Canadian Internet Forum:

Digital Literacy Consultation

Halifax, Nova Scotia
November 10, 2010
__________________________________________________________________
This document captures the information from the opening reflection, the exercise of
issue identification (sticky notes), the small group discussions on baskets of issues
and the closing comments and reflection.

Personal Reflection

Participants were asked to consider the question:

“What could/should the future of the internet in Canada be like?”

1. I want to see a repository of reliable free information that can be accessed by all
Canadians regardless of their physical or mental abilities.

2. I see the Internet as a vehicle for promotion of democratic education; one that
encourages and supports the creative economy; a tool that advances human kind in
an open and inclusive way.

3. I feel the Internet should be accessible to all regardless of economic status.

4. I see the Internet as a staple tool for alternative deliveries of face-to-face

educational content. It is an alternative to other options where there are barriers
such as transportation or childcare costs; a tool where people can actually access
educational resources and programs.

5. Canadian voices need to be heard as part of global dialogue. We need platforms

that are accessible – we need to look at breaking down barriers.

6. I want an Internet that is affordable, adaptive and prolific. Given my work, I would
add a community development spin, focussing on the importance of all the tools that
are delivered through the Internet: health care, education, etc.

7. I want to see Internet access for those who wouldn't normally be able to get it.
However, the question participants have been asked to reflect on is flawed, as I
don’t believe that the state has any role in governing the Internet.

8. Copyright is huge for music and other creative works. I believe that something
relating to Internet access as a fundamental right should be considered, similar to
what other countries in the EU have done.

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9. I believe that fun is important; one of the big things is the role of the Internet for
social inclusion and participation, if your friends are on the Internet and you’re not,
you don’t have friends. Access is an opportunity for people to be happy, it is taking
the place of many traditional institutions who attempt to promote social inclusion –
churches, social clubs. Also there is the whole idea of social capital and the role it
plays in innovation, justice. The Internet is a key player, then, in local and global
inclusion

10. The Internet is a tool for connecting people in creative and meaningful ways, but
at the same time, it needs to be discussed widely in terms of what it is doing to us
and to society. We need to talk about digital literacy and the ways we need to adjust
to the new realities we are confronting. At the same time we need to confront some
of the negative aspects, such as alienation and isolation. There are other societal
causes, but we need to consider the role of the Internet as well. I see the Internet as
having the potential to be empowering and engaging – but we need to move beyond
talking about it solely as a tool for commerce.

11. My work and research is in hypertext and human/computer interaction. In this

work, I separate applications, technology, web services and use from the
technology mix and people being able to use the technology. When I saw Canada in
the question I didn’t think of the state, but of the geography. I would hope that the
Internet would be ubiquitous, freely available (or at least inexpensive) and with a
minimal amount of government regulation (we need some regulation, because
without it you couldn’t have things like net neutrality).

12. In my work I provide programs and services. Assisted technology is a boon to

us, and has enabled our agency to help children and youth enhance their quality of
life. I agree for the need for the net to be flexible, reliable and secure but most of my
concerns relate to accessibility -- whether it’s defined by wealth, education, ability,
social position or geography.

13. I feel that the Internet needs to be accessible and affordable. It should be a tool
that can be used for community capacity building; to enfranchise the
disenfranchised. It should be connected to the global market not only for commerce
but also for education.

14. The Internet is one of our history’s fastest growing phenomenon’s, with the
largest impact on society that we've ever experienced. The rate of growth and its
implications is more than what most people realize. It’s a handful in the first place,
but the term “wild west” is due to lack of regulation. It’s been really great for free
access, but this has also been our worst enemy. The Internet is an 'inter-network'
now around the planet: my concern is that although we love net neutrality, the real
situation is that more and more countries are going to insist on and implement
controls on information. I would like to see Canada not do this and be a leader in
not doing this.

