Understanding digital skills development through citizen engagement in social action


Welcome to Unit 1!


In this unit, you will delve into the world of digital skills development through citizen engagement in social action.

Scope

First, you will be introduced to Europe-wide frameworks that outline main competence areas and skills. This will allow us to streamline different frameworks used in various countries, and to cross-compare their features when it comes to digital skills.

Second, we will identify which of the skills of these frameworks are likely to occur in digital actions, namely citizen engagement activities for a social purpose.

Watch the five-minute video to get a glimpse of this unit


Digital skills and digital transformation

According to the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens 2.0, (digital) skills mean “the ability to apply knowledge and use know-how to complete tasks and solve problems” (DigComp 2.0, 2016, available here).

As digital technologies spread throughout professional and social environments, digital skills become a fundamental element to be acquired by all citizens. In this context, the digital transformation of higher education institutions (HEIs) and societies has emerged as a number one priority, thus manifesting the interconnection between HEIs’ digital upskilling and community digital action.

Frameworks of digital competences

At the European level, there has been a growing interest in dealing with digital competences and skills that citizens ought to develop. As part of O4A1 of the HEIDI project, an analysis of 13 national and European frameworks of digital competences has been made in order to identify the frameworks that focus on skills that are more likely to be developed through bottom-up digital action activities.

Our framework analysis was concluded with the identification of three specific frameworks, namely:

  • The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens 2.2 (DigComp 2.2) available here.
  • The European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu) available here.
  • The digital capabilities framework, by the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc), available here.

From these frameworks, we identified specific competence areas and digital skills that can be potentially developed during citizen engagement activities. These range from information and media literacy to more professional skills, like programming and digital problem-solving.

Skills likely to be developed in digital actions and belonging to the three frameworks,
Infographic credits: Anna Skowron, 2022

You can consult the paper on “Framing digital skills developed through informal digital action inside and outside universities” (Zourou & Oikonomou, 2022), available here.





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