Basic Concepts of Digital Applications

It is clear that the needs of adults of 1990s are not the same with those of 2020s. Strikingly, the needs of adults of 2015 are not the same as the needs of today’s adults. Robotics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, cloud computing and even the culture of rapid obsolescence affect what individuals need and how they do something. In this ever-changing world, both young and adult learners are expected to have some skills. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic caused schools to terminate face-to-face classes and globally over one billion students suddenly found themselves out of their classrooms. As a result, teaching has to adapt to this sudden change, so teaching was undertaken remotely by using digital platforms. All in a sudden, school administrators and numerous teachers had to look for ways to teach online. Both teachers who were ready to teach via online educational technologies and teachers who had no previous experience of teaching online were in the same situation. Teachers who normally teach in laboratories were expected to respond proactively to this change. All in all, this transformation resulted in improvised solutions by teachers. This was a lesson about what could be expected from the people of the 21st century.

21st century skills is a term that everyone knows to some extent, yet no one seems completely sure what exactly it means. Or rather, everyone interprets it in a different way. However, most people seem to agree that 21st century skills are those which are or will be needed to be successful not only at work but also in personal life in today’s world. The term ‘21st-century skills’ is often used to refer to some core competencies such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving. The term ‘21st century skills’ refers to a wide set of knowledge and skills that are believed to be immensely important to success in the Information Age that we live in. Generally speaking, 21st century skills can be applied in all educational, professional and civic settings throughout an individual’s life.

While the specific skills are considered to be ‘21st century skills’, it will be useful to present them as three groups, namely learning skills, literacy skills, and career and life skills. This categorisation can slightly vary and does not reflect a worldwide consensus. Learning skills include critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication, which have been identified as essential for successfully adapting to modern work environments. Literacy skills encompass information, media and technology literacy, so they focus on understanding figures, evaluating a source’s credibility and understanding the machines and computer networks that we rely upon today.

Life skills cover flexibility, leadership, initiative, productivity and social skills. These skills help people to maintain efficiency and network with others.

In business settings, critical thinking means finding solutions to problems. Creativity can be considered as the ability to think outside the box. Collaboration means working together in teams. Communication refers to the generation of meaning through exchanges using a range of contemporary tools. Technological literacy means knowledge about what technology is, how it works, what purposes it can serve, and how it can be used efficiently and effectively to achieve specific goals. Information literacy means the ability to evaluate information across a range of media; recognize when information is needed, knowledge necessary to know when information is needed to help solve a problem or make a decision, how to articulate that information need in searchable terms and language, then search efficiently for the information, retrieve the information and interpret it properly. Media literacy is the ability to access, analyse, evaluate and create media in a variety of forms. Flexibility refers to a person’s ability to change his actions and take steps to adapt to changing circumstances. A 21st century leader is expected to use interpersonal and problem-solving skills to influence and guide strong sides of others to accomplish a common goal. A sense of initiative means creativity, innovation and risk-taking together with ability to plan and manage projects to accomplish a common goal. Social skills refer to the skills needed to interact effectively with others, especially when working with a diverse group of people.

Major Topic: Developing adult learners’ digital literacy and the use of resources available on the Internet

Learning Objectives

 By the end of the Learning Unit, trainees will be able to: 

  • Develop an understanding of Information literacy
  • Describe the tools used for collaborative learning
  • Develop an understanding of media literacy
  • Develop an awareness of personal internet security
  • Use internet resources efficiently
  • Have a more thorough understanding of way to protect their information on websites and mobile apps
  • Be able to use subject-specific search engines
  • Gain insight into using digital resources to be a lifelong learner
  • Engage in collaborative online learning activities
  • Apply the website evaluation criteria to a site to determine trustworthiness and credibility
  • Interpret what online personal branding is and why it is important
  • Know how to build an online curriculum vitae
  • Develop an understanding of using search engines, job boards and social/professional networking sites to apply for jobs online
  • Describe the main tenets of doing an effective online job search

Basic Concepts

▪            Information Literacy

▪            ICT

▪            Digital Literacy

▪            21st Century Skills

▪            Lifelong Learning

▪            Literacy in a Digital World

▪            Processing Information

▪            Hardware and Software

▪            Online Job Search

▪            Online Recruitment

▪            Labour Market

▪            Job Alerts

▪            Scam Job Ads

▪            Professional Development

▪            Professional (Personal) Learning Network (PLN)

▪            Online Personal Branding

▪            Social Bookmarking

▪            Job Boards

▪            Professional Networking

▪            Online Curriculum Vitae

▪            Job Search Tips

▪            Media Literacy

▪            Mobile Applications

▪            Social Networking

▪            Subject-Specific Search Engines

▪            Personal Online Security

▪            Online Collaboration

▪            Synchronous Learning

▪            Asynchronous Learning

▪            Learner Types

▪            The R2D2 Model

▪            RSS Feeds

▪            MOOCs

Topics

  1. Digital Literacy
  2. Media Literacy
  3. Efficient Use of Internet Resources
  4. Online Job-Seeking
  5. Use of Web-Based Sources for Professional Development

 

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