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15. We are not just about the internet – we are talking about social networking
systems, social media, everything. My particular interest is in the ability of our
schools to prepare kids for the digital future, and they are currently failing in this
regard. We are dealing with an outdated curriculum; even university professors with
time to focus specifically on this can’t get their heads wrapped around it. And if they
can't, imagine what it’s like for classroom teachers. I hope this process will lead to
meaningful partnerships between industry and schools to help re-conceptualize the
nature of curriculum and the nature of pedagogy: and the schools themselves need
to be reconfigured.

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Issue Identification Process

The individual sticky note brainstorm generated a lot of data. The sorting exercise
was done at a fairly broad level with six baskets of issues identified. Had there been
more time, further sorting into sub-groupings and prioritization could easily have
been done. However, moving the group to discussion was more critical than
spending additional time on categorization.

1. Education
2. Government
3. Access
4. Copyright/ Internet Safety
5. Culture/Personal Identity
6. Health Concerns

1.0 Education
1.1 Basket of Issues

y Educational reform – the current K-12 systems is facing a catastrophic

collapse on an unprecedented scale if major changes don’t happen soon
y Rethinking our education system and the pedagogies we use given this
new digital age
y Public school curriculum incorporate a much greater emphasis on digital
learning and literacy
y Education – taught from the ground up throughout the systems
y Learning assessment practices that reflect and shape attitudes, skills
embodied in new curricula and pedagogies
y Affordable technology for educational institutions
y Digital labs and studio spaces in all public schools P-12
y Insufficient interest in developing toolkits to create accessible apps
y Professional development for educators – teachers and administrators
y Sufficient funding to initiate and sustain changes to educational practices
needed for vigilant competent citizenry
y Access to develop digital skills for all.
y What digital skills are
y Building digital skills – learning environment
y Opportunities for building skills
y Opportunities for building awareness
y Education – giving Canadians the tools/education to think critically about
the internet
y Even a “digital citizen” may not know how to use technology appropriately
y Critical skills that will “weed out” unreliable information
y Authoritative information/how do you know? Changes in publishing; make
it more difficult to evaluate

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 y People adapting themselves to inadequate tools and thus losing thinking
skills

1.2 Small Group Discussion of Issues

The issue discussed was: Critical skills and attitudes through content.

Current status
y Current system is inadequate to prepare citizenry – can’t keep up with
content/concept demand (i.e. knowledge growth)

Obstacles
y Money
y Lack of vision and leadership
y Absence of any sense of urgency
y Vested interests
y Is having the technology essential for critical thinking skills?

Opportunities
y Community colleges more responsive to addressing some needs
y Community colleges more affordable

Who needs to act?

y Government
y Parents
y Education system is “stretched” – hard to take a lead involvement as
each is involved in so many things related to existing work/job
y Maybe the question should be “what is the message” to drive a sense of
urgency

Other stakeholders
y Private sector
y Youth
y What will cause or help other stakeholders to “buy-in”?

2.0 Government

2.1 Issues

y Learning as a society to strategically engage with the internet as opposed

to continually playing catch up and reacting to issues
y Recognition that strong digital economy comes out of strong digital
citizenry
y Lack of national discussion forum for individual communities/citizenry
y Lack of national (not necessarily government) vision/leadership

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 y Too little innovation Question: Have we moved beyond Englebart’s 1968
demo Answer: Barely
y How effective are global/international protocols/standards
y Fundamental rights – 8 countries have declared Internet access, 4 more
are in the process. To remain competitive Canada must do the same
y That the information available on the Internet be accurate – not censored-
regulated
y Restrict government control of data flow to issues of criminal activity
y Criminal law must be updated to reflect changing reality of digital worlds
y Accessibility of public funded content – crown copyright
y Too much corporate influence (via government/otherwise)
y Commercial corporate control
y Availability of Canadian hosted services vs government regulation
(PIPEDA, etc)
y Control of service provides is not further concentrated
y Who’ll control our financial currency?
y Intervention on the Internet – rules of engagement/enforcement (e.g. risky
sexual behaviour online among teens)
y Changing media – increasingly, journalism is changing and even
traditional print media often “refers” you online for the rest of the story

2.2 Small Group Discussion

Discussion centered on two areas – infrastructure and regulation.

