This paper is part of the Readers in e-learning series, by Graham Attwell.

E-Learning and new New Basic Skills

1 Introduction

The rapid introduction of Information and Communications into many areas of our lives - at home, in the school and in work - is leading to a review of the skills needed to participate in society today. Initially the debate was over skills required to use new technologies. That discussion advanced to looking at how broader skills and competencies requirements were effected by ICT. More recently it has been suggested that we need to fundamentally rethink what is meant by literacy and communication.

The changing ideas over skill requirements has been accompanied by a growing debate over curriculum. Whilst initially the impact of ICt was to lead to stand alone courses focused on the use of new technologies, later work focused on the integration of ICT into the broader curriculum. Now researchers are suggesting we should focus on transformational activities to develop digital skills.

This short paper examines some of the different definitions of digital skills, literacy and communication. It suggests young people today are developing and using new ways of learning and new skills as a result of the digital revolution. It looks at the work of a European project which has developed a new framework for digital skills

2 Competency in the use of ICT as a key competency

In a report on Key Competencies, Eurydice (2002) point out that any definition of key competencies is shaped by the scientific background and societal role of the person(s) supplying the definition. They cite the World Declaration on Education for All: Meeting Basic Learning Needs (World Conference on Education 1990) in stating: "Every person - child, youth and adult - shall be able to benefit from educational opportunities designed to meet their basic learning needs. These needs comprise both essential learning tools (such as literacy, oral expression, numeracy, and problem solving) and the basic learning content (such as knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes) required by human beings to be able to survive, to develop their full capacities, to live and work in dignity, to participate fully in development, to improve the quality of their lives, to make informed decisions, and to continue learning."

Over the last five years, competency in the use of ICT has generally come to be seen as a key qualification.

"Advances in telecommunication and microprocessor technology have expanded, intensified and altered the ways in which people interact. ICT has revolutionised business, public administration, education and the home. The magnitude of its economic and social implications has made universal access to computers and the Internet a top priority. With the mass of information available on line, the ability to access, select and administer relevant data is considered a key competence. Computer literacy, meaning the constructive and critical application of ICT, is the key to successful participation in the information society. Proficiency in ICT also serves as a catalyst for literacy, numeracy and many subject based competencies. Familiarity with the etiquette of text messaging, electronic mail and chatrooms is a social competence for any cyberspace user. Gaps in online access and inadequate ICT competence in parts of the population could have serious repercussions for social cohesion by creating a digital divide into the information-rich and the information-poor" (Eurydice, 2002).

However, whilst the Eurydice report stressed the ability to access, select and administer relevant data and the constructive and critical application of ICT, in reality the implementation of curricula has probably been far narrower. A report by the Socrates I-Curriculum project entitled "An Overview of current ICT teaching" (Ulicsak and Owen, 2003) concludes that in practice "there is a focus on operational skills; the competencies tend to focus on how to use ICT rather than at a meta-competency level, that is, how technology can be used to model and transform an activity. Even in Germany, where the goal is to shift to project-oriented education so that the students understand the relevance of ICT and use it to model and hence reflect on problems, it was noted that operating skills are taught initially, then weeks or months later the role of ICT in the wider context is addressed."

European Computer Driving Licence

Both the Eurydice report and the I-Curriculum project are school-based studies. It is harder to gain an overview of basic skills in vocational education and training. The main curriculum in use is almost certainly the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL). ECDL is interesting in that it comes from a 1995 initiative by the European Commission to raise the level of IT skills in industry (ECDL, 2004). As part of this initiative it funded a Council of European Professional Informatics Societies task force to examine how to raise IT skill levels in industry throughout Europe. The task force identified the Finnish Computer Driving License (which had been introduced in Finland the previous year) as a potentially suitable vehicle and carried out pilot tests during 1995 and early 1996.

Following this, a new test was launched as the European Computer Driving License in August 1996 in Sweden. In 1997 the European Computer Driving License Foundation was established in Dublin as a private company with a small grant from the Irish government and the ECDL was subsequently rolled out across Europe and internationally. ECDL is now available in 135 countries including every country in Europe. However, ECDL is narrowly focused on operational skills. There are seven modules (ECDL, 2004):

1. Concepts of Information technology
2. Using the Computer and Managing Files
3. Word processing
4. Spreadsheets
5. Database
6. Presentation
7. Information and Communication

The achievement of a European wide qualification is truly impressive and it is noteworthy that ECDL has established quality systems for the delivery of training. But there are a number of problems. The narrow technological focus means that if students are to follow a wider basic skills curriculum involving the social use of technology and, in particular, the ability to access, select and administer relevant data, this will be divorced from learning about the technology itself.

Secondly, is the emergent age group gap in expertise in the use of technology. Whilst there are undoubtedly still many adults who are functionally illiterate in the use of computers, nearly every young person growing up today learns how to use computers as part of everyday life. A survey undertaken by the Leonardo da Vinci sponsored ICT and SME project undertaken in some 350 enterprises in seven different European projects concluded that basic technical skills in the use of ICT was not seen as a problem within Small and Medium Enterprises (Admiraal, forthcoming). What is at issue is how those skills might be used in the workplace.

