|
 To
be a successful student, employee, employer, enterprise owner
or citizen in 21st century information and knowledge
economies, it is increasingly important to understand and be
able to use information and communications technologies (ICT)
– at least as an ICT User.
In our society today, most people need basic knowledge and
skills in ICT, much like most people need at least basic
knowledge and skills with written and conversational English,
with mathematics and science, and with other basic education
components.
Increasingly, in recognition of that fact, citizens,
educators, businesses, government organizations, students and
public interest groups are calling for “Digital Literacy” or
ICT User proficiency policies, standards, resources, programs
and assessments.
People studying social equality and factors for success in
modern life have identified an important issue frequently
called the “Digital Divide.” Access to information and
communications technologies and an ability to use them
productively is an essential modern capability. Those with ICT
access, knowledge and abilities have significant advantages
over those who do not.
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Students with digital access and abilities can efficiently
obtain and complete school assignments through digital
media, have immediate access to vast arrays of information
and tutorials through the Internet and libraries, can
connect easily in various ways with other students to
resolve questions about (missed) assignments and support and
collaborate with each other, use electronic productivity
tools, present their work professionally and impressively,
and can share their work easily to demonstrate abilities…
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Job seekers with ICT access and abilities can search online
employer and job opportunity sites efficiently, prepare and
send professional resumes and electronic job applications
efficiently, network with friends and peers to share
opportunities and support each other in finding work, refer
prospective employers to online portfolios that demonstrate
abilities, easily acquire and share reference letters, and
have essential ICT User level workplace skills and knowledge
required or valued in most positions today.
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Workers with digital access and abilities can increasingly
(at least sometimes) work from home to better balance work
and family, frequently better add value to employer
enterprises and advance faster in their careers, interact
with employer HR, information and productivity systems
competently, and have valued workplace skills.
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Citizens with ICT access and abilities can efficiently learn
about and apply for government services and programs, learn
about and participate in political processes, buy and sell
goods and services efficiently online, manage banking and
other financial assets and relationships efficiently, access
and learn about almost anything anywhere, communicate easily
with many people in many ways, and obtain important
information quicker…
The Digital Divide is the separation between advantaged,
digital ‘Haves” and disadvantaged, digital “Have Nots.” As a
society, we are all better off if all of us are or at least
have the opportunity to be digital “Haves.” We all realize
benefits of more productive citizens, organizations, systems
and services.
This is consistent with egalitarian values and principles at
the core of American social organization, and Americans
frequently agree with this in principle. Even the greediest
and most conservative of business people agree they would
benefit if they could market and sell to all Americans
inexpensively through the Internet.
Eliminating the Digital Divide requires:
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“Digital Access” - available, affordable and adequate access
to ICT equipment, software, networks and services, for
everyone,
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“Digital Literacy” - adequate knowledge and skills to use
ICT productively, for everyone,
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Comprehensive plans to achieve these goals that are widely
understood and agreed to,
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Adequate resources and efforts to implement those plans, and
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Competent leadership and management to see those plans
executed competently.
 Ideally:
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The U.S. Federal government would convene a “blue ribbon”
working group or task force of experts from diverse
employers, ICT industries, academia, public interest groups,
government agencies, standards
bodies and other interested parties to study these issues
and goals comprehensively, strategically and quantitatively,
and publish its findings, definitions, recommendations and
plans for achieving these goals and realizing these benefits
for our society, country and economies.
-
Those findings would inform educational standards, strategic
government policies and rules, assessment strategies, and
national “broadband” plans to eliminate the Digital Divide
and move the country forward strategically in the 21st
century.
-
Those would be applied and implemented comprehensively,
efficiently and consistently, addressing K-12 educational
systems, higher education systems and the general public.
It
has been claimed that the U.S. is the only “first world,”
industrialized nation not making any significant effort to do
this.
Frequently, the way we do things in the U.S. is through a
wild-west, “ready, shoot, aim” free-for-all, where anybody who
wants to aggressively tries to assert leadership and exploit a
situation for profit. People get confused by proliferate
competing terminology, assertions, solutions and products,
many of which ultimately fail, leaving their adopters
stranded. We ultimately end up having spent much more
aggregate time and energy producing lower quality solutions
that are imperfectly and inconsistently implemented at maximum
cost to society, without meeting society’s needs. Many other
countries agree on a social goal, plan carefully, and
efficiently execute in a coordinated manner to realize optimal
benefits for society.
