I’m wittering on again about 21st century skills. Should we ever come to agreement about what they are, whether they are simply old skills by a new name, or whether they are an entirely new set of things to teach, breed, develop or inculcate, how are we then going to measure them?
This is precisely what eSN is talking about today. Please bear in mind as you read the following that we are not talking about Australia here, but the USA.
Our country’s global economic success in the future depends on K-20 graduates honing their “21st Century Skills.” Today’s tech-savvy generation has no shortage of user-friendly devices…and they know how to use them. But are they putting these tech skills to good use? You’ve heard of the 3Rs, but what about the 5Cs such as critical thinking, creative problem solving, communications, collaboration and cross-cultural relationship building?
Beginning in 2012, “tech literacy” will be added to our Nation’s Report Card. This means student proficiency in the application of technology will be measured for the first time. It isn’t just layering technology over traditional core competencies, though. It’s about totally integrating the two for success in an increasingly competitive world.
Looking at the Australian scene now, some “tech literacy” testing, particularly of use of ICTs has already taken place both independently and through various PISA initiatives. The PISA ICT Literacy Assessment assesses high school students ICT literacy through establishing current skill and testing through various activities.
MCEETYA (Australia’s Ministerial Council for Education, Training, and Youth Affairs) has delivered a report titled National Assessment Program – ICT Literacy Years 6 & 10 Report 2005.
This ICT Literacy Report represents the findings from the first national assessment of the ICT literacy of Australian school students. The ICT Literacy report is the third published as part of the National Assessment Program, and follows the 2003 National Year 6 Science Report and the Civics and Citizenship Years 6 & 10 Report 2004.
The next national ICT assessment is due in 2008.
The assessment, conducted towards the end of 2005, established a single ICT literacy scale against which the achievements of students at Years 6 and 10 can be reported and proficiency levels linked to descriptions of student performance.
The Executive Summary (page vii) says
This report is based on the assessment of ICT literacy conducted in October
2005. It describes the development of a computer-based tool for assessing
ICT literacy among school students and the application of that tool with a
nationally representative sample of approximately 7,400 students from Years 6 and 10 in nearly 520 Australian schools. The report describes the development, validation and refinement of a progress map that identifies a progression of ICT literacy. It describes the ICT literacy levels of Australian school students overall and for particular groups of students.
Details of the ICT Literacy assessment carried out in 2008 is available from the MCEETYA site. ICT Literacy is defined in this document as
the ability of individuals to use ICT appropriately to access, manage and evaluate information, develop new understandings, and communicate with others in order to participate effectively in society.
The ICT literacy domain includes six processes:
• Accessing information — identifying the information needed and knowing how to find and retrieve information
• Managing information — organising and storing information for retrieval and reuse
• Evaluating — reflecting on the processes used to design and construct ICT solutions and making judgements regarding the integrity, relevance and usefulness of information
• Developing new understandings — creating information and knowledge by
synthesising, adapting, applying, designing, inventing or authoring
• Communicating with others — exchanging information by sharing knowledge and creating information products to suit the audience, the context and the medium.
• Using ICT appropriately — making critical, reflective and strategic ICT decisions and using ICT responsibly by considering social, legal and ethical issues.
Appendix 1: The ICT Literacy Progress Map (page 7) is worth looking at too.
A chart in a MCEETYA brochure for parents about NAPLAN has the following schedule:
So, to go back to my original starting point. Are we measuring 21st century skills here in Australia? Well, we are certainly attempting to sample ICT literacies, but I suspect we still have some way to go in being able to benchmark each student, and so far we don’t seem to be looking at the K-20 range that the US testing will cover.
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