Session Information
16 SES 01 B, Current and Emergent Theoretical and Ethical Perspectives in Research on ICT in K-12 Education and Teacher Education
Paper session
Contribution
This proposal addresses some theoretical perspectives underlying the need to teach digital skills to K-12 students and to prepare teachers to play a mediating role in digital environment. There are three main arguments behind this perspective:
1. Digital technologies are transforming the content and nature of teaching and learning.
The interactivity, speed and volume of information online, fundamentally transform the content as well as the nature of teaching and learning in both schools and homes (Facer et al., 2003, Erstad, 2011). Also, the ubiquity of the experience online, not only shape and influence the ways in which school subjects are learnt; they can also affect what young people know about school subjects and the skills they will need to learn and develop their command of the subject (Hague & Payton, 2010).
2. Digital skills are an important capability for learning and should be taught in schools.
Together with the more traditional literacies of reading, writing and mathematics, students should have a new set of skills related to the use of Information and communication technologies (ICT) or digital technologies. The so-called digital literacy (Gilster, 1998) has been considered a mind-set to both easily and effectively access and process knowledge in different codes and formats (e.g., text, videos, images) in a digital environment (Fraillon, Schulz & Ainley, 2013; Martin, 2008; van Dijk & van Deursen, 2014). As such, it becomes an important capability for learning and participation (Hague & Payton, 2010).
Notwithstanding digital literacy´s relevance, little is known about how children, teenagers and adults become skilled in this type of literacy. Many assume that these abilities develop spontaneously and, as such, in comparison to the conventional literacies, they receive little attention from school systems (Eynon, 2010; Selwyn, 2011). However, research has shown that it is unlikely that the new generations will develop these skills without deliberate instruction (Brand-Gruwel, Wopereis, & Vermetten, 2005; Eynon, 2010; Walraven, Brand-Gruwel, & Boshuizen, 2008) that they are not equally distributed across all students (Claro, Preiss, San Martín, et al., 2012). On the contrary, evidence in Chile and other countries shows that the complexity of digital and online environments may represent new sources of disadvantage to those students that are already in disadvantage in analogic or offline contexts (Claro et.al., 2012; Claro, Cabello, San Martin & Nussbaum, 2015). Even more, some results support the so-called Amplification Theory, which claims that instead of levelling the playing field, technologies tend to amplify existing inequalities (Kentaro, 2011). Therefore, educational systems have an important role to play in developing students´ digital skills, especially for those digitally disadvantaged.
3. Teachers should play an active role in students learning process in digital environment.
The Internet presents unlimited access to learning resources, challenging the quality of students´ learning and teacher’s formative or mediating role in this process. Teachers´ previous authority, partly based in their subject-based knowledge, is questioned, as they are no longer the only or most important source of information. Nevertheless, teachers have an important role to play in mediating students learning online. This means developing their ability to solve information and communication problems, by providing subject-based concepts and criteria, together with pedagogical scaffolding for their learning activities (Claro, Salinas, Cabello-Hutt, et.al. 2018)
Method
The perspectives presented in this proposal are based in different theoretical and empirical sources. The most important are digital inclusion and digital literacy theories and empirical research related to students´ digital skills. More specifically the main sources are the following Digital inclusion perspectives: • Helsper, E. J. (2012). A Corresponding Fields Model for the Links Between Social and Digital Exclusion. COMT Communication Theory, 22(4), 403-426. • Selwyn, N. (2004). Reconsidering Political and Popular Understandings of the Digital Divide. New Media & Society, 6(3), 341-362. doi: 10.1177/1461444804042519 • Selwyn, N., & Facer, K. (2007). Beyond the digital divide: Rethinking digital inclusion for the 21st century. Bristol: Futurelab. • Warschauer, M. (2012). The digital divide and social inclusion. Americas Quarterly. Digital literacy frameworks: • Ananiadou, K, & Claro, Magdalena. (2009). 21st century skills and competences for new millenium lerners in OECD countries. In OECD (Ed.), Working Papers (Vol. 41). France. • Fraillon, J., Schulz, W., & Ainley, J. (2013). International Computer and Information Literacy Study: Assessment Framework International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). • Ferrari, A. (2013). DIGCOMP: A Framework for Developing and Understanding Digital Competence in Europe. JRC Scientific and Policy Reports, European Commission. Amplification theory: • Kentaro, T. (2011). Technology as amplifier in international development. ACM, 2 Penn Plaza, Suite 701, New York, NY 10121-0701, USA. Digital learning perspectives: • Hague, C., & Payton, S. (2010). Digital literacy across the curriculum. Futurelab. • Erstad, O. (2012). The learning lives of digital youth—beyond the formal and informal. Oxford Review of Education, 38(1), 25-43. doi: 10.1080/03054985.2011.577940 Empirical research related to students´ digital skills and teachers’ capacity to teach in digital environments • Claro, M., Cabello, T., San Martín, E., & Nussbaum, M. (2015). Comparing marginal effects of Chilean students' economic, social and cultural status on digital versus reading and mathematics performance. Computers & Education, 82(0), 1-10. