Digital Britain matters to adult learning Friday, July 10, 2009 - 18:42

NIACE's lead on Media Literacy - Rachel Thomson - discusses why the government's Digital Britain White Paper matters to adult learning policy:

NIACE's research into media literacy over many years demonstrates the clear correlations between the learning poor, the digitally poor and the economically poor, yet most existing work on media literacy has focused on the needs of children, schools and teachers. Lord Carter's report crucially helps to redress this balance, in a number of ways.

In the report, there are important proposals about "tubes and pipes" - strengthening the UK's communications infrastructure capabilities; the growth of our creative industries; legal and regulatory frameworks to tackle piracy; the future of public service broadcasting; and frameworks for digital safety and security. But, arguably, the two most important features are the development of a national plan for digital participation and the recommendation - from Estelle Morris's Independent Review of ICT User Skills - about a ‘Digital Life Skills Entitlement'.

With respect to a national plan for digital participation, the term ‘media literacy' has been abandoned and ‘digital participation' takes its place. The term is defined as, "Increasing the reach, breadth and depth of digital technology use across all sections of society, to maximise digital participation and the economic and social benefits it can bring". The report calls for the formation of a Consortium of Stakeholders, led by Ofcom, to drive digital participation - and NIACE has agreed in principle to be part of such a group.

The thinking behind having a national plan is sound: to achieve a digitally-engaged population requires action to motivate those not yet engaged - and this will best be achieved through a systematic, sustained and co-ordinated approach.

Such a programme will have two linked strands which relate to adult learning - a communications campaign, supported by targeted outreach to engage those who need more support. Interestingly, the formalisation of the Consortium of Stakeholders to drive the new national plan for digital participation is identified as the first priority in the report's timetable for further action, to be completed ‘as soon as practicable' by Ofcom and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

The second proposal about a ‘Digital Life Skills Entitlement' is equally compelling from an adult learning perspective. It will enable adults without such skills to:

• request up to nine hours to cover a core set of online learning modules
• approach any learning provider in the scheme - whether they be an adult and community learning provider, an FE college, a union learning centre or other approved provider - and receive support to learn the basic skills they need to get online
• access an integrated helpline and website which offers further support

Whilst the majority of Digital Britain coverage to date has focused on high-speed broadband and the future of the licence fee, the above elements are critical if we are to engage more and different adults in digital learning of all kinds in a way which serves the requirements of citizens today and in the future.

Extract from Digital Britain Final Report, June 2009:

"We are at a tipping point in relation to the online world. It is moving from conferring advantage on those who are in it to conferring active disadvantage on those who are without, whether...[on] offers and discounts, lower utility bills, access to information and access to public services. Despite that increasing disadvantage there are several obstacles facing those that are off-line: availability, affordability, capability and relevance...

... Those without access to the Internet suffer economic disadvantage. Their opportunities and livelihoods can be compromised by exclusion from the digital world.

More fundamentally, they miss out on areas of learning for themselves and their families and, increasingly, they may begin to miss out accessing the full benefits of online public services from health to financial services and employment advice. They miss out on the easy access to relevant information, from the daily updates on weather or transport, to important breaking news at local, regional, national or international levels. Access to news is part of daily life as well as an essential ingredient for democracy.

Finally, people miss out on leisure activities and creative development which is increasingly part of the ‘social glue' for friends, families, communities of interest and society as a whole.

The concern of isolation and loneliness, of being the person in a social group who gets left behind, who fails to understand or follow cultural references, are as powerful as motivators for some sectors of society to acquire and improve their digital skills, as the more obvious economic, educational and democratic benefits."

Photo created by Full Code Press and used under a Creative Commons Licence