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Aisha Walker

Thinking onscreen

12 March 2015
by Aisha
1 Comment

Digital literacy or digital competence?

The terms ‘digital literacy’ or ‘digital literacies’ have been in use for some time now to refer to the skills required for using digital tools. Although in common parlance people often say “I’m not computer-literate” to claim that they don’t … Continue reading

5 March 2015
by Aisha
1 Comment

The authority of writing

I stumbled across a supermarket leaflet on its way to the recycling bin.   The leaflet was promoting post-new year ‘healthy’ special offers such as fruit chunks and yogurt-coated flakes. Leaving aside the question of why a leaflet dated early January … Continue reading

4 July 2014
by Aisha
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Interviewing the literature: a tip for students

All academic research starts with a literature review and this is one of the big headaches for students writing theses or dissertations. Tutors tell students to ‘read critically’ and sometimes talk about “interrogating the literature” which sounds terrifying (perhaps you … Continue reading

6 December 2013
by Aisha
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The ‘PowerPoint’ paradigm

 At a recent conference I asked casually “how can we escape the tyranny of PowerPoint?” and the answer I received was “Well, you tried… with Prezi”.  However, the question wasn’t about PowerPoint per se but about the ubiquity of presentation … Continue reading

1 October 2013
by Aisha
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The problem with blogs

Academic staff routinely advise students against citing blogs in their essays. This can be a problem for students as Google and other search engines often return results for blogs and for other ‘grey literature’ above results for peer-reviewed articles unless … Continue reading

29 August 2013
by Aisha
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Academic Hygiene

Academic hygiene (Walker, in press) is particularly important when students are working extensively with digital resources.  With paper-based study, students who do not practice good academic hygiene might find themselves searching the library bookshelves on assignment-submission day for the book(s) … Continue reading