ICTlogy

Notes from the course Competencias digitales: conocimientos, habilidades y actitudes para la Sociedad Red (Digital competences: Knowledge, skills and attitudes for the Network Society), organized by the CUIMPB, and held in Barcelona, Spain, on July 16th and 17h, 2009. More notes on this event: competencias_digitales_cuimpb_2009.

Communities of Practice in Public Administrations. Compartim programme and digital competences
Jesús Martínez and Dolors Reig

The Compartim programme

The professionals from the Catalan Justice Department are expert professionals that need no diffusion but working sessions where to share requirements of specific training and see whether any colleague might know or have a solution: the way to engage these professionals in training is, then, communities of practice.

On the other hand, the problem is that most of the times there is not a preset solution for many problems, as they are complex and need many approaches.

Technology enables a constant connection among peers, provided that everyone shares and collaborates and builds knowledge together.

A good thing about communities of practice (CoP) is that they can be shaped as needs require. The structure Compartim established has: an e-moderator that leads a working group, face-to-face meetings and online work, discussion, outputs, diffusion of these outputs (normally reports) and assessment of the whole process. The working group is smaller (+250 people) and its first approach to the problem is shared with the rest of the participants (+1300).

An external consultant provides seldom “knowledge pills” that feed a knowledge based, also fed by the library and the outputs of the CoP, which, at their turn, are provided by the employees.

Adaptation from face-to-face was tough: people used to sharing and participating in meetings, could dangerously evolve to the 1-9-90 standard: 1% heavy contributors, 9% intermittent contributors, 90% lurkers. With people overwhelmed with work, this could even get worse. The ratio they got was 16.17 active participation, rest lurkers.

One of the best outcomes was learning. From the 4 main components of the CoP (antenna, organization of know-how, production and learning), learning became the focus of the CoP and the main driver of satisfaction. And this learning has as origin tacit experts belonging to the CoP.

Digital competences at the Communities of Practice

At the Compartim CoP all kinds of digital literacies and competences were dealt with, specially Technological and Informational literacies, and much less (a “to do” for the nearest future) e-Awareness. But almost all kinds of tools, approaches and competences were dealt with, including digital identity/presence by means of LinkedIn.

Main characteristics of the learning process:

• Viral design
• Meetings and events with reputed people to trigger change and engagement
• Short and really operative learning units, on a constant basis and always available
• Presence and conversation, through blogs, contents on several platforms (podcast, vidcast, etc.), netvibes, etc.

Strucutre of the learning process

• Specific courses for e-moderators
• Specialized seminars on knowledge management
• Good practices sessions
• Conferences

The blog proved to be the best tool as it could be uses in many applications and levels of knowledge, including the training of several skills at a time.

Besides digital competences, of course collaborative work was highly treated and trained. And learning proved to be higher the higher was the engagement of the members to the Community of Practice.

What’s next? more processes on a peer-to-peer basis; reinforce autonomous learning and people oriented towards learning; more work with tools, specially when there are new tools every day; creativity and lateral thinking; creation of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) and professional e-portfolios, both at the individual and the collective (CoP) levels.

Q&A

Ismael Peña-López: how much have been CoP mainstreamed or embedded in everyday’s life? Jesús Martínez: the CoPs that are useless, just fade away. The ones that are interesting, with the appropriate support and digital skills training completely succeed and are used on a daily basis. Dolors Reig: because people are absolutely engaged, which is one of the main goals: engagement. CoPs have to be useful for work but also for other aspects of life.

More information

• Competencias digitales en las Administraciones Públicas, by Dolors Reig
• Competències digitals. Coneixements, habilitats i actituds per a la Societat Xarxa (4), by Joan Carles Torres

Notes from the course Competencias digitales: conocimientos, habilidades y actitudes para la Sociedad Red (Digital competences: Knowledge, skills and attitudes for the Network Society), organized by the CUIMPB, and held in Barcelona, Spain, on July 16th and 17h, 2009. More notes on this event: competencias_digitales_cuimpb_2009.

New competencies for politics, government and participation
Ismael Peña-López

Q&A

Carolina Velasco: one of the problems with cyberactivism is creating buzz around some concepts or information or pieces of news that are not fully understood by who’s endorsing them. A: Agreed. Indeed, the fact is that there’s people that are highly technologically literate and master several tools, but lack other dimensions of digital literacy such as informational literacy or e-awareness, for instance, and have the ability to endorse but without a critical point of view.

