This post comes courtesy of Theo Teeder, Director of MindLeaders ThirdForce Asia Pacific, and digital literacy advocate, who shares his three “takeaways” from the recent ECDL Foundation Forum
Over the past 15 years I’ve been fortunate to attend a wide range of conferences in education, technology and Government policy. Nearly all have been have of interest and useful – useful in gaining new information, meeting new people or both. At one conference last year the main speaker talked about going to conferences and focussing on no more than 3 main “takeaways” and that actions and other items would run their natural course. So, having recently attended the international conference on digital literacy run by the European Computer Drivers License Foundation (ECDL-F) in Dublin what where the three main takeaways?
Number one, that education and technology provide hope for those that are at the lower end of the education and socio-economic ladder. That education when applied in a flexible and empathetic way with necessary structure to support individuals and delivery organisations can be a catalyst for learning and for improving outcomes.
Second, that the expectations of young adults and those going through the education sector has a mismatch with what is on offer in the traditional and over-audited systems of the current delivery model. This creates a tension that is not going away any time soon. Equally, this tension also provides opportunity for innovation and for nimble organisations to meet this effectively.
Thirdly, that digital literacy in the coming years will be a battle for our identity. By identity this means data and information including our personal and financial history. This will naturally lead to consolidation of suppliers who operate these services in the online space / cloud.
Education and technology is entering what I believe is it’s most important and exciting time. As I head back to the Mindleaders ThirdForce office in Melbourne I feel refreshed and energized to meet these challenges and opportunities head on. Maybe that is the supplemental benefit of going and contributing to a well thought out and well – managed conference: it allows you to regroup and approach the day job with a renewed sense of optimism and purpose.
The rule of three sounds like a great way to digest the sheer amount of information that’s on offer at this type of event. I have to agree wholeheartedly with the third point in particular – privacy and identity and how those issues are affected by digital literacy was a theme that everyone I spoke with at the event had something to say about – and for the most part it was about how best to get this across within the context of ECDL and digital literacy. I’ll look forward to the kind of answers that this forum might produce on that.
Having also attended the event, I was struck by an inherent dilemma facing the whole digital literacy movement. On the one hand the world felt very small as representatives from all continents saw ‘digital literacy’ as a key driver to help their country come out of financial crisis. On the other hand their interpretation of digital literacy was so different – I was in one session with a Norwegian claiming 93% of the population were online and a Zimbabwean with only 5.4% of population using the internet. I wonder if the digital divide is narrowing or actually getting wider?