Developing Digital skills with Embedded Content

 Digital skills are needed now more than ever and not just for those learners who are at a school or college age, but for adult learners, teachers, trainers and everyone else. The global pandemic has highlighted how important digital capability is in today's world. So how do we build on the foundation of digital skills that many would have developed over the course of the last year or so?

Learning has and will exist forever, secretly we are all teachers. For many years now people have turned to the internet to learn new things. Your washing machine breaks, you check out YouTube for a video on how to repair it. You want to cut your own hair because the barber is closed, you get a step by step guide on wiki on how to do it. The internet is still relatively young in the grand scheme of things, but has forever changed the way that learning occurs. Little by little we see the digication of things which had previously worked perfectly well such as paper books, or paying for products with cash. The world is changing and so must the approach in preparing people for a future evolving at breakneck speed.

I found some stories, such as schools giving out a week's worth of printed homework out for learners during the pandemic very troubling. Why would we think this is acceptable in this day and age? Understandably many institutions will state funding issues or lack of equipment as a result, but i'd like to follow up with why hasn't digital skill development been on the agenda before now in classroom activities? Every job requires some element of digital skill, whether you want to be a hairdresser or a rocket scientist, day to day life requires digital skill and capability. It's about preparing the next generation to navigate the digital world. 

The pandemic has highlighted the real need for long term thinking and investment in digital infrastructure and accessibility. This in my opinion will not go away and we have seen the beginning of steps to rightfully make this wrong a thing of the past, so the focus now should be in preparing learners for the ride of using and learning new skills and knowledge through digital formats. 

Employers will play a key role on the digital skills required of its future workforce and it's important here that we do not get bogged down on the specifics of software but instead focus on a general approach to key learnings. If we take a look at the government's new technical qualifications better known as T Levels we can find some of the key digital skills knowledge required in these programmes:

1. Use digital technology & media effectively

2. Create with multimedia & design tools

3. Communicate & collaborate digitally

4. Process & analyse data securely

5. Demonstrate critical digital literacy

6. Code & programme 

To put this in simple terms, this is the employer person specification of tomorrow. The old saying of fail to prepare, prepare to fail really does apply here. The need for digital skill development doesn't just sit in the younger age groups but also the older age groups who will be teaching these skills to the future workforce. The pandemic provided many practitioners the opportunity to try something new and deliver learning online. Some would have swam but many might have sunk. Ensuring that people have access to regular CPD and development opportunities is key not just for the quality of future online learning but also the future of the next generation coming through, ensuring the best possible outcomes and learning opportunities for all.

With light now showing at the end of this COVID nightmare and many learners returning to the physical classroom, it's important we begin to plan the approach to keep digital skill development moving forward. The six areas mentioned above can really provide us with a broad spectrum of opportunity to develop learners to be life and work ready. Taking these six areas and applying them to future job roles and careers learners might want to enter provides us with an even greater opportunity to develop relevant and employer ready skills. I think it's important to mention here that we should not take for granted that a 16 year old knows how to send an email (Digital literacy) just because they were born in the digital age. That's nonsense. Many young people develop skills associated with social media, games or online music as that is what they access regularly.  By making the future skills relevant to employment, we can begin to forge the behaviours and skills learners need to flourish. 

A  report released by the European Commission in 2017 revealed that 44% of Europeans aged 16-74 do not have basic digital skills. The study further predicts that 9 out of 10 jobs in the future will require these basic digital skills, meaning that Europe could be facing a digital skills gap. There are significant differences in the rate of basic digital skill literacy between EU countries, ranging from 26% in Bulgaria to 86% in Luxembourg, with the EU average being 56%.Over the past decade Europe has witnessed a 1200% increase in technology companies valued at over 1 billion Euros. Regardless of learners wanting to go into tech or be a carpenter, digital know-how will be needed.

It's important to mention that digital skill gaps appear in every country all over the world, even where countries have excellent access to hardware and software, as well as super speed Wi-Fi and logistical infrastructure. Part of this issue is that self assessment of digital skill is often overstated and rarely correct. Results from five European countries have shown that people have insufficient levels of digital skills. For example, despite being well-equipped with PCs and using them frequently, the Swiss population has a poor level of basic computer skills. 85% of a digital survey respondents indicated that they were ‘good’ or ‘very good’ in using the internet and e-mail, whereas in reality, only 34% of them scored that high in digital skills ability tests. 

