Sport Management Education

Global Perspectives and Implications for Practice

Mike Rayner, Tom Webb, Mike Rayner, Tom Webb

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9780367690267
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000537437
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Higher Education
• Index: Business

This book examines a range of contemporary issues related to the global delivery of sport management education. At a time of unprecedented change in Higher Education, the book looks closely at how sport management education can and should deliver positive outcomes in sport business and management outside of the university.

The book brings together sport management academics from around the globe and examines how their practice in education has been shaped by the cultural, religious, and political context of the national regions in which they work. It aims to identify core principles in sport management education and implementation, and discusses the key aspects of sport management programmes, from curriculum design and pedagogy to issues around unified accreditation and the needs of employers. It also focuses in on what sport management education might look like in an increasingly digital post-COVID world.

This is essential reading for all sport management educators and anybody working in sport-related professions looking to understand global educational platforms and their implications for policy at local, regional, national, and international level.

Part I Theme 1 – Teaching sport management

Chapter 1 Digital literacy capabilities and curriculum design in sport management programmes

Ruth Sibson and Ashlee Morgan

DOI: 10.4324/9781003140078-1

While the notion of digital literacy has been considered, and to some extent popularised, in academic, government, and industry discourse, there has been scant research that focuses on this concept from a sport management perspective. Moreover, there remains a common misconception that digital literacy is just the physical use of software and hardware. Gaining experience using specific digital tools is useful, however, it is impossible for sport management educators to teach all industry-used platforms. Thus, ensuring that students develop more generic digital skills (i.e., cognitive and socio-emotional) and focusing on developing students’ digital adaptability and agility will be crucial. Educators also need to consider how they can incorporate legal and ethical literacy skills into curriculum, including industry-specific parameters and regulations. On-going collaboration between HE and industry is also important during curriculum design, as well as in the provision of work-integrated or experiential learning opportunities. HE institutions need to ensure that academic staff are equipped with the necessary knowledge and support to effectively teach in this digital era.

Introduction

Digital technologies are responsible for some of the largest changes of our era – both in leisure and in work. The on-going digital disruption and demand for digital skills is creating significant impact, and bringing benefits and opportunities for businesses globally. In the sport industry, digital innovations have had a profound impact on sport competition, spectatorship, and governance. From local community sport to elite professional sport, technology advances have changed both on-field and off-field performance. The increasing digitisation of operations has driven up the demand for digital skills in the sport sector workforce. As such, it is critical for employability that graduates from higher education (HE) sport management programmes have developed digital literacy competencies.

Employability has become a major concern for government, universities and graduates, as employers expect graduates to be equipped with the necessary skills and competencies to perform workplace roles, functions and tasks with minimal oversight (Abbasi et al., 2018). Recent government and industry reports have highlighted the need specifically for digital skills/literacy incorporation in education and within the workplace (Deloitte, 2020; PWC, 2018). Thus, given the ubiquity of digital media and data and the rapidly changing economy and society of the 21st century, developing students’ skills and knowledge in these areas is paramount to enhance graduates’ employability and work readiness. However, as Murray and Pérez (2014) have argued, many higher education institutions take digital literacy for granted.

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the integration of digital literacy into HE curriculum in the field of sport management. First, the concept of digital literacy is discussed and defined, and then digital skill demand in the contemporary sport industry is examined. Finally, the chapter focuses on integrating digital literacy into sport management curriculum, providing recommendations for best practice.

Defining digital literacy

Over the last fifty years, the traditional notion of literacy has been extended to encompass the technological and digital developments that have become a prominent part of everyday life, in both personal (e.g., social media platforms, such as Facebook) and professional (e.g., video and audio conferencing platforms, such as Zoom) capacities. The rise of social media, in particular, has significantly altered people’s regular use of technology and digital platforms. In the 1970s, terms such as computer literacy and information and computer technology (ICT) literacy were founded on the operational or technical abilities of individuals to use computers to manage files and use various software (Martin, 2005). It was not until the late 1990s that the term digital literacy was popularised by Gilster (1997, p. 1) who defined it as, ‘the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers’. In the last two decades, its meaning has continued to evolve from effectively using and applying technology, to individuals’ meaningful functioning in digital communities, including knowledge cognition, and the creation and communication of information (List, 2019).