3 New definitions of digital literacy

John Seely Brown in a speech in 1999, looked at the new dimensions of learning, working and playing in the digital age. One dimension he drew attention to was literacy and how it is evolving. The new literacy, the one beyond text and knowledge, he said, is one of information navigation.

Linked to this was learning and how that is shifting. He pointed to the growth of discovery or experiential learning. As kids work in the new digital media, he said, rather than abstract logic, they deploy Bricolage. Bricolage relates to the concrete and has to do with the ability to find something - an object or a tool, a piece of code, a document - and to use it in a new way and in a new context. But to be a successful bricoleur of the virtual rather than the physical you have to be able to decide whether or not to trust or believe these things. Therefore the need for making judgements is greater than ever before.

Navigation is being coupled to discovery and discovery being coupled to bricolage but you do not dare build on whatever you discover unless you can make a judgement concerning its quality or trustworthiness.

The final dimension Seely Brown addressed was that of action. He suggests new forms of learning are based on trying things and action, rather than on more abstract knowledge. "Learning becomes as much social as cognitive, as much concrete as abstract, and becomes intertwined with judgement and exploration".

This definition of the new skills required of the digital age is much broader than any of the curricula presently being provided in the education and training systems. Of course it is possible to argue that Seely Brown is only talking about how young people learn when using the web. But it is interesting that, unlike in the school sector, much of vocational education and training has been based on the experiential learning of vocational skills through practice.

One case study identified by the I-curriculum project is following the Seely Brown approach to 'learning through making' (Heinemann, 2004). In 2002, the Schulzentrum Obervieland, an integrated Hauptshule and Realshule in Bremen in Germany, developed a new programme for the use and integration of new media. As part of this programme the school has developed a partnership with the Bremen Open Channel.¹ The strategy is to use media as a flagship for the overall development of the school. Students are encouraged to produce video films on a wide range of issues as part of the curriculum and partly as a spare time out of school activity. The contents range from a documentary on the school canteen and personal biographies, to films on school sports trips. Developing expertise in ICT and the use of media by teachers is based on a grassroots approach through building teams for short cross-subject projects, including at least one teacher already deemed an expert in the use of new media.

According to Heinemann this project has three different levels of impact. The first is in visual communications and the production of video. Students expressly address the issue that producing a film is more than just taking film footage. Different music, film techniques and cutting techniques affect the outcome and perception of the film. This is learnt both through practice and through learning theory and history about film – e.g. Citizen Kane, Metropolis and Battleship Potemkin. Not only do students look at the theory and making of films, but at assisted roles and skills including for example the process of producing copies. This leads them to examining the issue of the manipulation of media, in both theory and through the production of a short documentary followed by the use of different background music, camera angles and production techniques to make from the same material a film with different effects on the audience. The second level is in presentation. The effective presentation of materials depends on the subject, the medium and audience. The school is traditionally strong in organising group work and this approach has been strengthened by the focus on producing presentations. It is interesting that the adequacy of the use of the presentation, rather than more traditionally in Germany the understanding of the subject materials, forms part of the student assessment. The third level, integrated in the first two, is the change in the roles of teachers and students. Student work is based on producing things and the role of the teacher is to help and facilitate this production.

4 Other definitions of ICT literacy

Seely Brown is not alone in calling for a wider definition of digital skills. The International ICT Literacy Panel, comprised of experts from education, government, non governmental organisations, labour and the private sector, including representatives from five countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, France and the United States) defined ICT literacy as using digital technology, communications tools, and /or networks to access, manage, integrate, evaluate and create information in order to function in a knowledge society. International ICT Literacy Panel, 2002

The "continuum of skills and knowledge" required, they said, included:

• Access - knowing about and knowing how to collect and/ or retrieve data;
• Manage - applying an existing organisational or classification scheme;
• Integrate - interpreting and representing information. It involves summarising, comparing and contrasting;
• Evaluate - making judgements about the quality, relevance, usefulness, or efficiency of information;
• Create - generating information by adapting, applying, designing, inventing, or authoring information.

The EC funded Socrates I-Curriculum project has a similar position. They distinguish between transformational, integrating and operational skills and knowledge, and have put forward the following table with table categories and examples of criteria from each as a stage towards the development of a framework for digital skills (I-Curriculum, 2003).

According to the I-curriculum project research, much of what is presently being taught as basic skills in information and communication technology is operational. They see a need to extend these skills to include those in the integrating and operational column. In terms of ICT basics skills in vocational education and training, it is not difficult to imagine that integrating and transformational skills could be integrated as part of occupational skills provision and learnt through work based learning.

Computer languages as a key qualification?

Some researchers have proposed that computer languages should also be seen as a key qualification. Whilst not a natural language, an understanding of programming languages can be seen as critical for understanding the role of computers in today’s society. The counter argument is that we do not see an understanding of the internal combustion engine, or electrical motor, as a key competence, despite their all pervasive technological presence. There are a number of interesting projects seeking to teach programming through other activities (see for example http://ArtDeCom.mesh.de).

