Digital Literacy: An Essential Skill for the 21st Century

MBAE, through Future Ready Massachusetts, is committed to digital equity in our schools to make sure every student acquires the knowledge and skills to access and use technology, computers and the Internet. Earlier this year, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education adopted educational standards for digital literacy and computer science.  We are inviting experts in this area to submit guest blog posts, sharing their perspective about the standards, and the role of digital literacy in preparing every child for success and active citizenship after high school.  This post was written by Deborah Boisvert, a member of the standards review panel.

The Massachusetts Digital Literacy and Computer Science (DLCS) Standards lay out a set of skills, knowledge and practices that are essential both to prepare all students for personal and civic efficacy in the 21^st Century and to prepare and inspire a much larger and more diverse number of students to pursue the innovative, creative, personally fulfilling and rewarding careers of the future. The proliferation of computing devices in K-12 has allowed districts to believe that they are addressing digital competence. However, usage is not enough; the ability to use technology tools effectively and efficiently and to design and create hardware and software solutions to solve complex problems are the new and essential literacy skills of the 21^st Century.

Like Mathematics, English Language Arts, Biology etc., Computer Science and Information Technology are academic disciplines with sequential learning progressions, yet the study of the computing disciplines is lacking in many of our schools. Providing consistent grade by grade exposure to curricula based on the standards during grades K-8 will create the necessary foundation for college and career based learning in grades 9-12. It is important to note that DLCS skills and knowledge are not limited to careers in technology fields. Rather, they are pervasive in virtually all fields from transportation to entertainment and the arts, from energy to the life sciences, from business and manufacturing to health care, from physics, chemistry and environmental sciences to all areas of research.

Now that the DLCS Standards have been adopted, the hard work begins to connect education, business, government and community in a way that creates a robust learning ecosystem within our state. Business and industry will need to identify and communicate the knowledge, skills and abilities of both computing and computing-enabled careers and work with K-12 and higher education to provide greater access to rigorous coursework that prepares students for both college and career pursuits. In addition, the business community will need to play an active role in providing work-based learning opportunities, such as job shadows or internships, to allow students to gain exposure to and experience in the career opportunities that lie ahead for them. Everyone has a role in advancing Massachusetts as the model for computer science education for the 21^st century.

Deborah Boisvert is the Principal Investigator and Executive Director of the Broadening Advanced Technological Education Connections (BATEC), an NSF ATE National Center of Excellence, headquartered at the University of Massachusetts Boston, which is building computing pathways in the urban centers of Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas and San Francisco.

She has also led projects that have researched computational thinking and achieving scale. With experience in both the corporate and educational arenas, she has focused her efforts in the development and implementation of initiatives to advance the educational and professional objectives of area high school, community college, and university students and faculty.