More information

• Citation and downloads, in Spanish and English: Peña-López, I. (2009). Goverati: New competencies for politics, government and participation. Seminar at the Course: Digital Competences: Knowledge, skills and attitudes for the Network Society. CUIMPB, 16th July 2009. Barcelona: ICTlogy.
• Competències digitals. Coneixements, habilitats i actituds per a la Societat Xarxa (3), by Joan Carles Torres
• Competencias digitales para la sociedad red (I), by Emilio Quintana

Notes from the course Competencias digitales: conocimientos, habilidades y actitudes para la Sociedad Red (Digital competences: Knowledge, skills and attitudes for the Network Society), organized by the CUIMPB, and held in Barcelona, Spain, on July 16th and 17h, 2009. More notes on this event: competencias_digitales_cuimpb_2009.

Criteria for Media Literacy Levels
José Manuel Pérez Tornero

How do we face investing in digital competences when we are not even investing in education at large?

In general, we practice a contextual hypocrisy, where, depending on the topic or the context, we ask for more and more transparent information, or we just forget about the piece of news. Same happens quite often at the educational level: we ask for more implication of politicians on Education, on ICTs and Education, etc. but we forget, for instance, what happens at the reading (as in reading books) level. And the impact is a chain of events: reading is related with the content industry, and the content industry with the e-content industry. We need a broader and, specially, much deeper scope and vision of things.

Though there actually is a social media production, the entertainment industry is still very powerful as is the gaming industry. In Spain, notwithstanding, both industries are quite small. This has to be taken into account when designing e.g. policies for e-content: is there content? is it produced in the local economy? how important is the content local industry?

This is not (only) a technological change, but a cultural, a linguistic, a social one.

Forecast: DTT as a gate towards the convergence of platforms, ending up with the Internet diffusing all content and thus requiring special digital competences.

In the last 30 years there has been an evolution towards introducing media literacy — or media education — in the syllabuses of formal education. That was a need so that youngsters could understand the culture they are living in.

Many things we’re seeing on the Internet is a replication of the informal education we’ve given our kids, based on the lack of privacy that (a) the consumption society and (b) the surveillance-based political system
require.

One of the main goals of Media Literacy should be encouraging a critical, participatory attitude toward the media. And also try and bridge the divide between the educational system and the labour market, the productive economy, the industry, as increasingly it is culture and society that are shaped by Economics and not the other way round.

There is an urgent need to find media literacy indicators. And these indicators should be used to measure media literacy projects that should be based on some strategies and action lines: definition and context of actions, public awareness, cultural change, etc.

New paradigms, like media literacy, have to be accompanied by technical changes, semiotic changes, new ideologies and an organized socialization.

Components of media literacy:

• Media education
• Participation and active citizenship
• Critical and creative abilities and skills

As important as having good language skills, it is important to have a critical attitude towards that language, to know grammar, to reflect about it, as it is the only way that this language could be used strategically.

Strategic goals

• Develop a media literacy policy
• Link media literacy with technological and economic innovation
• Boost creativity as an essential part of media literacy
• Promote media literacy as an instrument of active citizenship
• Reinforce research and education in media literacy

These strategies have to be accompanied by innovation at all levels.

Expected results:

• feel comfortable with existing media
• active use of media
• use media creatively
• have a critical approach to media
• understand the economy of media
• be aware of copyright

Two dimensions of Media Literacy:

• Skills: use, understanding, communicate
• Environment: availability, media education

Q&A

Emilio Quintana: is there a different degree of competitiveness in Italy than in Spain? A: In terms of property of media, the sector is more concentrated in Italy than in Spain. Emilio Quinana: yes, but the debate about this concentration is higher in Italy than in Spain.

Q: How will the European Commission regulate the media market? Based on protection? based on freedom? A: It is usual to see artificial dychotomies in the debate about media: freedom vs. censorship, protection vs. closure, free software vs. patents, etc. The EU tries to regulate on a self-regulation basis (which does not work) and co-regulation basis: self-regulation enforced ex-post. A better way to regulate, nevertheless, is raising awareness amongst the population of how media works, so that people can understand what they’re seeing.

