical challenges, from issues of access, privacy, consent, and harassment to future scenarios we are only now beginning to imagine.”

Need for the Digital Skills Hub?

Critical Analysis Agility

Adaptability Agency

To teach next generation digital skills in using information and existing/emerging technologies

Strada Institute for the Future of Work conducted a study of government data and online profiles to examine “the need for human + skills as we move into the future of work.” https://www.economicmodeling.com/robot-ready-reports/

Need for the Digital Skills Hub?

http://www.nextlibraries.org/2018/03/in-libraries-we-trust/

Need for the Digital Skills Hub?

Help community members to be:

▪  Critical users of information and technology ▪  Responsible creators of information and technologies ▪  Be responsive and adaptive to technological advances ▪  Empowered to utilize existing and emerging

technologies to tell their stories on their terms. ▪  Aware of the racial, ethical and moral issues related to

using existing and emerging technologies

Charter for the Digital Skills Hub - Goals

•  What are the benefits of this technology? •  Who realizes those benefits? •  What are the pitfalls - how could it cause harm? •  What does security and privacy mean in today’s

digital landscape? •  What do we need to know about FB other social

media?

Charter for the Digital Skills Hub - Goals

Teach community members to ask these questions:

▪  OU Libraries ▪  Office of Digital Learning ▪  OU Information Technology ▪  Gaylord College of

Journalism & Mass Communication

Charter - Partners (Collaborative Stakeholders)

Office of Digital

Learning

Journalism and Mass

Communication

Information Technology

OU Libraries

Charter - Partners (DiSH Team)

Carl, OU Libraries Ashley, OU Libraries Ralph, Journalism Kevin, OU IT

Zenobie, CLIR Fellow

John, Digital Learning Tara, OU Libraries

Claire, OU Libraries Sai, OU Libraries

Keegan, Digital Learning

▪  Digital citizenship (responsible use of online resources)

▪  Algorithms (particularly detecting discriminatory algorithms)

▪  Artificial intelligence •  Including workshop

building Google AI kits

▪  3D/virtual reality and augmented reality

▪  Blockchain technologies ▪  Robotics ▪  Privacy and ethics in the

digital environment ▪  Facts and trust in the digital

environment ▪  Copyright issues in the digital

environment

Charter - Events (planned)

Workshops and presentations offered by experts in the field who also address racial, moral & ethical considerations of how we use and create technology & information.

Components -- Events

Components -- Events -- Digital Citizenship/Literacy

●  Rapidly changing technologies

●  Bad actors mastering new technologies

●  Decreased funding for trusted resources

●  Consumers are feed false information

●  Lack of critical analysis ●  Low level knowledge of

how information is created and disseminated

Disinformation Disruption Distrust

●  Conflicting information and false reports leads to distrust

●  Inability to counter false information that goes viral

●  Insecurity because of low tech knowledge

Digital Literacy

The ability to use information and communication technologies to find,

evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.”

- ALA Digital Literacy Task Force

Components -- Events -- Digital Citizenship/Literacy

February: Love Your Data Month - Science Librarians + OUIT + Digital Humanities March: Get Creative! Online Exhibits, Digital Storytelling April: Media Literacy: Social Media & Mass Communication May: Evolution of Virtual Reality - Emerging Technologies Librarians

Components -- Events

●  Lightning Talks ●  Digital Poster Sessions ●  Hands-on Workshops ●  Discussion Panels

Components -- Events

▪  What are the pressing challenges and opportunities as we work with data?

▪  Who owns the data you work with?

▪  Are there specific skills or tools that you think are especially important in your field now?

▪  Which skills are most likely to change in your field over time?

Discussion Panels

Components -- Events

Building AI devices ▪  Used Google AI kits ▪  Assemble components

into working units. Reusable.

▪  First session was for Library team members only.

Components -- Events

Components -- Feedback

Flexibility - meet community members where they are at their time of need.

Podcasting - medium that students use - whether creating their own or listening

[website screenshot]

A cross-campus initiative to help students be informed about emerging technologies and services available on campus both online & in-person.

Components -- DiSH Website

dsh.oucreate.com/dev

Components -- DiSH Website

●  Website ●  OSF Framework to serve as

repository for all components, including event materials:

■  PPT’s, ■  Handouts, ■  Worksheets, ■  LibGuides, etc.

●  Github (any applicable source code)

Components -- Framework -- Scaling DiSH

Incentives for partners (campus and profession) to collaborate

▪  Faster startup ▪  Reduces duplication ▪  Collaboration / Shared resources ▪  Streamlines communication ▪  Amplifies the message ▪  Builds a stronger community

- Varun Gaba UnSplash

Components -- Framework -- Scaling DiSH

Charter – Roll out schedule

Charge – July 2018 Start workshops – Oct 2018

OU Libraries DiSH Working Group– August

2018

Charge – July 2018 DiSH kickoff

reception – Sept 2018

Campus-wide Committee formed

– August 2018

Original Schedule

Revised Schedule Research Bazaar Disc Panels & DiSH website

– Oct 2018

Spring Semester Kickoff – Jan 2019

Designed Thematic approach – Feb 2019

DiSH Website using OSF Framework– May

201

DiSH full launch – Fall 2019

Cont’d

▪  More collaborators means: •  Less speed •  Stronger base •  More “selling” of vision

▪  Political awareness ▪  Asking people to attend events requires give up “personal”

time, so requires: •  Engaging content •  A clear return on their investment (passports, digital

skills fellowship, course credit)

Lessons Learned

Comments / Questions? E: carl.grant@ou.edu E: tara.carlisle@ou.edu

Thank You

Conclusion