Digital Technologies vs Digital Literacy

 
 
 

Written by Grok Academy

Digital competence crisis in Australian education

When pondering crucial skills for the future, computer or internet-related competencies are undeniably among the top 5 or 10 essentials for students. This is supported by the OECD[1] and World Economic Forum[2] where ICT or Digital Literacy skills are listed in their top 5. In Australia, almost every profession has undergone digitisation. The 2023 Australian Computer Society (ACS) Digital Pulse report[3] estimates that by 2030, 95% of Australian jobs will be affected in some way by technological advancement.

Conducted by ACARA every 3 years, the NAPICT assessment serves as a benchmark for Digital Technologies and Digital Literacy aspects of the curriculum. Minimum proficiency, deemed "challenging but achievable" for the age group, falls between levels 3 and 4 on the six-level scale.  What implications arise from the fact that less than half of Australian Year 10 students in 2022 reached the minimum proficiency level for ICT skills? Since 2008, these NAPICT-measured skills have been declining.[4] The tasks outlined in Table 1 are typical activities undertaken daily by many individuals.

Examples of levelled task from the NAPICT assessment

Digital Literacy

  • Clicking on a hyperlink on a webpage (Level 1)

  • Identify how long a task will take using a project tool (GANTT chart) (Level 2)

  • Choosing a name for a file based on an identified file naming convention (Level 3)

  • Copy and paste text from a webpage to another application (Level 4)

  • Create a presentation including adding images and text (Level 6)

Digital Technologies

  • Identify where some buttons should be placed in a user interface to make it easy to use (Level 5)

  • Ensure the design of a presentation meets its intended purpose (Level 6)

However, NAPICT results reveal that less than 50% of Year 10 students are able to perform basic tasks like copying and pasting text from a webpage to another application. How is this possible, especially after extensive online learning completed during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Further analysis of these results[4] reveals a strong correlation between ICT proficiency and socio-economic status, intensifying the urgency of addressing this issue amid growing digitisation. Failure to act will only increase inequality in already disadvantaged communities.

How did we reach this point?

During such moments, our education system often faces scrutiny, questioning why students fail to acquire these essential skills during their schooling, with the attention focused on the curriculum. However, in this case, Australia cannot attribute blame to the curriculum.

Since 2018, Digital Technologies as a subject has been mandatory for all Australian school students from Foundation until the end of Year 8. In years 9 and 10, it is often offered as an elective subject and each state and territory has some version of a Digital Technologies based senior secondary pathway although not all schools will offer these options.

Concurrently to the DT subject being mandated, the ICT General Capability (Digital Literacy in V9) was implemented. General capabilities were designed to highlight essential skills transcending individual subjects, yet in practice, the lack of shared accountability for teaching ICT skills has led to their neglect. Further, a systemic misconception of Digital Technologies and Digital Literacy has meant that the lofty goals of both aspects of curriculum are, in many cases, not being addressed adequately by schools.

If the Digital Technologies Curriculum and ICT General Capability were fully implemented in 2018, why are the NAPICT results in 2022 so damning?

The case for Digital Technologies 

Many teachers misunderstand the Digital Technologies curriculum.  One misconception lies with likening Digital Technologies to teaching basic computer usage. However, this falls under Digital Literacy, and is not solely the responsibility of Digital Technologies teachers. A significant number of schools still create and implement Digital Technologies programs that really only focus on Digital Literacy.

The second misunderstanding centres around coding, which is indeed a part of the Digital Technologies curriculum but is far from the entirety of what it encompasses. Focusing only on coding risks missing some of the richest and most important aspects of the subject area. The Digital Technologies curriculum is based on 9 core concepts (digital systems, data representation, data acquisition, data interpretation, abstraction, specification, algorithms, implementation, and privacy and security). You may be shocked to know that coding falls into only one of these concepts; implementation! By neglecting the other 8 concepts, we risk replicating a problem seen regularly in the tech world - developing solutions without grasping the problem or its consequences for those affected. My favourite sentence from the rationale for the Digital Technologies curriculum is “Digital Technologies empowers students to shape change by influencing how contemporary and emerging information systems and practices are applied to meet current and future needs.”[5]

So why is Digital Technologies so misunderstood?

Given that Digital Technologies is relatively new to the curriculum, many teachers would not have gained experience when undertaking their initial teacher education. Further, few would have encountered the subject during their own schooling, limiting their understanding of its fundamentals. According to the AITSL teacher workforce data for 2023, the Technologies learning area has the largest number of out of area teachers (44%).[6] The figures encompass both subjects in the Technologies area, potentially obscuring the fact that the statistic for Digital Technologies is significantly higher. In primary education, this challenge is exacerbated by the struggle for teachers to accommodate additional content within their already packed teaching schedules. It is also important to note that by 2030, nearly all professions will involve technology to some extent. Therefore, empowering our primary teachers is crucial, as the ACS Digital Pulse report[3] highlights early exposure to quality technology education increases the likelihood that students will have an interest in a technical career.

