Abstract:

While the importance of ICT skills and digital literacy is no more matter of innovative practices but rather a part on essential competencies to be developed over the lifetime in all citizens, there is a strong indication that is does not happen in a smooth way. Several axes of possible tensions reported by research point at the fact that ‘digital divide’ is not yet bridged, and in some points deepens (country-region, socio-economic groups, age-groups, education level, among others).

The CompéTICA (Cométences en TIC au Canada Atlantique – ICT comptentcies in the Atlantic Canada) Network is an ongoing 3-year long Partnership Development project that aims to:
(1) define the digital competencies as a life-long continuum;
(2) study best (exemplary) practices contributing to the development of transferable and adaptive ICT skills over the continuum;
(3) elaborate common understanding (and eventually practices) of how this process can be enhanced at the personal and/or collective level.

At the first stage of the project, we conducted a Delphi study interviewing a number of experts from different sectors and organisations representing schools, community colleges, universities, workforce, and families, to learn how they define and develop digital competencies. Our presentation will report about the second stage of the project while reflecting on first sets of data (where are the ‘turning points’) and on theoretical perspectives and methodological challenges of studying ‘best practices’ using partnership approach.