e-competencies.org

How to reduce the gap between the e-skilled and the non e-skilled?

Dr. Cristóbal Cobo RomaníVisiting Fellow SKOPE,University of Oxford

Photo by: Van Wedeen, Ruopeng Wang, Jeremy Schmahmann, and Guangping Dai of the MGH Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging in Boston, MA; Patric Hagmann of EPFL and CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland; and Jon Kaas of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. [+]

Strategies to promote the development of e-competencies.

Trends that are likely to have an impact on the e-skills development.

Mapping the e-skills gap.

Comparative analysis (benchmarking) policies, strategies and programmes.

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1. Knowledge economy demands a highly qualified labour force.Why HQ labour force?

2. Uneven strategies to integrate ICT in the educational sector.How effective have the IT & Ed. initiatives been?

3. Relevance of ICT competence in a broad sense.What means e-competence?

4. Recommendations, Conclusions (in process).So what?

Knowledge society: - memory and + ability to

interrelate contents in different contexts.

Current education: Demanding the capacity to stimulate creativity, invention, imagination, as well as the ability to be constantly innovative.

education

1.Knowledge economy demands a highly qualified labour force.

Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) [World Bank, 2008.]

See Index +

1.Knowledge economy demands a highly qualified labour force.

1.Knowledge economy demands a highly qualified labour force.

Relationship between the global market and the up- skilling workers:- Many countries are experiencing skill gaps. - Employers cannot find suitable, qualified workers. - Pressure to upgrade the skills of domestic low-qualified workers.

Relationship between qualification and productivity:- Differences in productivity: explained by low skills & ed. achievement. - (R) Correlation between investment in the Human Capital workers and a country’s future growth, labour productivity & competitiveness.

What are the challenges for the next 5 to 10 years?- Young people: Being prepared for modern labour markets(comm. skills from literacy and numeracy to IT and foreign languages).

- (R) Mismatch between skills taught (schools) & demanded (firms).

OECD. 2006. Skills Upgrading, New Policy Perspectives. Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development. +

The Lisbon strategy and Education & Training 2010

-(2010) „Europe should become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge based economy in the world”.

- Key skills: literacy in reading, mathematics and science; language skills; ICT skills; civic skills & learning to learn.

- Technology literacy (knowledgeable workforce, added value, proficient ICT skills).

1.Knowledge economy demands a highly qualified labour force.

Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA): 90% World Econ.60 countries, 5~50K students per country.

Toward measuring ICT skills & a range of dynamic tasks.PISA (OECD )

- Reading, Math., Science & ICT cross-curricular competencies like comm. & problem-solving will be important for students’ futures.

1.Knowledge economy demands a highly qualified labour force.

2.Uneven strategies to integrate ICT in the educational sector.

L1:access & connectivity> L2:basic ICT skills> L3:digital skills.

Level 1: Access to ICT• £300 million have been invested to embed technology in further education (99-09) [Becta].• The U.S. Department of Education will spend U$ 1 billion ('09-'10) in educational technology [+].• The European Commission has planned € 1 billion to bring broadband to rural areas [+].

Level 2: Basic ICT Skills [1st digital divide]470 digital literacy initiatives.• Over 1/3 of Europeans have no basic ICT skills.• The demand for e-skills is growing while supply is declining.• There is an ongoing decline in the # of students starting ICT courses.• The gender gap (>20% of ICT practitioners in the EU are women).• 49% of citizens in sparsely populated areas never used the Internet (ECDL/Eurostat).

Level 3: Advanced Use of ICT (Participation+Transaction) [2nd digital divide]• Quality of use. • ICT skills.

Digital Literacy Review (2008):470 digital literacy initiatives EU

2.Uneven strategies to integrate ICT in the educational sector.

Source: “Digital Literacy European Commission Working Paper and Recommendations from Digital Literacy High-Level Expert Group” (+). [Ministerial e-Inclusion Conference, 2008].

[age.gender.education.location]

„Can schools improve their teaching effectiveness by investing more heavily in technology?” [+]

2.Uneven strategies to integrate ICT in the educational sector.

[1.acces. 2. ICT literacy. 3. e-awareness/informational]

Source: “Digital Literacy European Commission Working Paper and Recommendations from Digital Literacy High-Level Expert Group” (+). [Ministerial e-Inclusion Conference, 2008].

“There is no evidence, that increased educational use of computers actually raised pupil test scores” [+].

2.Uneven strategies to integrate ICT in the educational sector.

[self-learning & informal learning]

Source: “Digital Literacy European Commission Working Paper and Recommendations from Digital Literacy High-Level Expert Group” (+). [Ministerial e-Inclusion Conference, 2008].

