Algorithmic Literacy at Teachers' Day ("Lærernes dag")

Over 2,000 teachers participated in this year's Teachers' Day, which was traditionally held at Nygårdshøyden on January 30. The event brings together teachers from middle and upper secondary schools for professional development every year, and offers a broad program with current research contributions from UiB.

Among this year's contributors were media researchers Emilija Gagrčin and Marianne Borchgrevink-Brækhus, both researchers in the project iFAM – Intergenerational Families & Algorithmic Media. The project is funded by the Norwegian Media Authority and investigates how family members learn from each other about digital platforms and algorithms.

In their presentation "Who teaches whom about what? Understanding digital support and algorithmic literacy across generations", the researchers highlighted how algorithmic platforms – from social media to streaming services and AI tools – shape our everyday lives, and why this makes critical media understanding and algorithmic competence increasingly important. A key finding from the project is that adults often have limited knowledge of how algorithms work, despite the fact that such systems influence the information they encounter every day.

The researchers also presented how they use ecomapping – so-called “family technology maps” – as a method to understand who helps whom with digital challenges in the family. Through interviews and visual mapping, they see that support is often practical and problem-solving, rather than educational. While younger family members help older people install apps or solve specific problems, they rarely get an explanation of how the algorithms behind the services work. This develops digital skills, but not necessarily deeper insight or critical understanding.

Gagrčin and Borchgrevink-Brækhus emphasized that such maps can also be useful tools in schools to explore students’ algorithmic competence and which digital sources they trust.