As
time passes, the U.S. slides in relation to other global
citizen states in measures of “broadband” availability,
adoption, speed and quality, in educational system and student
performance, and in economic performance, social function and
status.
Eliminating the Digital Divide, providing adequate Digital
Access and achieving Digital Literacy, or ICT User Competency,
for all, are important, strategic issues that deserve
comprehensive, consistent and high quality solutions here in
the U.S.
Clearly, community colleges deserve a major, strategic role in
plans and implementations to improve Digital Literacy, expand
Digital Access and reduce the Digital Divide. California
Community Colleges, for example, are the largest higher
education system in the nation, serving nearly 3 million
students per year at an extremely affordable $26 per unit for
credit and $0 for non-credit courses. Community college
student populations are extremely diverse, serving students
from high school to retirement ages, from every racial and
ethnic background, in every socio-economic niche and strata,
with many different educational backgrounds, from all genders,
and with many different educational and life goals. Community
colleges can help our society reach digital literacy goals and
implement solutions to achieve digital literacy.
 Most
community college faculty are community-minded, professional
and accomplished teachers. We just need to know what to teach.
Community colleges relatively nimbly develop and adapt ICT
related programs that:
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Teach ICT User level knowledge and skills for everyone –
Digital Literacy
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Teach ICT knowledge and skills for those entering the ICT
workforce, including many who enable User Digital Access
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Prepare students for advanced degrees through affordable
transfer pathways, some of whom advance ICT fields through
ICT research and development
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Help all kinds of people, including working professionals
with advanced degrees, learn and keep up with rapidly
changing ICT technologies
However, different community colleges often teach these topics
differently, covering different material, and naming and
packaging ICT related academic credentials differently,
diluting the value of those credentials for all.
What should we be teaching as basic ICT User knowledge and
skills, or Digital Literacy, for everyone? How should we
assess that? How can we certify those knowledge and skill sets
in a way that is widely recognized and valuable to students,
employers and educational systems? Done right, there is vast
potential demand for these courses and credentials.
Watch out, here come some bullets!
Some “Digital Literacy” definitions emerge from traditional
definitions of “literacy,” or “information literacy,”
frequently generated by library-based organizations and
efforts. For example, in 2000 the Association of College and
Research Libraries defined “Information Literacy” as a set of
abilities requiring individuals to "recognize when information
is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use
effectively the needed information.” That definition was also
endorsed by the American Association for Higher Education in
1999 and the Council of Independent Colleges in 2004. They
agreed an information literate person is able to:
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Determine the extent of information needed
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Access needed information effectively and efficiently
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Evaluate information and its sources critically
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Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base
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Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
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Understand the economic, legal, and social issues
surrounding the use of information, and access and use
information ethically and legally
“Information Literacy” definitions and goals existed before
widespread availability of computer systems, when we relied on
libraries, card catalogs, books, magazines, newspapers and
journals for information. Now that much of that has been moved
to networked, computer-based systems, information literacy
requires ICT User knowledge and skills. “Digital Literacy”
definitions exist which are generally traditional “Information
Literacy” with “in digital environments,” apparently added
more or less as an afterthought.
In 2007, the National ICT Literacy Policy Council was formed
by the National Forum on Information Literacy (www.infolit.org)
to serve as the certification board for U.S. ICT literacy
standards. They adapted information literacy into
recommendations for national ICT literacy standards as:
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Define: Understand and articulate the scope of an
information problem in order to facilitate the electronic
search for information.
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Access: Collect and/or retrieve information in digital
environments. Information sources might be Web pages,
databases, discussion groups, e-mail, or online descriptions
of print media.
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Evaluate: Judge whether information satisfies an information
problem by determining authority, bias, timeliness,
relevance, and other aspects of materials.
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Manage: Organize information to help you or others find it
later.
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Integrate: Interpret and represent information, such as by
using digital tools to synthesize, summarize, compare, and
contrast information from multiple sources.
