Skills

When educators mention skills in the context of technology, they are often referring to ‘hard skills’ or knowledge relating to technical practices such as aptitude using a specific tool, proficiency programing in specific coding languages or environments, or understanding the formal practices that are common in a technical field. These type of skills need to be a core part of digital learning programs, and are present in all of the experiences we share here; however, successfully teaching technical skills is only part of what is being achieved by the programs we highlight. A wide range of increasingly important social and emotional skills are being developed as well. Social and emotional learning (SEL) skills (also called 21st century skills) include: critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and adaptability, among others.

Effective informal learning organizations have to decide what mix of skills are most essential for the youth they serve, and from there, design effective programs that promote their development.

The starting point for these deliberations are questions that consider what kinds of futures an organization is looking to support: Are they looking to promote youth pathways into specific professions? To foster digitally competent citizens? To build collective agency in a neighborhood? Understanding the projected futures they hope to support should help organizations to focus considerations around the kinds of hard and soft skills they intend to develop through their programming.

In thinking about how to create programs where youth can develop comprehensive skill sets, the organizations highlighted in this toolkit demonstrate how to avoid rote approaches to teaching skills.

Shared are examples that illuminate how learning technical and SEL skills can be a deep, rich, complex and fulfilling experience when youth learn new or deepen existing technical skills within a context that matters to them. They are able to fully grasp and then extend a multitude of learned practices; they plan, progress, assess, create, express, connect and collaborate.

In short, they become comfortable integrating a range of skills into everyday life. This type of learning also reflects the multi-layered facility that future employers will expect and civic participation needs. Experiencing how to integrate the technical, social, cultural and personal practices that will be important to thrive is a key lesson for young people.

Understanding which components of youth futures an organization hopes to support will help them decide what mix of skills are most essential to teach the youth they serve and help to determine “real-world” applications that will allow youth to practice those skills. Our partner organizations consistently achieve successful outcomes for their youth through mindful practices in skill integration. Here are a few examples of how they’ve created learning environments that require students to exercise multiple skills simultaneously:

• Leverage existing digital practices as a way to further develop technical skill. Our partners engage young people directly in activities such as programming, game design, film production and other technology-based learning experiences that give them direct application in the fields they care about. A substantial amount of technical skill and content knowledge are learned through these experiences.

• Link social and emotional skill development in areas like empathy and communication to digital learning projects. Rich, layered and complex projects require input from multiple people, taking the perspective of others, shared sensemaking and co-working, among other 21st century skills as well as digital fluencies. Actively understanding this can help to elevate learning moments in digital learning programs.

• Create opportunities to participate in real-world contexts to situate skill development. Some organizations design programs such as client-based work that give youth practice in skills such as technical production, project management, and client interactions that provide direct access to work-based or civic-oriented opportunities that situate skill development in meaningful projects and at the same time relate to future pathways.