The Independent Review of ICT User Skills of Britain’s population has just been published. It makes for some interesting reading.
Chaired by erstwhile Education Secretary Estelle Morris, the committee looked at this aspect of ‘digital Britain’ from all angles.
From an educationalist’s perspective it is essential reading, I think. For a start, it summarises the various policies throughout the years, of which Harnessing Technology is but one (although there is at least one, I think, that has been omitted). I believe that such an historical perspective serves to place current policies in perspective – the more so when you consider that for the time period covered in this section the same political party has been in office.
I don’t think there will be anything in here to startle people. It states, unsurprisingly, that there is a strong correlation between digital exclusion and social exclusion (although there is at least some evidence that some people choose to exclude themselves digitally: see Virtual Society?: Technology, Cyberbole, Reality and The Myth of The Digital Native).
Also, it makes the obvious point that more and more companies are turning to web 2.0 solutions for their internal communications (which was nicely exemplified by the company I visited yesterday as part of the Inside the Workplace events I’ve been running on behalf of the SSAT for teachers of the new Diploma.)
There are some interesting points about what makes for successful teaching of ICT (remember, this is for adults, but the same would apply to youngsters too):
“1. Effective provision is delivering ICT SfL [Skills for Life] in contexts that match the purpose for which the learner wishes to learn.
2. Teaching of basic ICT provision is not underpinned by a clear pedagogy, and existing
programmes are delivered by tutors with a range of qualifications and backgrounds.
3. For some learners embedding ICT SfL provision in other learning, such as literacy,
numeracy or vocational provision is an effective means of delivery.”
With an outline of the plethora of ICT skills qualifications on offer in the UK, the report represents a quick way of getting to grips with the vastness of this whole area without the need to invest too much time into finding out.
Thankfully, unlike many such reviews it recommends a simplification of the system rather than lots of disparate and unconnected reforms. The fundamental idea is to define a simple set of skills which would constitute an ICT entitlement, and then provide up to 9 hours support for would-be participants, who could access courses through a single point of contact. Crucially, in my view, the variety of delivery avenues, with tutor involvement kept to a minimum, reflects the importance of informal learning – except that I would add the caveat that informal learning without extremely effective materials and support can easily fail to be effective.
You can access the review online.
The document referred to is Crown copyright. Items reproduced with permission (PSI Licence C2008000032).
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