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2014.10.018 • Claro, M., Preiss, D. D., San Martín, E., Jara, I., Hinostroza, J. E., Valenzuela, S., . . . Nussbaum, M. (2012). Assessment of 21st century ICT skills in Chile: Test design and results from high school level students. Computers & Education, 59(3), 1042-1053. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.04.004 • Claro, M., Salinas, A., Cabello, T.,..et. al. (2018) Teaching in a Digital Environment (TIDE): Defining and measuring teachers’ capacity to develop students’ digital information and communication skills. Computers & Education( Under Review)
Expected Outcomes
Addressing students´ digital literacy as a capability for learning is of paramount importance for contemporary educational policies that must recognize and embrace the digital environment. In particular, initial teacher training institutions need to include digital elements across the curriculum. More specifically, initial teacher training programs should consider at least, the following digital elements: (1) Digital literacy as cross-disciplinary capacity. Operating ICT: It refers to ‘tool literacies’ which implies having the necessary skills to be able to use, operate and solve technology related problems --e.g., word processors, spreadsheets, navigation tools. Working with Information: It refers to the cognitive skills required to deal with the great amount of information available on the Internet, such as searching, accessing, evaluating and organizing information, as well as producing and communicating information. Understanding digital technologies: It refers to critical thinking about the role, opportunities and challenges of technology and digital media in real-world problems. It is about knowing when and why digital technologies are appropriate and helpful to the task at hand and when they are not. (2) New methods and tools to support subject based learning in digital environments. Following the TPACK framework, future teachers should learn about the use of digital technologies related to pedagogical and technological knowledge (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). In general, this means being able to integrate digital tools and adopt teaching methods that favor students’ learning. (3) Digital notions and contents. It refers to acquiring knowledge that is specific to digital environments and enable future teachers to analyze and evaluate the impact of ICT in social, economic and cultural contexts.
References
Brand-Gruwel, S., Wopereis, I., & Vermetten, Y. (2005). Information problem solving by experts and novices: analysis of a complex cognitive skill. Computers in Human Behavior, 21(3), 487e508. Brand-Gruwel, S., Wopereis, I., & Walraven, A. (2009). A descriptive model of information problem solving while using internet. Computers & Education, 53(4), 1207e1217. Claro, M., Cabello, T., San Martín, E., & Nussbaum, M. (2015). Comparing marginal effects of Chilean students' economic, social and cultural status on digital versus reading and mathematics performance. Computers & Education, 82(0), 1-10. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2014.10.018 Claro, M., Preiss, D. D., San Martín, E., Jara, I., Hinostroza, J. E., Valenzuela, S., . . . Nussbaum, M. (2012). Assessment of 21st century ICT skills in Chile: Test design and results from high school level students. Computers & Education, 59(3), 1042-1053. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.04.004 Claro, M., Salinas, A., Cabello, T.,..et. al. (2018) Teaching in a Digital Environment (TIDE): Defining and measuring teachers’ capacity to develop students’ digital information and communication skills. Computers & Education Under Review Eynon, R. (2010). Supporting the ¨Digital Natives¨: what is the role of schools? Proceedings of the 7th International Conference. Retrieved 14 June of 2017 from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2206931 Facer, K., Furlong, J., Furlong, R., & Sutherland, R. (2003). Screenplay: Children and computing in the home. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Fraillon, J., Schulz, W., & Ainley, J. (2013). International Computer and Information Literacy Study: Assessment Framework International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Gilster, P. (1998). Digital literacy. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Kentaro, T. (2011). Technology as amplifier in international development. ACM, 2 Penn Plaza, Suite 701, New York, NY 10121-0701, USA. Martin, A. (2008). Digital literacy and the ‘digital society’. In C. Lankshear, & M. Knobel (Eds.), Digital literacies: Concepts, policies & practices (pp. 151e176). New York: Peter Lang. Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: a framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017–1054. Selwyn, N. (2011). Education and technology: Key issues and debates. Bloomsbury Publishing Van Dijk, J. A., & van Deursen, A. J. (2014). Digital skills: unlocking the information society. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
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