A RICH LEARNING EXPERIENCE
A week-long opportunity to inquire, collaborate & create while you explore
digital literacy pedagogy and advance your own digital literacy competencies
WHAT IT IS
The Summer Institute in Digital Literacy is the world's longest-running professional development program in digital literacy. The program is a seven day interdisciplinary gathering designed to energize and celebrate educators, librarians, and digital media professionals who work in K-12 schools or higher education contexts.
During this intensive 42-hour program, you will get inspired by experts in literacy, learning, media, and technology and have frequent opportunities to advance your digital literacy competencies through hands-on, minds-on learning experiences. Participate in meaningful conversations and workshops as you develop collaborative relationships and learn innovative strategies for navigating digital literacy, media literacy legislation, and other new curriculum initiatives. Create a meaningful digital resource that you can implement or use in your own work context.
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Identity & Expression: How can inquiry and/or digital storytelling empower individuals or communities to find and share their authentic voices?
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Creativity and Medium: How does the digital format - video, podcast, blog, or social media, shape the way stories are told and received?
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Connection & Empathy: In what ways can digital storytelling and other technologies help amplify voices that are often unheard or marginalized?
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Creating & Learning: How can creating and analyzing digital resources strengthen critical thinking, media literacy, and deeper understanding of content?
For 2025, we will first meet virtually in June across four sessions of keynotes, workshops, and conversations. Then, you'll have time to mull over ideas that inspired you before returning in July for three full days of inquiry, collaboration, creation, and learning at the University of Rhode Island's Nursing Education Center in downtown Providence, RI. Reflective walking tours through the city and evening social events will ensure we make the most of our time together.
To align with our 2025 theme of "Finding Our Voices, Sharing Our Stories", we will spotlight these topics and related questions:
CORE COMPONENTS OF THE SUMMER INSTITUTE
Core Elements
Inquiry, collaboration, creation, leadership, and learning are some of the core elements in the framework that will guide your work this week. Work elbow-to-elbow with faculty, other participants, and a dyad partner to experience how "Everyone learns from everyone."
Keynotes & Digging Deeper Sessions
Gain knowledge and insights from Daily Keynote Sessions, then dig in deep to apply your new knowledge with hands-on, minds-on Digging Deeper Sessions, which include engaging experiences and time for conversation and reflection.
Conversation Sparks
Conversation sparks are fairly unstructured sessions that provide a place to have meaningful dialogue with colleagues. They provide a place for us to re-discover our passions and to find new opportunities to make a difference.
Workshops
Design Studio
Reflection
Workshops are one-time 50-minute sessions that offer hands-on exploration of a particular topic. In these sessions, you will deepen your understanding of that topic and also walk away with practical ideas and tools.
Daily Design Studio sessions provide the time and space for you to plan and create while working with a dyad partner to leverage the "Power of Two". Work elbow-to-elbow with faculty and other participants in small groups to develop an inquiry project relevant to your needs.
Each day of the Summer Institute, we take time to reflect on our learning, using the Flip Reflection process. Reflective walking tours through the city and evening social events will ensure we make the most of our time together.
Explore the videos below to learn more about our core values, find out what to expect during our time together, and hear from past participants. Scroll down to view the schedule for 2025 (coming soon!), key components, and outcomes you will work toward all week long.
At the Summer Institute in Digital Literacy, everyone learns from everyone!
By the end of this unique professional learning experience, you will:
More than 80% of Summer Institute in Digital Literacy participants rate it as the "best ever" when asked to compare the program to other forms of professional development they have experienced in their careers
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Share ideas for how to integrate digital inquiry and creative production into K-12 classrooms, libraries, and/or teacher education contexts through intentional planning, experiential learning, collaboration, and innovative assessments of student learning.
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Design and reflect upon culturally responsive teaching practices that empower learners as you examine the intersection between digital and media literacy, social justice, and democracy.
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Examine how literacy is changing as a result of media and technology and the implications of this cultural and technological shift for teaching and learning at all levels.
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Learn concrete strategies for cultivating environments where all students have equal opportunities to learn, share their voices, and work toward meaningful, authentic, and relevant goals.
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Build new networks and create new visions for “doing” education in changing and challenging times as you engage in daily conversations throughout the week.
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Enlarge your identity as a leader in digital literacy as you apply your learning to meet your specific needs.