„Danish, Swedish students have been leading the acquisition of ICT skills based on informal assistance” [+]

Benchmarking Access & Use ICT in EU schools [Empirica, 2006]:

The majority of teachers in most advanced countries (Dk. Se. Fi. Ne)* use ICT in less than 5% of their classes. Only 10% of those teachers use the PC more than 50% of their lessons.

inconvenient truth:

2.Uneven strategies to integrate ICT in the educational sector.

- PISA [OECD, 2003]:

Students using PC more frequently at school do not perform better than others.Highest performances: students with a medium level of computer use.

Progress Towards The Lisbon Objectives [EU 2008] :“Progress has been patchy”

Se. & Fi. register the lowest use of ICT in EuropeImpact of ICT on students’ performance was highly dependent on teaching approaches.

IEA 2nd Information Technology in Education Study [2006]

No correlation: ICT access & Ø of teachers having used ICT in their teaching.No correlation: Levels of ICT use & levels of perceived learning gains from ICT use.

Oversold and Underused Computers In The Classroom [Cuban, 2001]:

No clear advances (last decade) that can be confidently attributed to broader access to PC.

Access, Adequacy, and Equity in Education Technology [NEA, 2008, USA]

Most educators use technology @ school for administrative tasks (fewer for class).

InfoDev. World Bank [Kozma, 2005 ]

“The positive impact of ICT use in education has not been proved“.

“The impact of ICT on education and training has not yet been as great as expected”

1. Advanced countries are not (very) intensive ICT users in class.2. Frequency of ICT use among students does not determine their academic performance.3. No correlation between the level of ICT access and the percentage of the ICT use.4. The impact on education and training has not been as great as expected.5. No clear advances over the last decade that can be confidently attributed to broader access to PCs.6. Very little scientifically based research to gauge the effectiveness of technology.7. Increasing PC access does not bring about more learning experiences.8. Educators use technology regularly at school for administrative tasks, but substantially fewer use it for instruction-related tasks.9. Students of the most advanced countries developed their ICT skills (mostly) through self- and informal learning.10. There’s a lack of coordination between the adoption of technology in the classroom and the embracing of flexible learning strategies.

trends:

2.Uneven strategies to ingrate ICT in the educational sector.

Are Students Ready for a Technology-Rich World?

(Programme for International Students Assessment. OCDE, 2008).

Technological Myth

“Yet the educational consequences of the full use of ICT are far from clear […]

The impact of new technology in schools ultimately relies on how it is used”

OE

CD

. 2004

“ICT are primarily being used to reinforce existing teaching paradigm, rather than support a significant qualitative change in learning” [OII, R. Eynon].

3.Relevance of ICT competence in a broad sense.

“The workforce now requires employees to know how to do more than simple procedures […] who can recognize what kind of information matters, why it matters, and how it connects and applies to other information […] It is an emphasis on what students can do with knowledge, rather than what units of knowledge they have”

[Education sector, Silva, 2008].

3.Relevance of ICT competence in a broad sense.

- European e-competence Framework:ICT user skills + e-Business skills + ICT Practitioner

- OECD:Basic skills + Advance skills + Specialist skills

- ECDL/Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS):

ICT practitioner /ICT end-users-skills /

e-business skills /

e-competence: Capabilities and skills to manage tacit and explicit knowledge, as well as to use digital technologiesin a knowledge-based economy.

E-competence goes beyond the use of any specific ICT, it also includes working collaboratively, to constantly innovate and create new ideas while facing changing problems in unknown contexts.

-e-awareness (understanding)

-technological literacy (use ICT)

-informational literacy (assess & use critically)

-digital literacy (manage, integrate, create, share)

-media literacy (merging & message)

(underlying concepts)

(Gilster 1997, Peña, 2009, Ontario Association for Media Literacy 1989, CEDEFOP 2004, ETS 2003, Pernia 2008, OECD 2007, Next Generation Learning, UNESCO 2008 and Boles, 2009, Jenkins 2008, Charter for Media Literacy, 2009).

E-Awareness: Understanding the relevance of information & knowledge and the ICT in a knowledge-based-society. Lifelong learning paradigm. Use of ICT as a medium to facilitate individual or collective acquisition of knowledge. Digital Citizenship (legal & ethical behaviour).

Technological Literacy: Confident & critical use of electronic media for study, work, leisure and communication. Main ICT operation (information storage & management). These abilities could be acquired in a formal environment (e.g., ECDL) or informal ways (through self-learning or mates).

Informational Literacy: Ability to read with meaning, to understand, assess (reliability and quality), connect and critically use the information in multiple formats & diverse digital sources. Decide what information is needed in a specific

context or task.

