Well, hello, and welcome back to Module One of this “Developing digital skills in your
classroom” online MOOC from the European Schoolnet Academy.
Module One has got six parts.
The first part was “Introduction”.
The second part is “What are digital skills?”
The third part: “The future of work”.
The fourth part: “Jobs of the future”.
Fifth part: “Accessing jobs of the future” and the sixth part: “Future thinking”.
And this is the unit on “What are digital skills?”
I guess before we start to look at the definition of what digital skills are, we also need a
bit of an appreciation about why “digital” is so important.
Fundamentally, technology, in particular digital technology has changed the way that we go
about our lives.
From the way that we shop, increasingly, people are doing more shopping online.
From the way that we carry out financial transactions.
Gone are the days of the check book.
Now most things are done either by online payments, or indeed by mobile phone payments,
increasingly.
Even the way that we play has started to significantly change.
Even though young people still play outside, they increasingly play on computer games.
And of course, it’s not just the domain of your people.
Adults also do this as well.
Even the way that we socialize has started to be influenced by technology.
People still go out for a coffee or for a pint of beer but increasingly they carry on
these conversations using social media sites such as Facebook.
And indeed, these social media sites allow us to keep in touch with people we have not
seen for a long time.
The European Union, like many other agencies across the world, has recognized that the
digital agenda is incredibly important.
Hence, the creation of the document:”A digital agenda for Europe.
A 2020 initiative”.
This document outlines a number of interesting statistics.
For example, it suggests that 90% of jobs today in 2015 require some form of digital
skills.
It also highlights some of the shortages that we might have across Europe by 2020.
For example, it’s predicted that we might be short of 825 000 ICT professionals.
And if that wasn’t enough, it also predicts that we might be short of 215 000 eLeaders
by 2020.
It’s very very clear that we need to do something about this.
Not just in terms of upskilling ourselves as teachers but also making sure that young
people have got the skill set that they need to enter a work force which is going to be
fit for 2015 and beyond.
So, what are digital skills?
Well, it’s actually surprisingly hard to define.
digitalskills.com which is an initiative from the UK Government defines digital skills as:
basic digital skills are a minimum level of digital skills you need in order to safely
use digital technology to access the benefits that it can provide.
It then also breaks this down a little bit more and divides digital skills into a number
of categories.
The first category is around the digital skill of managing information: how do you find,
manage and store digital information and content?
The second skill is around communicating: how do you use digital technology to communicate,
interact, collaborate, share and connect with other people?
The third one is around transacting: how do we use digital technology to purchase and
sell goods and services, organize your own finances, register for and use increasingly
government digital services?
The fourth is around problem solving.
How do we increase independence and confidence by solving problems using digital tools but
also using digital tools to find solutions?
And the fifth one is around creating: how do we get people to engage with communities
by creating digital content?
And this notion of creating digital content is a particularly important thing for schools,
I think.
Of course, when we talk about digital skills, it would also be fair to say that we’ve
got basic digital skills and advanced digital skills in each of these categories.
Let’s go back to that important category of creating again.
It’s very very easy to create something using text only.
For example, producing an online document.
And we’ll cover some of that during Module Three.
It’s a bit more complicated, though, to programme something online using code.
Hopefully, you get the idea of what I’m talking about here is that we’ve got digital
skills but some of these digital skills are basic and some of these will be advanced.
And of course, as time moves on, these more advanced digital skills will be required by
all people.
Fundamentally, I guess what we’re talking a little bit about here is not just digital
skills but also people gaining digital competence to exist in the place that they live and the
place that they want to work.
Digital competence is the set of knowledge, skills and attitudes that are required when
using ICT and digital media to perform tasks, to solve problems, to communicate, to manage
information, to collaborate, to create and share content effectively online.
And if we’re looking to sort of display this as a simple model, ultimately what we
mean is the more digital skills we have, the increased levels of digital competence that
we have.
So, within Europe, we’ve also got something which is called “The e-Competence Framework”.
And “The e-Competence Framework” is really aimed at business.
And what this is designed to do is that it provides 40 e-competences that are required
and applied to the Information Technology Community workplace.
Now, even though this is quite important, I think it’s even more important for us
to look at actually what might be relevant in the classroom.
The website Mashable suggested 10 things that young people should be leaving school with
in 2015 and these are the 10 things: 1.
The ability to set up a Wi-Fi network 2.
The ability to back up to the cloud 3.
Basic photo editing 4.
Basic video editing 5.
Google docs and Microsoft Office 6.
HTML and basic coding 7.
How to set up a website and domain 8.
Converting file formats 9.
Online banking 10.
How do you brand yourself in a digital community Now whether you agree with some of these things
or not, it’s important for us, I think, to think about digital skills.
So, I cover a few questions for you to think about before we move on to the next video:
1.
What digital skills do you think are important in 2015?
Do you agree with the Mashable website?
2.
What digital skills do you think will be important by 2030?
Remember, there’s loads of support which is available, not just on social media but
also on the European Schoolnet Academy MOOC homepage as well.
See you in the next video.