5 Where next?

There is recognition of the need for new basic skills or digital literacy as a result of the far ranging impact of ICT within society. However present basic skills provision is limited, focusing on the operational skills of how to use technology and failing to develop the critical thinking skills important needed to make judgements and the creative skills for constructive and critical application of ICT.

How can this situation be changed? Firstly we need more research in this area particularly focused on practice. What new skills are young people using for learning? Is there a difference between how young people use ICT in school and how they use it at home? What skills are being learnt through informal learning - playing games, writing a blog, compiling digital music collections? How do these skills compare with the more ‘formal’ skills and competencies taught in the classroom?

How are occupational profiles changing as a result of the use of ICT in the workplace? Are curricula being modernised for to address these new occupational profiles?

Far greater attention needs to be paid to different pedagogic approaches to learning and what impact different pedagogies have on skills acquisition particularly digital skills. In this respect further testing of the I-Curriculum Framework would be very welcome. What are the barriers to the transformative activities proposed by the I-curriculum project? At a workshop organised as part of the UK Futurelab annual conference several head teachers suggested that over rigid assessment systems were preventing the development of new curricula to develop digital literacy. They also said that curricula frameworks were far too restrictive. It would be interesting to know if this is also so in other countries.

In theory, vocational education and training is more open to innovative pedagogic approaches, especially because of the use of more work based learning. On the other hand, digital literacy and communication skills are rarely included in any formal curricula schemes. If new forms of digital literacy and communication are as important as I suggest in this paper, this issue urgently needs addressing.

Finally, it is not only young people who are affected by changing technologies. The European Computer Driving Licence has been very effective in the scale of its implementation. However, my study would suggest that it is far too narrowly focused and we need to develop new programmes which focus on a wider understanding than that of computer literacy, and in which digital literacy and communication form the primary focus.

6 References

• Admiraal W., forthcoming, A survey of the use of ICT for learning in SMEs in Europe, www.sme-learning.org
• ECDL, 2004, www.ecdl.com, accessed 25 July 2004
• Eurydice (2002), Key Competencies, Brussels, http://www.mszs.si/eurydice/pub/eurydice/survey_5_en.pd, accessed 25 July 2004
• Heinemann L., 2003, I-curriculum, Summary of case studies, unpublished mimeo
• I-Curriculum, 2003, http://promitheas.iacm.forth.gr/i-curriculum/Assets/Docs/Outputs/UK%20summary%20EN.pdf, accessed 22 October 2004
• International Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Literacy Panel. (2002). Digital transformation: A framework for ICT Literacy. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Services (ETS). http://www.ets.org/research/ictliteracy/ictreport.pdf, accessed 25 July, 2004
• Seely Brown J.,1999, "Learning, Working & Playing in the Digital Age: Creating Learning Ecologies." Transcription of a talk by Brown at the 1999 Conference on Higher Education of the American Association for Higher Education. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/seelybrown/, accessed 25 July, 2004
• Ulicsak M. and Owen M., 2003, An Overview of current ICT teaching, http://promitheas.iacm.forth.gr/i-curriculum/Assets/Docs/NatReports/Comparison%20of%20ICT%20across%20European.pdf, accessed 20 October 2004
• UNESCO, World Declaration on Education for All: Meeting Basic Learning needs, http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/ed_for_all/background/jomtien_declaration.shtml, accessed 25 July 2004

Further reading

• i-Curriculum web site - http://promitheas.iacm.forth.gr/i-curriculum/outputs.html

Although the site is not complete it does provide access to outputs of the I-Curriculum project, many of which make interesting reading

• Popular Culture, Textual Practice and Identity - http://www.aare.edu.au/00pap/bea00495.htm

Interesting paper on how children are using computers for new ways of learning – author unknown

• John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid, 'Universities in the Digital Age' - http://www.parc.xerox.com/ops/members/brown/papers/university.html

If we require new skills and these skills are being learnt in different ways, what does this mean for the future of traditional education and learning institutions? Here Paul Dugoid and John Seely Brown reflect on the future of universities in the digital age.

• The European e-Skills Forum - http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/ict/policy/ict-skills.htm

Provides access to European Commission thinking and documents on skills and literacy related to the use of ICT

• Kei Facer - Computer Games and Learning - http://www.nestafuturelab.org/research/discuss/02discuss01.htm

Provides an alternative view of how young people can learn using computer games.

Issues for discussion

How is the digital revolution leading to new requirements for skills? What new skills are needed?

Are young people today learning in different ways? If so, in what ways?

What does digital literacy mean? How can we define it?

How should our schools and colleges respond to changing skills needs? What ICT related skills and competencies should be part of the curriculum?

What pedagogies are effective for acquiring ICT related skills and competencies?

Should all young people be taught how to programme computers or is it a specialist skill?

• ¹In 1983, when private and cable TV were introduced in Germany, in order to provide free access to mass media, all German cities were required to develop Open Channels. The Open Channels were designed to allow free access to the media for all interested. There is some doubt as to the effectiveness of the strategy.