Q: how do we invest in human capital in media literacy issues? can we trigger change? A: The only possibility to trigger change is to be analytical and critical about the state of the question.

More information

• Competències digitals. Coneixements, habilitats i actituds per a la Societat Xarxa (2), by Joan Carles Torres
• Competencias digitales para la sociedad red (2), by Emilio Quintana

Notes from the course Competencias digitales: conocimientos, habilidades y actitudes para la Sociedad Red (Digital competences: Knowledge, skills and attitudes for the Network Society), organized by the CUIMPB, and held in Barcelona, Spain, on July 16th and 17h, 2009. More notes on this event: competencias_digitales_cuimpb_2009.

The digital competence as a methodological competence
Boris Mir

Boris Mir begins with a description of the Catalan Education system, stating some main characteristics:

• High ratio of students per teacher, which doesn’t allow for much personalization
• High rate of drop outs as we move up the educational system (K-12, high school, college…)
• High decentralization that does not allow for homogeneous methodologies state wide
• High dependence of the political cycle, meaning that every four years, the educational system can be redesigned from scratch by the new government, breaking any kind of long-term strategy

Competences

We do not have a syllabus designed towards competences, but towards disciplines. And it is within these disciplines that competences are to be developed.

These generic competences are eight: communicational competences, methodological competences, personal competences, and living-with-the-others competences. Within the methodological competences we find “Information treatment and digital competence”. The problem is: whose reponsibility is developing those competences? In an educational system centred on the discipline, whom are the generic competences?

Digital Competence

The digital competence is the combination of knowledge and skills, along with values and attitudes, to achieve goals with efficacy and efficiency in digital contexts and with digital tools. It is interesting to note that the acquisition of knowledge is accompanied by skills, being the main difference that skills can be trained (while knowledge cannot). What’s the difference then between an expert and a competent? Digital competence is reached in the strategic use of different skills in several spheres of action which lead to their respective dimensions of the digital competence:

• Sphere of learning: learn and generate knowledge
• Sphere of information: Retrieve, evaluate and manage information
• Sphere of communication: how we relate with others, communicate, etc. in digital environments
• Sphere of digital culture and digital citizenship: civic behaviour, political participation, security, etc.
• Sphere of technology: use and manage technological devices — not the first sphere, not the only one, but one in five

At what point we decide what and when we have to do a web search, or scan a document, or send an e-mail? This is the strategic application of the digital competence, this is what is to be learnt, it’s not easy to, but it’s really fundamental (and this has little to do with when one was born).

State of the question

Few teachers use technology in their work, and the ones that do, they use it to support the traditional teaching practices. Students do alike: support the traditional learning practices, sometimes enhanced or improved by their own digital knowledge, but similar to teachers. Summing up: no methodological changes, no changes of educational goals, no changes of syllabuses.

In general, the computer at home is used for leisure and introduced quite often in the household to “do homework”, though a huge majority agrees that “using the computer” will be a needed requisite in the nearer future.

A Road map?

Possibilities in Education will be:

• In 1 year: Collaborative environments, online communication tools
• In 2-3 years: Mobile devices, cloud computing
• In 4-5 years: Smart objects, personal portal

But, will these potentialities become true? Are we aware of them and their relationship with education? Can we foster them if we do not use or even do not understand them? Are we, at the Education system, going the same path the society goes? e.g. are we banning mobiles in classrooms but dreaming of mobile learning?

What should we do?

• Raise awareness on a broader conception of ICTs, fostering its methodological and competence-related dimensions;
• Find out why ICTs have had little impact or low adoption levels in Education and act in consequence;
• Lead systemic educational changes: it’s not a matter of ITs or technology, but a matter of education and pedagogy and methodology.

Q&A

Q: how do we make the teachers not to be afraid of technology? A: They are not! Students and teachers use intensively the technology for their own personal purposes. But they have their own idea of what a school is, and technology does not fit there. So, it’s not a matter of fear, but a matter of mindsets. The main indicator of success at school is the familiar framework; and the main indicator of educational use of technology is, again, household usage: the digital divide is a knowledge divide, not an access divide.

Joan Carles Torres: We are finding the anti-educational use of ICTs when applied in an old-fashioned way, where the results are worse than without technology. A: Agreed. It’s a matter of change management. It’s better to use the technology that is already socialized; then you can focus on pedagogy and not on technology.

