In today's organisations and politics, there is a growing awareness of the gap between existing and needed digital competencies of the workforce to master the challenges of the digitalised future at work. Nevertheless, no comprehensive framework or definition of digital competencies at work has been proposed so far. Our aim is to offer a holistic view and broaden the scope of the concept of digital competencies, thereby focussing on applications at work. We combine diverse methods to integrate different perspectives on digital competencies. By conducting an extensive literature review about definitions and frameworks of digital competencies that might be applicable at work, we provide an overview of the current state of the art in research on digital competencies. Additionally, eleven half-structured interviews based on the critical incidents technique (CIT) were conducted to gain insights into the perspectives of professionals with expertise in digitalisation processes and digital competencies. Subsequently, researchers with different educational backgrounds clustered the results from both approaches and agreed on twenty-five dimensions that constitute digital competencies for white-collar workers with office jobs, encompassing a large variety of knowledge, skills, and abilities. The results of this research indicate that even though there is overlapping content, each perspective adds unique content to the concept of digital competencies at work. By creating a coherent and detailed framework and a definition, our research enhances the applicability of professional learning and development of digital competencies at work.

Digital competencies: A review of the literature and applications in the workplace

Much of the research about distance learning and online collaboration comes from higher education or adult learner contexts. Less is known about the experiences and challenges of school teachers involved in instructing young teenagers remotely. In response to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, the government of Estonia ordered national school closures and established a temporary period of distance learning. This sudden move to online education was unexpected and required school teachers to quickly adjust. In this study, we interviewed five middle school science teachers about 5 weeks after the start of school closures. Prior research indicates that even during regular times, maintaining teenagers’ interest for science studies is challenging. Our aim was to find out how science teachers had adapted their teaching at a time of unprecedented educational disruption, what challenges they encountered and to what extent they applied collaborative learning practices. All of the teachers reported using video conferencing tools to engage in synchronous communication with students. In addition, they all reported using school learning management systems to share information. However, none of the teachers felt that the distance learning situation was conducive to supporting collaborative learning. We discuss the main challenges mentioned by teachers and some of the implications for the design and development of online collaborative technologies and practices. Our findings highlight that establishing cognitive, social and teaching presence with young teenagers appears to be the main challenge for distance learning. Difficulty in establishing social presence was apparently a particularly serious barrier for school science teachers to promote collaboration at a distance.

Challenges for distance learning and online collaboration in the time of covid-19: Interviews with science teachers

The position of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the Turkish compulsory education has been strengthened in the recent years. As well as ICT infrastructure, production of digital content and teacher training initiatives, the recent curricula reforms support the use of digital technologies in many subjects. A separate compulsory ICT course is offered in middle school for the 5th grades. In order for the citizens to improve digital competence, the European Commission offered a tool known as The European Digital Competence Framework (DigComp). This paper articulates alignment of this theoretical framework with the Turkish ICT curriculum for 5th grades. A comparison between the DigComp framework and the Turkish ICT course has been carried out using the categories, subcategories and learning outcomes. The study shows that even if the concepts identified in the competence dimensions differ in some way, the standards in the framework and the outcomes in the curriculum are closely related. It has been observed that out of 77 learning outcomes in the Turkish ICT curriculum, 33 are relevant to the DigComp standards but the other 34 are mostly related to the technical aspect of ICT. Some issues regarding netiquette and civic participation are ignored and some of problem solving competences are not attributed in the curriculum as well.

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A Comparison between European Digital Competence Framework and the Turkish ICT Curriculum.

Since the beginning of the century two thirds of the Portuguese territory is threatened by desertification and the decline of economic activities. To face such trends, regions need to implement innovative strategies that leverage on the endogenous resources of the territory to foster economic recovery and to promote entrepreneurship, creativity, smart learning, and innovation. This paper reports on the study of the Bons Sons music festival as an example of an initiative developed in a low-density population area that mobilized their endogenous territorial resources to promote growth and economic development. The case study, which was based on the descriptive and qualitative analysis of a semi structured interview with the artistic director of the festival, aims at understanding the role of digital technologies in the process of regional innovation. The article contributes with an analytical view of community networks mediation practices and offers a set of tips and recommendations for the effective creation and consolidation of mediation strategies, community networks, and learning ecosystems that foster regional innovation.

Unravelling the Role of ICT in Regional Innovation Networks: A Case Study of the Music Festival ‘Bons Sons’

The aim of this study is to examine how middle and high school curricula and practices support students to acquire information, media and technology skills. In the qualitative dimension of the study which was designed according to the mixed method, document analysis, observation and interview were used. The 23-itemed Information, Media and Technology Skills Competency Scale was used for the quantitative dimension of the study. Content analysis was performed for analysing the curricula, data obtained through observations and interviews. In the analysis of the data obtained from the scale, frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean and standard deviation values were used in the central and prevalence measurements. The results of the curricula analysis show that problem solving and information and data literacy skills were outnumbered in all analysed curricula. The activities carried out in the classroom during the observation and interview process were mostly related to information and media literacy and problem solving. According to the results of the scale; middle and high school students considered themselves to be relatively moderate in their information, media and technology skills. While the highest score of the students was of information and data literacy; programming skills were the weakest dimension.

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Information, Media and Technology Skills in terms of Curricula, Process and Product in Middle and High Schools

The ability to use digital technologies to live, work and learn in today’s knowledge-based society is considered to be an essential competence. In schools, digital technologies such as smart devices offer new possibilities to improve student learning, but research is still needed to explain how to effectively apply them. In this paper we developed an instrument to investigate the digital competences of students based on constructs from the DIGCOMP framework and in the contexts of learning science and mathematics in school and outside of school. Pilot testing results of 173 students from the 6th and 9th grades (M = 12.7 and 15.7 years of age, respectively) were analyzed to remove unnecessary items from the instrument. The pilot study also showed preliminary smart device usage patterns that require confirmation by a large-scale study. Digitally competent use of smart devices may help facilitate widespread use of computer-based resources in science education.

Külli Võsu

Papers

An Instrument for Measuring Students’ Perceived Digital Competence According to the DIGCOMP Framework