Digital competence: Improving pupils’ digital skills

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What is digital competence?

It’s a concept that describes technology-related skills (Lomami et al 2011). In Successful Futures, Professor Graham Donaldson highlighted the importance of our pupils developing their digital skills in order for them to adapt to the ever-changing technological world:

Full participation in modern society and the workplace already demands increasingly high levels of digital competence and that process can only continue into a future that we cannot imagine.

That’s why it’s essential that education in Wales prepares our children and young people to meet the digital demands that their future lives may bring.

In July 2018, we published a thematic review investigating methods that schools were using to prepare for the implementation of the DCF and highlighting examples of where successful practice exists. We also shared the common features of schools that have already made good progress in planning for the digital competence framework.

What do inspections tell us?

As a school inspector, I’m fortunate to be able to talk with schools and young people about how they are developing their digital competence skills. I always find it refreshing to hear pupils of all ages discussing their digital work and to see how quickly they are able to apply their skills and use a range of digital resources and software.

The development of pupils’ ICT skills continues to be a priority area for many schools and pupils’ ICT skills are not as well developed as those for literacy and numeracy. Even so, there are examples where schools from all sectors are giving pupils great opportunities to apply and improve their digital skills. In these cases, the impact on pupils is positive and helps to increase pupils’ confidence when they are using different digital tools.

What is working well?

During inspections and thematic visits, we have identified the best approaches to implementing the DCF in schools and looked at how these have improved pupils’ digital skills. In this section I’ll explore common approaches with a particular focus on leadership and provision.

In general, the best schools have strong leadership. Leaders manage change effectively and have a clear vision for the implementation of the DCF. They include their team in developing this vision and translate this into whole-school planning with a core focus on improving the quality of teaching. A common theme across schools with effective practice is the appointment of a strong digital leader. These leaders are able to drive and monitor the provision for digital skills across the school and swiftly take any action required.   

High quality professional learning is a key to the success of implementing the DCF. When schools are successful in improving digital skills, staff are well supported and professional learning activity allows them to address their own learning needs and those of pupils.

How are schools implementing the DCF?

There are many common aspects that have supported schools successfully to implement the DCF and improve pupils’ digital skills:

  • The gathering of useful evidence by schools through their self-evaluation processes, used well to plan for improvement
  • Effective digital leaders
  • Strong auditing of staff and pupils’ strengths and areas for development with the DCF, including the network structures within their schools
  • A good range of bespoke and tailored professional learning opportunities based on the needs of individual staff and groups
  • Raising awareness of the importance of digital skills with the school community
  • Strong curriculum mapping of high quality opportunities for pupils to develop and apply their skills

Challenges school face

When securing change and improvement, it is likely that we will face barriers and challenges along the way. There are many common challenges that schools face:

  • Leaders have difficulty developing and sharing a vision that includes working with other schools to support improvement
  • Connectivity issues are experienced in school
  • Developing digital skills is not planned for or evaluated robustly enough
  • Digital leaders are not clear enough of expectations of their roles
  • Curriculum mapping does not identify sufficient opportunities for the development of digital skills
  • Professional learning is not used effectively to develop teachers’ skills and knowledge

Questions to consider

Our report, Preparing for the Digital Competence Framework, has some helpful questions to consider if you are currently developing digital competence as a priority (pages 19–20).

An example from a recent inspection…

In our thematic report we identified a number of case studies that you could use and adapt to suit your setting. Here are is an example of how a school recently inspected has developed the DCF:

Ysgol Bryn Tawe (Swansea)

Ysgol Bryn Tawe’s leadership team have a clear focus on the development of digital skills and technology across their school. They are working towards implementing the DCF by developing strong relationships with their cluster schools and running joint professional learning that successfully improved all staff’s knowledge and confidence. A particular feature is the way they have mapped opportunities for pupils to apply their digital skills and allowed digital leaders to identify gaps and areas for development effectively. Leaders and staff have reacted positively and quickly to address the areas identified, which have led to improved quality of provision and standards of pupils’ digital skills.

References

Ilomäki, L., Kantosalo, A., & Lakkala, M. (2011). What is digital competence? In Linked portal. Brussels: European Schoolnet.

Donaldson, G. (2015). Successful Futures, Independent Review of Curriculum and Assessment Arrangements in Wales: Crown Copyright.