Digital Technologies programs frequently lose substantive curriculum content when teachers encounter student disengagement and struggle to maintain focus and productivity. This challenge arises from educators' own deficiencies in technical and content knowledge, compounded by a lack of pedagogical expertise necessary for effective teaching and student engagement.

The case for Digital Literacy

As mentioned above, the purpose of Digital Technologies is not to explicitly teach Digital Literacy skills. Digital Literacy should be viewed in the same way as Literacy and Numeracy; whilst there are certainly aspects that lend themselves to be taught explicitly in Digital Technologies, there are specific tools and skills that are unique to other learning areas. Digital Literacy, as defined by the Australian Curriculum version 9, encompasses 4 elements:

  • Practising digital safety and wellbeing

  • Investigating

  • Creating and exchanging

  • Managing and operating[7]

Schools cannot shirk their responsibilities for Digital Literacy. In fact, the curriculum explicitly outlines the obligations to teach Digital Literacy across all learning areas, as seen in Table 2 below.

Digital Literacy across the Curriculum

Subject: Science Yr 9-10

Content description: write and create texts to communicate ideas, findings and arguments effectively for identified purposes and audiences, including selection of appropriate content, language and text features, using digital tools as appropriate (AC9S9I08)

Subject: English Year 5

Content description: plan, create, rehearse and deliver spoken and multimodal presentations that include relevant, elaborated ideas, sequencing ideas and using complex sentences, specialist and technical vocabulary, pitch, tone, pace, volume, and visual and digital features (AC9E5LY07)

Many schools and teachers justify the lack of explicit Digital Literacy teaching by believing the myth of the digital native; that students, having grown up with technology, thus inherently know how to use it. The NAPICT report[4], highlighting a consistent proficiency decline since 2008, underscores that creating and sharing social media videos does not signify proficient Digital Literacy skills.

Teachers often argue against using ICT devices in class due to concerns about students becoming easily distracted and off-task. The NAPICT report[4] highlighted a correlation between lower ICT achievement and increased use of ICT devices for entertainment purposes during school hours. As Dr. Ross Greene asserts, ‘kids do well if they can’ [8]. Students are likely to go off-task because they lack the necessary skills to stay focused. Therefore, it is imperative to explicitly teach them skills to help. Similarly with the use of digital tools in the classroom, these must be explicitly taught to reduce student distraction.

A significant barrier to building student capacity, however, lies with the fact that many teachers lack confidence in teaching Digital Literacy within their learning area.

The answer

Given that teacher capability is crucial for enhancing Digital Technologies and Digital Literacy skills in students, it is imperative to establish ways of effecting this change. Recognising that the teaching workforce is already overstretched, it is unsustainable to expect teachers to independently up-skill in these areas outside of their regular workload.

Therefore, school leaders must prioritise the professional development of their staff in Digital Literacy, an evolving general capability crucial for the future worlds our students will live. Extensively documented in educational literature, quality professional learning significantly enhances teacher knowledge, practice, and skills in Digital Literacy are no exception to this rule. The resultant impact provides teachers with a deeper understanding so they can effectively integrate the necessary skills into their teaching programs.

Professional learning must also play a significant role in up-skilling teachers in Digital Technologies, so that it too can be taught with intent and skill. It is again up to school leaders to carefully consider timetabling and to deploy trained teachers into Digital Technologies classes or in roles where they are given the time to support others to develop these skills.

Quality professional learning must transcend mere courses. Grok believes that we must foster communities where teachers engage in ongoing mentoring and collaborative support.  This necessitates dedicated time and effort from school leaders. Despite competing demands, neglecting this imperative will perpetuate the decline in students obtaining the skills they will need for our digital future.

[1] OECD Skills for 2030 Concept Note (2019)

[2] World Economic Forum New Vision for Education: Unlocking the Potential of Technology (2015)

[3] Australian Computer Society Digital Pulse 9th Edition (2023)

[4] National Assessment Program ICT Literacy Public Report (2022)

[5] ACARA Australian Curriculum version 9: Digital Technologies Rationale

[6] AITSL Teacher Workforce Data (2023)

[7] ACARA Australia Curriculum version 9 Digital Literacy General Capability

[8] The Explosive Child, Dr Ross Greene PhD (1998)

For more information and to register for for the Grok Stream: Building Digitally Capable Learners

Melbourne: https://www.nationaleducationsummit.com.au/melbourne/grok-stream

Brisbane: https://www.nationaleducationsummit.com.au/brisbane/grok-stream

 
 
 
Darshana Amarsi