Published July 14, 2022 | Version v1
Report Open

Young People's Digital Skills Practices in Non-formal Learning Contexts: observations, interviews, co-design

  • 1. Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
  • 2. KU Leuven
  • 3. Aarhus University

Description

This report is based on findings from a cross-national qualitative study investigating young people’s digital skills practices in non-formal learning contexts in Belgium, Denmark, and Italy.

The goal of this study was to gain better knowledge about how to foster digital skills acquisition and practices in non-formal learning contexts.

This study combined 16 observations of digital skills workshops (i.c. programming and robotics workshops), 11 interviews with organisers and moderators of such activities, and 4 subsequent co-design activities with the collaboration of children, organisers, moderators, and researchers.

The research activities took place in non-formal learning contexts, such as public libraries, youth clubs, and school spaces used for extra-curricular activities (i.e., outside the formal curriculum). Due to different COVID-19 restrictions across Belgium, Denmark and Italy, flexibility with the research protocol was needed.

The main aim of the observations and interviews was to first map existing situated experiences of digital skills workshops across countries, investigate their structure and teaching philosophies, and inform co-design activities. Then, with the co-design activities, we aimed to gain knowledge about potential future trajectories, drawing insights from best practices and formulating recommendations, with Italy focusing on teaching style, Denmark on technology and tools, and Belgium on policy.

Our work allowed us to address several research questions, investigating three main areas to be understood as broader thematic units.

As a first thematic unit concerned with teaching, we questioned how the philosophies that drive the digital skills workshops ran by moderators and organisers have an impact on the workshop organisation in terms of their formality, activities chosen, teaching styles, imaginaries and values. Indeed, we argue that these matters should not go unnoticed, as part of a hidden curriculum (Gordon, 1982), as these are likely to impact children’s and young people's digital skills acquisition and practices.

Secondly, as for the theme of learning, we investigated whether and how the formality and structure of the non-formal digital skills workshops may have influenced children’s digital skills practices and learning, what types of learning strategies were promoted by moderators, and what practices were enacted by the children themselves.  

As a third theme sensitive to including, we aimed to understand who participates in digital skills workshops and who is excluded, and why, questioning for instance potential sociocultural or material barriers (or absence thereof) shaping the democratisation and distribution of the learning opportunities.

Files

D6.2 - Young People's Digital Skills Practices in Non-formal Learning Contexts - Observations, interviews, co-design.pdf

Additional details

Funding

ySKILLS – Youth Skills 870612
European Commission