Amy Owen is the Senior Director, Digital and Teacher Policy at ExcelinEd.
As a former middle school teacher, I recall watching students’ thumbs fly across their phone keyboards, tapping out rapid-fire texts between classes. Those same students would then laboriously hunt-and-peck out an essay on a full keyboard, becoming frustrated at how long it took to express their thoughts, because they had never learned to touch-type. This lack of academic digital skills continues to hinder students throughout their educational careers.
Children today grow up with early access to technology, from toddlers who can navigate games and apps on iPads to teenagers filming the latest viral trend on TikTok. Parents, educators and policymakers may assume that all students readily and intuitively understand how to navigate academic uses of technology – but that is not always the case. While the focus on the digital divide tends to be about access to high-speed internet and devices like laptops, another aspect of the digital divide is the difference between students who have the academic digital skills to effectively leverage technology for schoolwork and those who cannot.
These deficits in digital skills begin early in students’ educational careers and can be reflected in academic outcomes. This month, as part of the long-term NAEP results, nine-year-old students’ responses to several questions related to their confidence in their own digital skills were released. The responses show clear differences in self-reported digital skills for students who scored in the top quartile on the math and reading assessments as compared to students who scored in the bottom quartile. For example, of students who scored in the top quartile, about 60 percent were confident they could find learning resources online, while only about 40 percent of students scoring in the lowest quartile said the same. This data corroborates a growing concern that even students who are “digital natives,” or young people today who are brought up with early access to technology, are not learning the academic digital skills they need to leverage technology effectively and confidently.
Recently, I began adjunct teaching college classes and was surprised to receive questions from students who were unsure of how to begin finding reliable information online for a class project. This experience aligns with a recent article from EdSurge, which cited college professors from Boston to Utah whose students needed instruction in basic programs, such as Microsoft Word and Excel, in order to succeed in their classes. At the college level, approaches to supporting students ranged from individual professors incorporating such instruction into their classes to on-campus centers for digital skills that students could access as a resource.
According to a 2021 report from the College Innovation Network, about 20 percent of college students they surveyed were not confident in their ability to learn how to effectively use new forms of educational technology. This was especially challenging because in the 2020-21 school year, almost 35 percent of college students surveyed reported having to use new technology for class. While both the NAEP data and the College Innovation Network report were specifically asking about the 2020-21 school year, learning online or in hybrid formats is increasingly common, and even traditional, in-person classes frequently require students to have strong digital skills.
In addition, a December 2021 report from the RAND Corporation highlighted the need for digital skills in the workforce – and the lack of existing capacity in terms of employees who can “work with new technologies and to keep up to date with rapid technological advancements.” The RAND report found that the pandemic increased the demand for digital skills but also deepened gaps between employees who possessed those skills and ones who did not. Strengthening digital skills instruction for students will prepare them for the modern workforce and ensure they can access in-demand career fields.
At the K-12 level, policymakers support students’ development of and confidence in their digital skills so that they are prepared for academic coursework and for employers’ expectations. One key step is to establish statewide digital skills standards for students. These go by different names in different states: digital literacy standards in Massachusetts, digital readiness standards in Tennessee, digital learning integration standards in Virginia. ISTE, the International Society for Technology Education, also offers model student standards as well as standards for teacher education.
While standards are a foundational step, state, district and school leaders must also decide who is responsible for teaching digital skills and when. For example, will all elementary school students go to a standalone computer class, or will each grade level integrate specific portions of digital skills into its curriculum? How will teachers be prepared to do so in such a way that digital skills build on each other over time? North Carolina is beginning to answer these questions through a state-level partnership with ISTE that includes access to online training and resources for all its teachers.
Through strong standards, clear expectations on when and how those standards will be taught and preparation for educators, states can close one form of the digital divide: the divide between students who know how to use technology effectively for academic purposes and those who do not.
