This is the first of a two-part post on digital skills and is the second in the series of Digital Bytes posts. See the links below.
There’s been great progress in recognizing how essential digital skills are! But which skills are those, and who needs them when? We thought it would be helpful to use this blog to look at the framing of digital skills training, starting with the basics, and to provide tools for you to use. This is the first of two posts on digital skills. Part 1 presents a model for digital skill learning purposes, the link between individual and broader field needs, and introduces digital skill assessments, lists, and frameworks. Part 2 goes deeper into what frameworks and skill lists are available, how to use them, and digital literacy definitions. We also provide sample skills checklist tools for your use.
Part 1: Framing digital skills for user help and much more.
This post will help you be aware of and use the frameworks and skill lists available. Digital skill and digital inclusion frameworks offer sets of competencies or areas of knowledge, which are bundles of skills with more detail on performing specific tasks. Frameworks and skill lists can help guide a student/client learning plan, what assessments we conduct, certification standards, planning for digital navigator training, class offerings, program evaluation, and broader population surveys. They also influence legislation and public and private investment decisions. This is especially critical now as we apply the federal digital equity funds and demonstrate progress.
Understanding what digital skills are valuable and possible is critical to working effectively with community members. It starts on first contact with a community member and threads throughout our digital opportunity work. Community providers, including digital navigators, are on the front lines, assessing what users already know and how to help them develop digital skills to meet immediate needs and be on a pathway to longer-term success.
This daily work is tied to big-picture questions for our field, including: “What are our populations’ digital skills gaps, and what will it take to close those gaps?” In previous work with the City of Seattle and across NDIA’s work, we know that it isn’t easy to compare how one digital skills training matches against the one down the street or across the country. This led us to do comparison research of curriculums and digital inclusion frameworks and develop a matrix of digital skill learning purposes shared below.
There isn’t a single standard of digital skill competency for our work with diverse communities in youth education, adult education, workforce training, and lifelong learning. However, frameworks and tools from the K-12, adult education, and workforce training sectors can support your decisions on what digital skills curriculum and resources to use in your program.
A 2024 paper by the New America Open Technology Institute, Exploring Paths to a U.S. Digital Skills Framework (and Why We Need One), calls for improving and adopting a U.S. national framework.
A common language of digital skills for learning purposes
I developed the Digital Skills Learning Purposes matrix below to further our common language about the building blocks of learning and have a reference illustration of the diversity and layers of skills training. Beginner gateway skills and then use of the internet and computers for essential life skills are the foundations to success and other types of digital skills learning. There are varied types of workforce digital skill learning, and parent tech skills are important as well. You can use this chart with students to discuss goals, to note what your organization provides, clarify or map what others teach, and to be champions for funding digital skills training.
Digital skill shopping carts
Digital skills are akin to filling the shopping cart – you need the everyday basics and build from there. What you need depends on which recipe you’re making at the time (your personal goals). All of us need gateway or foundational skills, and the skill-building grows in learning to use technology tools for daily living, civic & community engagement, education, and work. A key goal for digital navigators and trainers is to help people learn to learn and be enthusiastic learners who are proficient enough in the basics that they are comfortable seeking out additional digital skills learning, whether online or in-person.
There are multiple levels of learning even in fundamental digital skills. For instance, DigComp 2.2: The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens from the European Union uses Foundation, Intermediate, Advanced, and Specialist proficiency levels.
The cart always changes
There will always be some evolution in the digital skills required and in the identification of which skills are key to leveling the playing field and ensuring opportunities for success. For instance, online video conferencing (e.g. Zoom) and finding health info are two application skills that have become foundational in the last few years, along with mobile device management and safety and security. Not all frameworks and skill lists include the setup skills for the internet and devices, such as researching, selecting, and subscribing to the internet, setting up home wi-fi, or how to purchase a laptop computer.
Coming in Part 2 of Digital Skills
The second part of this Digital Skills post will present more about the digital skill frameworks and skill lists, as well as the use of digital literacy.
This blog was written by David Keyes, Advisor, NDIA, and is the second of a four-part series, Digital Inclusion Bytes: Insights and Resources, covering digital inclusion resources. You can find the other posts and their associated resources in the NDIA blog:
- Professional Development for Digital Inclusion Practitioners
- Digital Skills – Using Frameworks and Skill Lists
- Assessing Household Technology Needs
Our thanks to partners Bridging the Digital Divide and the Lucy and Jack Rosenberg Fund for their support in launching this blog series.