Digital Literacy: Information management skills (instrumental) combined with critical thinking, creativity and innovation (strategic). Access, retrieve, store, manage, integrate, evaluate, create, present, share, exchange & communicate information or knowledge in multiple formats .

Media Literacy: Understanding of how the traditional mass media and the digital media are merging, evolving toward a new media landscape. How are they adopting new formats & their implications.

4.Relevance of ICT competence in a broad sense.

“ICT professionals demand will exceed supply by around 12% per year over the coming years” [+].

BECTA (2008-2011):Development of capabilities: Training (effective use of IT), networking between stakeholders, best practice, informal learning, up-skilling the workforce, incentives to use online & blended learning, update training & qualifications (e-assessment).

Promoting the e-engagement: e-awareness acquisition, promotion of e-skills, increasing engagement of learners, promotion of interoperability, policy advice, promoting the use of standards.

Standardization (human & technological):Definition of IT professional standards & adoption of standards in the e-learning practices.

Research & Evaluation: ensuring that the education and training experience is tailored to different learners’ needs, evaluating the impact of the mentioned initiatives & development of e-assessment.

British Strategies:e-skills UK,

Becta, Big Ambition,

CC4G, Functional Skills,

*Veugelers, M. and Newrly, P.(2008) How to strengthen digital literacy? Practical example of a European initiative “SPreaD” [pdf]. Nº 12 • February 2009. ISSN 1887-1542 (www.elearningpapers.eu +)

4. Recommendations, Conclusions (in process)

“Technology is invisible and intuitive; students don’t ‘learn technology„ ” [Oblinger, 2005]

[ICT Competency Standards for Teachers. UNESCO, 2008].

1. Long Term Agenda.2. Stakeholders Partnerships.3. e-Inclusion.4. Standardization.5. e-Awareness.6. Pedagogical Shift.7. e-Skills Teachers.8. R&D.

1. Long Term Agenda: - Integrate a broad range of views (national & global context).

- Common strategies &

standards to face the need for a highly qualified workforce for the coming decades.

4. Recommendations, Conclusions (in process)

Illustrator: Allan Stochholm

2. Stakeholders Partnerships: - Dialogue between education, businesses and users. - Collective initiatives to improve the educational sector. - Challenges in the up-skilling & re-skilling of the current and the next workforce.

4. Recommendations, Conclusions (in process)

Illustrator: Allan Stochholm

3. E-inclusion: - Not just ideal “knowledge worker”. - Keep in mind levels 1, 2 & 3. Short-middle term, reach the 3rd

level of e-competence (info., media & tech. literacy & e-awareness). - Reduce the gender gap. - Free software and low cost technology, subsidizing SMEs.

4. Recommendations, Conclusions (in process)

Illustrator: Allan Stochholm

4. Standardization: -Set ICT competencies, standards (criterias) & certifications. - Common understanding should be nationally but also internationally recognized. - Simplify mobility of the workforce. - Generate the needed conditions.+ European e-Competence Framework.+ ECDL. + European credit transfer system.+ Ministry of Education in Taiwan.

4. Recommendations, Conclusions (in process)

Illustrator: Allan Stochholm

5. e-Awareness: - Promote continuous updating of ICT competencies. - Engaging new generations of professionals in technology-related careers. - Understanding the importance of ICT competence (big picture) - Acquisition of e-competence as continuous process (informal). - Promoting the acquisition of these skills in the people´s own work/study context. -Bottom –up approach.

4. Recommendations, Conclusions (in process)

Dan Perjovschi

6. Pedagogical Shift: - Uneven & patchy results. - Avoid reductionist approaches. - Impacts are not always predictable. - ICT + project-based learning, self & collaborative learning, combining knowledge & disciplines, merging divisions between on/off learning (blended).

- Re-think the curriculum (not limited to ICT). - Self & informal learning. - Assessing non-formal/tacit.

4. Recommendations, Conclusions (in process)

Illustrator: Allan Stochholm

7. E-Skills Teachers: - Impact of ICT on students are highly dependent on the teaching approaches. -New role of teacher (ppt.).-Flexible ICT Competency Standards & other “soft skills” (communication skills; team-working skills; problem-solving skills; entrepreneurial skills; creativity; among others).

-ICT Peer Coaching. Networks.- Certification. - Incentive to teachers. - Pedagogical ICT skills (avoid the restrictive use of ICT).

4. Recommendations, Conclusions (in process)

Illustrator: Allan Stochholm

8. Research & development: -More evidences are required from critical studies. -Evaluate systematically the effectiveness & impact. -“Internal” evaluation an “observatory perspective”, - Bring new insides & best practices from other contexts.

4. Recommendations, Conclusions (in process)

Dan Perjovschi