International Centre for Guidance Studies

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Dont just Google it!

Making the most of the online environment to support educational and career decision making

Tristram Hooley (Reader in Career Development) Presentation to the University of Hull

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Overview The role of the internet in higher education choices Social media and all that jazz Dangers and opportunities Developing digital career literacy The role of comparison sites Other useful tools

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The role of the internet in HE choices Higher education is changing. Central to the current governments thinking is the idea of the individual making informed choices. But who is informing these choices? How can we encourage people to make wise choices?

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Where do people get information about HE?

Parents University websites Friends Campus visits University outreach University prospectuses

Social media Traditional media

UCAS
Newspaper rankings Subject teachers Careers advisers

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The role of the web

The academic literature is divided on how important online information currently is for educational decision making. But there is certainly a lot of it. It seem likely that it will get more important rather than less important. But knowing how to use all of this information to your best advantage is likely to be key.

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Social media and all that jazz

Lets learn some key terms Internet Web Web 2.0 Social media Open data

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Dangers!
Incorrect information Incomplete information

Bypassing advice

They dont know what is good for them

Slick university marketing

Its a dangerous place!

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Opportunities
Really great and diverse information Everyone has access

Ease transitions

From the horses mouth

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Developing digital career literacy

The internet is impossible to quality assure You can take a horse to water We have to support people to become discerning (sceptical) consumers of career information In other words we need to develop their digital career literacy

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Changing

Curating

Collecting

Creating

The 7 Cs of digital career literacy

Critiquing

Communicating

Connecting
http://adventuresincareer development.com

Comparison sites: The rationale

Good data = good choices People will behave rationally if they are given information on which to base their choices An individual pays HE system requires applicants to think like consumers There is a need for a tool to help people compare this information

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In other words

HE needs

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Various comparison sites

Unistats http://unistats.direct.gov.uk/ Which University http://university.which.co.uk/ What Uni? http://www.whatuni.com/ Push http://www.push.co.uk/ Compare the Uni http://comparetheuni.com/compare/all/ Bestcourse4me http://www.bestcourse4me.com/

Also newspaper university rankings sites, careers sites and other things like http://www.notgoingtouni.co.uk

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Other useful tools

Thinking about university Bright Links Knowledge Bank https://www.brightlinks.org/brightside/knowledge-bank The Student Room http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/ Thinking about where university fits into a career icould http://icould.com/ National Careers Service https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk Plotr https://www.plotr.co.uk/

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The futures bright

The internet offers a vast resource for people thinking about their futures.
There is better information, resources, tools and opportunities for learning about further learning, work and life than ever before. But this all only works if we have an educated consumer. Underpinning the development of an educated consumer is a solid career education and through it the development of digital career literacy.

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Tristram Hooley
Reader in Career Development International Centre for Guidance Studies University of Derby http://www.derby.ac.uk/icegs t.hooley@derby.ac.uk

Blog at http://adventuresincareerdevelopment.posterous.com

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