Measuring digital skills in community adult learning settings – implications for Australian policy development

Abstract

ABSTRACT Social and economic participation is increasingly dependent on the proficient use of digital technologies in everyday life. Digital skills, alongside literacy and numeracy, are now foundational skills that all Australians should have. Yet, how policy makers, scholars, and adult educators can effectively identify people’s current and desired digital skills is not well established. Existing frameworks tend to be instrumentalist, listing generic abilities that all citizens need for success. Digital abilities, however, are context-specific and attempts to generalise need to be responsive to local circumstances. We present a theory-driven Digital Ability Self-Assessment Tool, developed for a government agency and piloted in a community organisation. The Tool takes a distinctive socio-material approach to overcome shortcomings of other digital ability assessment tools, which often focus on normative measures of skills attainment. Overall, we argue that authentic digital skills policy and programme development must account for the contexts in which digital technologies are used.