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Create: Adapt, apply, design, or construct information in
digital environments.
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Communicate: Disseminate information tailored to a
particular audience in an effective digital format.
Educational
Testing Services (ETS), which administers the SAT test,
among others, adopted these as the basis for its iSkills
certification test, which has since been discontinued.
California has a Digital Literacy initiative created
by Executive Order S-06-09, which created a California ICT
Digital Literacy Leadership Council, informed by a Digital
Literacy Advisory Committee (which MPICT has recently joined)
that uses a closely related definition in its
Pathways Report:
A
series of videos has recently launched advocating for
California’s Digital Literacy efforts.
When MPICT asks community college faculty in ICT related
programs about teaching Digital Literacy with this definition,
they don’t know quite what to teach, or how to consistently
assess or certify it. They are happy to infuse these skills
into other courses, but they teach ICT technologies, and ICT
technologies are not adequately defined or specified in this
digital literacy definition.
MPICT’s Advisory Panel agreed these “Information Literacy”
skills are important for their workforces, but so are ICT User
technical knowledge and skills that are not addressed. Asking
people why they do not adopt ICTs, few say it is because they
do not know how to conduct and present research. Rather, they
say it is because they don’t understand or are intimidated by
the technologies, or they do not understand their benefits or
can/will not afford them.
Perhaps the leading technical ICT User certification in the
U.S. is
Certiport’s IC3 (Internet and Computing Core
Certification), which is focused on hardware, software and
online knowledge and skills and has a test and certification
vehicle recognized across the country.
Internationally, the leading technical ICT User certification
is the
International Computer Driving License (ICDL), the
European Computer Driving License (ECDL) in Europe, with a
similar technical focus. They are offered in 148 countries
through 41 languages.
Community College faculty in ICT related programs understand
how to prepare students for these. Commercial certification
tests have fees, a barrier to some, but many already see the
value of certification tests offered by organizations like
Cisco, CompTIA, Microsoft, ISC2 and many others.
Interestingly, ETS has rebranded its iSkills offering as
iCriticalThinking. On the
iCriticalThinking data sheet is:
ETS now partners with Certiport to offer certification of both
technical ICT Literacy and these Critical Thinking skills.
This more comprehensive solution can serve as national
standards, curriculum and credentials for Digital (Information
+ ICT) Literacy.
Even the combined Certiport IC3 and ETS iCriticalThinking
credential does not capture all an ICT User needs to be able
to know and do to be successful in modern knowledge,
information and innovation economies. A U.S. Digital Citizen
still needs to be able to speak and write English, do math,
understand scientific thinking, work in teams, understand how
government, society and organizations work, be able to problem
solve and add value.
To really understand what a Digital Citizen needs to be
successful, we need a larger and more comprehensive framework.
For example, in 2008, the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization produced the following
framework for Information Literacy. To be information
literate, you need thinking, basic, communication, ICT, media
and information literacy skills.
A
leading educational reform effort in the U.S. is the
Partnership for
21st Century Skills, a business and industry led effort to
improve education in America driven by organizations like
Apple, Cisco, Dell, Disney, ETS, HP, Intel, Microsoft and
Oracle. Its mission is “To serve as a catalyst to position
21st century readiness at the center of US K12 education by
building collaborative partnerships among education, business,
community and government leaders.”
Its Framework presents a holistic view of 21st century
teaching and learning combining 21st century student outcomes,
a blending of specific skills, content knowledge, expertise
and literacies (the arches of the rainbow), with innovative
support systems (the pools at the bottom) to help students
master the multi-dimensional abilities required of them in the
21st century.
Its Information, Media and Technology Skills include
Information Literacy,
Media Literacy and
ICT Literacy – all necessary.
A few years ago, the IT Association of America (which has
since been consumed by
TechAmerica) produced in conjunction with the U.S.
Department of Labor the following IT Employment Competency
Model, which is still available on
CareerOneStop and is an excellent discussion tool for IT
worker competencies:
This is a thorny field. What we really need is a comprehensive
set of definitions and solutions we can all line up on.
MPICT is grappling with these issues on behalf of community
college ICT related programs in its region.
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