The Program Planning document on the Ministry of Education’s digital curriculum site is applicable to all curriculum documents from kindergarten to grade twelve. It includes an important part called the Transferable Skills. This content is part of officially issued curriculum and, as educators, we are obligated to consider this information to guide the implementation of the curriculum and in creating the environment in which it is taught.
The seven categories of transferable skills, or competencies, are:
- critical thinking and problem solving
- innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship
- self-directed learning
- collaboration
- communication
- global citizenship and sustainability
- digital literacy
These broad competencies are designed for students to transfer skills from one subject to another. For example, self-directed learning skills are applicable in every subject from language to math to physical education. It allows educators to think about developing skills that will be useful for students in any subject area and any grade level. When you read the document, you’ll see that each of the seven skills has a definition and student descriptors. For example, the document’s definition for digital literacy is:
Digital literacy involves the ability to solve problems using technology in a safe, legal, and ethically responsible manner. With the ever-expanding role of digitalization and big data in the modern world, digital literacy also means having strong data literacy skills and the ability to engage with emerging technologies. Digitally literate students recognize the rights and responsibilities, as well as the opportunities, that come with living, learning, and working in an interconnected digital world.
The first student descriptor is:
- Students select and use appropriate digital tools to collaborate, communicate, create, innovate, and solve problems.
These skills are intended to be learned as part of all subject areas and not in isolation. They are developed through student engagement in practice and in explicit teaching and learning methods. In planning, this means that we should be considering how we can integrate digital literacy into our teaching, how students can engage in becoming digitally literate, and understand their responsibilities as digital citizens.
Students always seem to be ahead of me in areas of technology; they have more time to consume media, information, and to develop confidence in using tech. However, when I think about Digital Literacy in respect to the curriculum documents, I recognize that it isn’t just the confident ability to navigate websites and use new technology. The student descriptors actually lend themselves toward understanding and analysing HOW they use digital tools to enhance their learning. Being able to select the best digital tool to help them learn, critically looking at data, and even understanding how to manage their own digital footprint look differently at every grade level.
As you look through the curriculum documents, you will also notice that the overall expectations will specifically link to the transferable skill or skills that can be developed through those expectations. For example, in grade seven language, overall expectations D2 (Creating Texts) and D3 (Publishing, Presenting, Reflecting) both tag Digital Literacy as a competency students should be developing through these expectations.
How does this inform my educator lens and decisions in the classroom? I think it looks like decisions that I am making with students, for example including them in the decision to use different digital tools for communication. Every student I’ve taught loves to create a slide deck, but that isn’t always the easiest way for students to collaborate on a project or to communicate information. Maybe it’s having whole class conversations to categorize the purpose of different digital tools, e.g., a recorded news report vs a slide deck vs a canva poster.
As I spend time reading through all of the new curriculum documents, I am finding myself thinking more and more about how students learn and getting curious about how to shape and plan learning experiences that explicitly engage in developing these transferable skills. Even as the teacher in the room, there’s always so much to learn!