It is now widely acknowledged that the concept of digital literacy is far more complex than operating digital devices and involves a variety of cognitive skills. These intellect skills include one’s ability to: access and use information effectively (Eshet-Alkalai, 2004); think critically, problem solve and strategise (Bates, 2019); and, generate new insights and knowledge (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2016). However, digital literacy involves more than intellectual processes and mental abilities. It also involves social and emotional skills, often referred to as ‘soft skills’. These skills include: managing your own emotions and being able to work with others (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2016); understanding the importance of social context, such as privacy and the use of appropriate language (Ng, 2012); and knowing how and when specific technologies are best utilised to achieve goals (Hague & Payton, 2010). Considering the importance of this range of skills, digital literacy is now deemed a necessity for employment as it enables workers to collaborate, and communicate effectively and be strategic and creative, in a digital world.

One of the first attempts at shaping an integrative, conceptual frame of reference for user activity in the digital environment was through the work of Eshet-Alkalai (2004). Eshet-Alkalai (2004) proposed a conceptual framework for digital literacy that incorporated five types of literacy: photovisual, reproduction, branching, information, and socio-emotional literacy. He argued that all of these complex skill areas were required by individuals to function effectively in digital environment and included tasks such as, reading and understanding visual messages; digitally reproducing new materials from existing knowledge; the construction of knowledge from non-linear, hypertextual navigation; the evaluation of the quality and validity of information; and having a strong and developed sense of socio-emotional intelligence. Drawing on the work of Eshet-Alkalai (2004), Ng (2012) presents a digital literacy framework that includes three interconnected areas: technical, cognitive, and socio-emotional. This chapter draws on this framework to discuss digital literacy requirements of the sport industry and, thus, of the HE sport management curriculum. It includes first, the technical skills, which are those needed to proficiently work with information technology. Second, the cognitive abilities, which include searching, analysing, critically evaluating, and communicating digital information. This cognitive dimension also involves ethical, moral, and legal consciousness. Finally, social-emotional skills allow for appropriate and proper online interaction. Socio-emotional aspects of digital literacy are concerned with the interaction with others and the social aspects of communicating and collaborating online.

While the notion of digital literacy has been considered, and to some extent popularised, in academic, government, and industry discourse, there has been scant research that focuses on this concept from a sport management perspective. Moreover, there remains a common misconception that digital literacy is just the physical use of software and hardware. This is limiting and does not encapsulate the extent of the concept as outlined above. As noted by Jones-Kavaller and Flannigan (2006, p. 4), of their research in the field of education, the

greatest challenge is moving beyond the glitz and pizzazz of the flashy technology and teaching true literacy in this new milieu. Using the same skills used for centuries – analysis, synthesis, and evaluation – we must look at digital literacy as another realm within which to apply elements of critical thinking.

To design relevant, HE curriculum that develops students’ digital literacy, it is essential to understand the needs and demands of industry. Thus, in the following section we discuss the digital demands of the contemporary sport industry.

Digital literacy skill demands in the sport industry

Globally, the continual emergence of new technologies has changed how individuals communicate and businesses operate. The increased digitisation of businesses is driving economic growth and digital skill demands across numerous industries (Deloitte, 2019), with sport being no exception. Driven by the global competitiveness of the sport industry, continual innovation and technological advancements have affected most areas of sport (Ratten, 2020). Indeed, the sport and recreation industry has been a leading adopter of some technologies, particularly through their engagement with fitness, health, and activity-based mobile applications for individual participants (SkillsIQ, 2019).

Across the incredibly broad scope of sport and recreation, from local activity to professional leagues, technology has multiple purposes depending on the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Global perspectives on sport management education: Implications for practice – an introduction
• PART I: Theme 1 – Teaching sport management
• PART II: Theme 2 – Learners and learning in sport management education
• PART III: Theme 3 – Developing professional competencies within sport management education
• PART IV: Theme 4 – Learning in lockdown – Sport management education responses to COVID-19
• Future directions for sport management education
• Index