Fantastic Futures 2024 - Day 2 - Session 18
DECA Communications DECA Communications

Fantastic Futures 2024 - Day 2 - Session 18

Emerging AI tools have seen use in recent years as a way to shortcut learning, potentially enabling students and teachers to customise lessons and overcome socio-economic and language barriers by providing on-demand access. Kara Kennedy offers a vision of what AI literacy looks like for librarians and their colleagues working in a low-resource educational environment servicing a high number of low-socioeconomic, multicultural customers.

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From silence to signal: Nigerian women building digital pathways to justice
DECA Communications DECA Communications

From silence to signal: Nigerian women building digital pathways to justice

Over the past years, I have had the privilege of visiting communities and interacting with women across Nigerian states. During my most recent visit, between July and August this year, I toured Bauchi, Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt and Kaduna, where women are rewriting what connectivity means in their lives. Sitting with them in the community ICT hub, under the Trees and Learning Circle, I have seen how access to technology can become more than a technical matter; it can become a bridge to confidence, agency and solidarity. 

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Children want to shape their rights in the digital world
DECA Communications DECA Communications

Children want to shape their rights in the digital world

Children represent approximately one-third of all internet users globally, according to UNICEF, with many routinely accessing digital platforms and emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, from increasingly young ages.

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Your rights in the digital world
DECA Communications DECA Communications

Your rights in the digital world

In 2021, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child wrote a very important guide to explain to everyone that children’s rights apply in the digital world.

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The missing link: Reclaiming connectivity through human rights
DECA Communications DECA Communications

The missing link: Reclaiming connectivity through human rights

Despite decades of global efforts to bridge the digital divide, 32% of the world’s population remains offline, with the most marginalised communities disproportionately affected. While multilateral organisations and governments recognise internet connectivity as fundamental to human rights – particularly freedom of expression and access to information – their solutions persistently fail to match the scale and urgency of the challenge.

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The World Internet Project in New Zealand (AUT)
DECA Communications DECA Communications

The World Internet Project in New Zealand (AUT)

This report presents the findings of the ninth iteration of the World Internet Project – New Zealand (WIP-NZ 2025), a nationally representative study that explores the evolving role of the internet and digital technologies in the lives of New Zealanders. The survey was conducted between March and May 2025 and collected responses from over 2,000 internet users. The report examines internet accessibility, artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, attitudes towards digital technologies, and awareness of their broader societal and environmental implications.

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Challenging the Myth of the Digital Native: A Narrative Review
DECA Communications DECA Communications

Challenging the Myth of the Digital Native: A Narrative Review

Nurses are increasingly engaging with digital technologies to enhance safe, evidence-based patient care. Digital literacy is now considered a foundational skill and an integral requirement for lifelong learning, and includes the ability to search efficiently, critique information and recognise the inherent risk of bias in information sources. However, at many universities, digital literacy is assumed.

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Creating a Connected Future Through Information and Digital Literacy: Strategic Directions at The University of Queensland LibraryFootnote
DECA Communications DECA Communications

Creating a Connected Future Through Information and Digital Literacy: Strategic Directions at The University of Queensland LibraryFootnote

As knowledge-intensive institutions, universities face many challenges resulting from today’s highly dynamic technological environment. While the ways in which learners and researchers engage with digital information resources are complex and diverse, there is a keen awareness of the varying levels of information and digital literacy skills amongst students and academic staff. A university-wide approach to skills development, involving all stakeholders, has been recommended as a valid approach to addressing some of the issues. At the University of Queensland, the Library has led the way with the development of a future-focused strategic framework for information and digital literacy to help shape the University’s academic policies and practices. After reviewing the principles that underpin the strategic framework (collaboration, alignment, innovation, sustainability and evaluation), the paper presents some of the key strategies which have been introduced to encourage the development of digital skills in the contexts of undergraduate teaching and learning, digital scholarship and eResearch. It is argued that there is great potential for library staff to extend their reach and serve as digital facilitators, connectors and collaborators, making a significant contribution to successful outcomes in many areas of contemporary academic life.

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