Another informative report, this time from MCEETYA, and this time looking at ICT literacy in years 6 and 10.
Importantly, the report makes clear its definition of ICT literacy up front. Some definitions focus on computer skills, others on applications for info processing for communication (p. 3). In the MCEETYA report, ICT literacy is defined as having three ‘strands’ (p. 4):
- Working with information
- Creating and sharing information
- Using ICT responsibly
ICT proficiency is taken to mean a “‘challenging but reasonable’ expectation for typical year 6 and 10 students to have reached by the end of those years of study” (p. xi). 61% of year 10 students reached the proficiency standard, whilst 49% reached the standard for year 6.
These figures might seem low to those who think young people are totally tech-savvy and all tooled up for a digital world, but, significantly, it is in being able to use ICTs to demonstrate the higher levels of thinking that they fall down:
Communication is a frequent use at both Year 6 and Year 10 … . However, there was much less frequent use of applications that involved creating, analysing or transforming information. (p. xiv)
In terms of patterns of ICT Literacy, lower scores were associated with (p. xii):
- Low socio-economic background
- Indigeneity
- Remote locality
Gender didn’t come into it.
The report concluded that simple facility with ICTs does not ensure the development of ICT literacy, and that we should be careful about the assumptions we make about how well young people are engaging intellectually with the virtual world (p. 93). The report calls for building ICT literacy through “systematic teaching rather than incidental use” (p. 93). This means, of course, that many teachers themselves are going to have to work on their ICT literacy, and they, too, need to be supported by PD in the workplace.