Carolina Velasco: Isn’t it a problem that students are way more tech-savvy that their teachers? A: Agreed, but we should not overstate the digital competence of the students. Yes, they use a lot of technology, but in a very narrow field.

More information

• Competències digitals. Coneixements, habilitats i actituds per a la Societat Xarxa (1), by Joan Carles Torres.
• Competencias digitales para la sociedad red (2), by Emilio Quintan.a
• Sigalés, C., Mominó, J.M, Meneses, J. & Badia, A. (2008) La integración de internet en la educación escolar española.
• Fundación Orange (2009) Informe eEspaña 2008.

For the next month (July 13th to August 7th, 2009) I am teaching — actually guiding — a course on the Digital Divide and e-Participation at UNDP‘s Escuela Virtual para América Latina y el Caribe [Virtual School for Latin America and the Caribbean].

This is part of a project run by the UNDP and the Instituto Distrital de Participación y Acción Comunal de la Secretaría de Gobierno de la Alcaldía de Bogotá (IDPAC: Participation and Community Building Institute at Bogotá, Colombia) whose main outcome will be the creation of the Escuela Virtual de participación y gestión social del IDPAC [IDPAC’s Virtual School of Local Participation] — see also Digital Divide, Government and ICTs for Education.

The course is framed in one of the last stages before the actual creation of the Virtual School and it mainly deals with the definition of the overall strategy, identifying the context and the characteristics of the environment and see how the network of telecenters the school will heavily rely on have to be adapted to provide the expected output: digital competences and a much higher degree of e-Participation amongst the population.

The (my) course has four parts, two of which are related to knowing the grounds and concepts of the Digital Divide and e-Participation, and the remaining two deal with writing an Action Plan and reviewing the Strategic Plan in the framework of the Colombian Plan for the Information Society.

I here share the bibliography for the first two, would it be of any help to anyone: Brecha Digital y e-Participación ciudadana

Basic concepts: Analysis of the Digital Divide

e-Participation: Use of telecentres to foster participation

Notes from the 5th Internet, Law and Politics Conference: The Pros and Cons of Social Networking Sites, organized by the Open University of Catalonia, School of Law and Political Science, and held in Barcelona, Spain, on July 6th and 7th, 2009. More notes on this event: idp2009.

Politics Track Gather Up
Daithí Mac Sithigh

Two major questions today: what will we do? how will we stay safe?

Innovation come not by using specific technology or platforms but on the effective uses we put into them.

The safety issue seems not to be approachable by the Law alone, being self-regulation and self-commitment a good share of it, and collaboration and co-operation another good share of it.

In a time of crisis, the international community turns its attention to the Information Society. But this is not about hardware, but about organizational change, institutional change. A major planning has to take place to deal with focal issues like e-commerce, network safety or e-Administration.

We’d do well to learn from sub-national or even local successes in open data initiatives, or data sharing initiatives. And what a different it makes to move from the “e-” Government to the “o-” Government.

And open data might be a necessary step to change not only government but also democracy and politics, to enable citizen participation and engagement.

We’re seeing times where political crisis and financial crisis is accompanied by a demand for transparency, openness, open data, etc. And it looks like broadly demanded political reforms could move towards this direction.

This is, for instance, how Politics 2.0 evolve from Politicians 2.0 towards Political Spaces 2.0.

Politics 2.0 can be presented as a virtuous circle, where everybody is part of that circle, and where the sense of “small” (as in a small issue) can have a brand new meaning (and not be small or irrelevant at all).

Will, hence, the unconventional ways of doing politics become the conventional or mainstream ones? Do we want that?

What is the right agenda? Does a creative use of public information (initially well intended) have bad consequences?

Next steps?

• W3C Access to Government interest group
• Pulic Services 2.0 declaration
• From “come back tomorrow” to “come back next year”?
• Social networks and social questions

More Information

• IDP2009: Day 2 Report (slides), Daithí Mac Sithigh’s slides of his presentation
• IDP2009: Written Report of Day 2, by Daithí Mac Sithigh
• El twitter del V Congrés d’IDP, Joan-Baptista Gavaldà i Moran’s compilation of all twitts tagged #idp2009