Barriers – Infrastructure (italics indicate who should act)

y Cost of access (Government)
y Access to broadband (Government, ISPs)
y Speed (ISPs)

Opportunities – Infrastructure
y Increase access to research network (Acorn and like organizations)
y Lead the way in IPV6 (CIRA)
y Waking partnership between NGOs, government and private sector
y (NGOs including research networks, government, private sector

Barriers – Regulation
y Lack of competition – ISPs (Industry Canada)
y Net neutrality (NGOs that represent industry to Government)
y Civil law reform (Government, ICT law committees)

Opportunities – Regulation
y Increased access (Governement, ISPs)
y Regain our position for greater competitiveness
y Open government access (Government)

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 Other Stakeholders
y Higher education (universities, colleges)
y Canadian security establishment/CSIS
y UN (conventions/treaties)

3.0 Access

3.1 Issues
y That the cost of accessing the internet not be a factor for Canadians
y It remains affordable and accessible for all
y That the internet be accessible to all Canadians regardless of their
geographical location
y Accessibility geographically – remote areas infrastructure development
y Access for all and reliable connection
y Isolation of those that cannot afford and keep up with technology
y Access – the need to address the digital divide
y Digital divide – no clear policy on the digital divide which itself changes
rapidly
y Rate of change with regards to what the internet is – no mention of mobile
for example (think youth)
y How can “access” be maximized?
y Resources for communities to meet needs of target groups (seniors,
youth, etc)
y Too slow – lack of access
y Is content reflecting all populations?
y Open access to government data and services
y Are we involving everyone in the shaping of the Internet?

Small Group Discussion

Current status
a) Availability - pipes and mortar
y On its way but faces challenges (business case, geography, monopolies
telecom policy – is Internet Access a human right? Context for that?

Action – government and telecoms – community input

b) Availability - content

y Fragmented vs organized
y Skills needed to navigate and understand
y More content to digitize and make available

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 Affordable
y Debatable, what is affordable to me…
y i-phone vs basic internet

Barriers
y Definition
y Monopoly of telcoms
y Cost going down

Action – Community advocacy groups – leadership

Alternatives: CAPS sites, libraries, part of the answer
The answer: best practices – other nations

y Support for those facing barriers - Physical, social, economic, education,

language, culture, age, etc.
y Issues related to above is no coordinated leadership or vision/mandate

4.0 Copyright/ Internet Safety

4.1 Issues
y How will we achieve fair copyright with users/creators (the balance)?
y Knowledge of libel/copyright/media rights/ privacy
y Clarity regarding copyright
y Copyright reform – should foster P2P rather than protect the “old
paradigm”
y Relentless surveillance (video/analog and text/audio digital)
y Balance protection with ease of access
y Security of information
y Security of access and reliability of data (imaging no paper telephone
book during a power failure
y What steps should/can be taken to provide a balance between freedom
and security?
y Internet safety as a barrier to access
y Lack of awareness of risks – the indelible trail/the “forever cookie”
y Community/parental support to prevent negative outcomes
y @ policy – especially for educators – can they share beyond their
students

5.0 Culture/ Personal Identity

5.1 Issues
y Need for clear Canadian content mechanisms
y Canadian content and technology is not crowded out
y We maintain the positive branding of .ca

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y Disconnect between youth and older generations
y Internet culture – is it teachable? Paradigms?
y Personal identity vs employee identity – identity as a commodity – who
owns it?
y Help Canadians and young people to understand what the Internet is and
what it is not
y Disconnect between Internet/other bodies
y Polarization of community on internet forums/netiquette/manners
y How will we preserve our cultural information and make it accessible to
all?
y Cocooning and isolation into homogeneous self-selected groups (echo
chambers)
y Search engines make unconventional views hare to find (Google as
power broker and concentrator)
y Disconnect between user expectation and provider capacity
y No one spells anymore – they just text – will there be crossword puzzles
in 10 years time?
y Spam, spam, spam

Current Status (Regarding topics of copyright, Internet safety and culture)

y Copyright in flux
y Harmful to educators – do you need to be a lawyer to teach?
y Control of information
y Not enough knowledge about internet safety
y Controversy dictates policy
y Have community values changed? Have changed!
- e.g. teen sexuality
- privacy/publicity
- copyright/intellectual property
y same old story with Canadian identity/culture (regionalization, language,
etc.

