The purpose of this paper is to review the literature of Nordic teachers’ digital competence. The rapid development of digital technologies in the emerging information society requires individuals to be able to employ a variety of cognitive skills in order to solve problems in digital environments (Alviram & Eshet-Alkalai, 2006). The digital revolution and the increasing digitalization of school life over the past decades have created a need for digital competent teachers who have the ability to implement information and communications technologies (ICT) in a proper manner (Krumsvik, 2011). It has been argued that both students and teachers have to acquire a certain level of computer-literacy in order to follow the growing digital societies (Nawaz & Kundi, 2010). The increasing focus on skills such as “digital competence” is also reflected in educational reforms and policies. In the new Norwegian educational reform, the Knowledge Promotion (Ministry of Education and Research, 2006), digital competence has become the fifth basic competence together with reading, writing, arithmetic and oral skills. Digital competence requires more than just the ability to use software or operate digital devices, and can be defined as “a large variety of complex skills such as cognitive, motoric, sociological, and emotional that users need to have in order to use digital environments effectively” (Eshet-Alkali & Amichai-Hamburger, 2004; p. 421).

            The value and effect of technology in school education has been heavily debated over the past decade, and while some studies have concluded that the use of computers have had a negative effect on student learning others have found that the integration of ICT may improve achievement scores and the depth of understanding (Kay, 2006). The effectiveness of implementing ICT in schools may partly rely on the students’ digital literacy, that is, the students’ ability to use technology and digital environment effectively. However, this may also depend partly on how well teachers are able to use ICT in an effective manner. Accordingly, Krumsvik developed the following definition of teachers’ digital competence: “the teachers’ ability to use ICT in a professional context with good pedagogic-didactic judgment and his/her awareness of its implications on learning strategies and on the digital Bildung of pupils” (Krumsvik, 2007). Kay (2006) presented a literature review evaluating strategies used to incorporate technology into pre-service or teacher education and identified ten key strategies. The review of strategies used to incorporate technology into teacher education found that the vast majority of studies suffered from methodological flaws, and concluded that more rigorous and comprehensive research is need to fully understand and evaluate the effect of technology in teacher education (Kay, 2006).

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