Digital ignorance is not to be ignored. A study conducted by the University of Twente concluded that the cost of lost time due to employees’ lack of digital skills amounts to €19.3 billion a year in the Netherlands alone and this was in 2017. Now more than ever we must take digital skill development to the next level, engaging with employers and putting plans in place to ensure all can progress, develop and learn the skills needed for the world of tomorrow. The cost of not doing so will be worse than any fiscal figures can detail.

How technology can reduce the disadvantage gap

 A report released this week by the Education Policy Institute (EPI), has found that poorer students in sixth forms and colleges trail their more affluent peers by as many as three A level grades when taking qualifications at this level. 

This exploratory research established that the disadvantage gap, defined as the gap in educational attainment between poorer students and their peers – is substantial during the 16-19 education phase, with poorer students continuing to see far worse educational outcomes than their better off peers.

The report also concluded that there was no progress made in closing the gap between 2017 and 2019, which brings to the forefront the worrying potential outcomes of the year of the pandemic 2020.. 

39% of those identified in the gap can be explained by learners' prior attainment at school, think GCSE. Entry for these learners into sixth form or college is generally into lower level education due to low achievement grades previously in school. The research also indicates the key role social economic background plays and how this also has a tipping effect on the scales of levelling off the gap.  

It is clear this is not a new problem caused by the pandemic, but an ongoing problem that is generally grounded in the background and circumstances certain learners find themselves in. Therefore the response is not a single solution but a package of measures that is required to provide equal opportunity to those most in need. 

Perhaps one area that has been overlooked is how the use of technology and how online learning could be an enabler for those most in need. We have seen some excellent innovation occur throughout the pandemic, from virtual tours of museums to online learning programmes. Technology could be the learning mentor that many students have never had, supplying them with the opportunities they might never have had access too.  

Thinking back to pre 2020, how many learners were asked if they had a device at home they could use for learning? Did they have a stable internet connection? And other such questions? Perhaps some, but for those who didn't have any of that the answer was generally you can access these services onsite at college. I do believe that those days are over, and the time of anywhere, anytime access will require those packages of measures, including investment in Wi-Fi infrastructure and hardware for learning.

The reason for this need is the world is changing, how we learn is changing and how we support learning is changing. One size fits all doesn't work and it never has, but technology can be shaped, can be personalised and can be agile - changing quickly to the need and allowing greater access and inclusivity.  

When I was in primary school my parents bought me an encyclopaedia, I found this massive book absolutely incredible. The scale of information available to me was incredible. I could look at anything from World War 2 to how clouds are formed. I developed an appetite to find out new things and was encouraged to do so. Every now and then I would give a little presentation to my parents on what I had been looking at in the book. Now imagine a learner who might never have had this access, whose parents might be forced to work long hours to feed them and keep a roof over their head. The internet has provided us with a multibillion page encyclopaedia which some learners can't get on to with ease and others of us spend multiple hours on each day. Is it any wonder we have attainment gaps?

Professor Sugata Mitra delivered one of my most favourite Ted talks in 2013. Sugata speaks about how technology has changed learning opportunities for young children across the globe. It is a fascinating watch and please if you haven't seen it look it up via the link provided. Within this talk Sugata speaks about the SOLEs, self organised learning environment, and the massive impact these facilities have had on learning for some of the most disadvantaged learners across the globe. The talk includes so many discussion points it's hard to summarise, but it's amazing how this talk was delivered in 2013 and the key points are still so relevant today. 

 

Perhaps the answer to this question of attainment regardless of age, is what the professor discusses in his talk: Wi-Fi + Collaboration + Encouragement of learning. “It's not about making learning happen, it's about letting it happen”. Powerful words and a quote that has stayed with me since I first watched this talk. Part of me thinks this is what is missing from some of the learners within this 16-19 age group: encouragement. If we can encourage learning and supply the resources to let it happen, we are on course for a much more positive outcome. 

Technology really is the way forward. It is how we provide greater opportunity and enable learners regardless of background or circumstance to thrive. The most important things to think about now is how we make it available to all, how we utilise teachers and mentors and how by making marginal gains we change the future prospects of billions of people.