Barriers/opportunities (Regarding Internet safety)

y Threat/fear of litigation
y IT - dominance of service, dependence
y Open source – cloud computing
y Online community development
y Lack of awareness

Who needs to act (Regarding Internet safety)

y Government to set the playing field only, promotion
y Government funds for grassroots deployment of open source products,
UN conferences/ ‘hackathons’, research by NGOs etc.
y NGOs
- support grass roots development

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 - rese
earch
y Blogggers/social media userrs
- draw
w attention to needs
- prov
vide tutorials
y Businnesses with products/sservices forr youth?

Stakeholders (Rega arding Interrnet safety))

y Educaators
y Comm munity servvices
y Blogggers/social media peop ple

6.0 Health

ssues
6.1 Is
y Physiccal deteriorration of bod
dies since we
w do so muchm online
y Health
h and wellness of a “siit at a comp puter” lifestyyle
y Health
h care reforrm – our he ealth care syystems is simply
s not equipped
e to
o
deal with
w pandem mic of techn nology addictions
y Mediccal dangers of WiFi
y Avoidiing distraction, procrasstination, etc, and sup pport from employers
e

The health
h bask
ket of issuess was not discussed.
d

Plen
nary Discu
ussion

Whatt issues miight be mis

ssing?

y No oth
hers were id
dentified.

Who should be e included in this con

nsultation who
w is nott here toda
ay?
Whatt other sec
ctors/stakeholders shhould be in
nvolved?

y Sunny Ma arche, Actinng Dean, Faculty of Information Manageme

M nt, Dalhoussie
University
y: sunny.ma arche@dal.ca
y Andrew Manning,
M Fa
aculty of Ed
ducation, Mount
M Saint Vincent Un
niversity:
andrew.mmanning@m msvu.ca
y Bernie Haart, Chair, Chebucto
C C
Community Net: office chebuctoo.ns.ca
y Annapoliss Fiber to th
he Hole (AFFTH)
y ISPs
y Private Sector
y Teenagerrs
y Bloggers//social med dia people
y More diveersity – thosse who “don’t have acccess”

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ultation, Dartm
mouth, NS 10
How might CIGF serve to help advance the issues?

y Host and share information online with the broader community

y Increased data centres
y Advocacy for more creative commons (access to government data in
particular) – license it so people can access it and learn to use it
appropriately.

Evaluation Comments

Several people had to leave prior to 5 pm. For the final 10 minutes only 8
participants remained. We did not do a formal paper evaluation. They were asked to
comment on how they felt about what had been accomplished here today. An
interesting final conversation took place.

Key points made:

y There is a real role for what CIRA is doing in this process and the forum.
There is no national leadership on this: no one is facilitating this discussion
across the country.
y Participants liked the energy, diversity and concern demonstrated. It would
be nice if the conversation could go forward.
y Participants expressed hope that the information will be brought forward by
CIRA, Media Awareness Network, etc
y Thank-you - a worthwhile afternoon
y One participant noted he wanted to see it go forward as it was draining to
participate – energizing as well -- and he would not want to have to discuss
this all over again. He felt as if the process was well-organized, and looked
like it was going forward. Said he would be very happy if something is
achieved from this.
y Concern was expressed that the process is isolated – we all leave and move
on to our busy lives and what happens to move it forward?
y Another participant noted that he was scared and disappointed regarding
how prolific the internet is and its affect on us. Believes this is a big issue and
wondered where everybody else was. (Clarification was then made as to who
had been reached out to through the invitation process and the fact that we
wanted it to be limited in number of participants. It was also made clear that
more individuals would be invited to contribute through the discussion forums
and the national event.)

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