Sue Cranmer
email: s.cranmer@lancaster.ac.uk

Digital Skills and Competencies in Schools

Keywords: Digital skills, digital literacy, disability

This paper will compare a range of recently developed frameworks, which identify digital skills and competencies drawn from the United Kingdom (UK), from across the wider European Union, and internationally to include Australia. It will also briefly explore who and what is driving this agenda. The models will be set within the context of recent evidence that highlight the deficits that exist in children and young people's skills and competencies in order to emphasise the need for schools to address this issue. In order to consider the issue more practically, it will explore the digital skills and competencies of one young person who is currently in transition to explore how useful the frameworks are for the development of their skills. It will show the correspondence and divergence between the different frameworks and the composite headings which can be drawn from the content. Examples of these dimensions will be outlined to show how digital technologies, and particularly digital skills and competencies, can influence a specific transition from school to college.

Introduction

A central problem of the digital technologies agenda is how to develop young people's skills and competencies to support immediate and longer-term life transitions. Learners need these skills and competencies to support their life transitions. Evidence about schools and what they are doing to develop digital skills is far from clear. There are different models of digital skills and competencies which have emerged in recent years in the United Kingdom (UK) and Europe [START_REF] Ferrari | Digital Competence in Practice: An Analysis of Frameworks[END_REF][START_REF] Hague | Digital literacy across the curriculum[END_REF]. Whilst it is not immediately apparent who is driving this agenda, it includes in the UK, for example, the UK Government, and industry [START_REF]The national curriculum in England. Framework document[END_REF][START_REF]Confederation for British Industry: First steps: A new approach for our schoolsambition [noun] a desire and determination to achieve success[END_REF][START_REF] Livingstone | Next Gen. Transforming the UK into the world's leading talent hub for the video games and visual effects industries: A Review[END_REF]. Likewise, this agenda is also being driven forward by government and industry in many other countries [6,[START_REF]The Melbourne Declaration on the Educational Goals For Young Australians[END_REF][START_REF]Partnership for 21 st Century Skills (P21): Framework for 21st Century Learning[END_REF].

This paper will compare a range of recently developed frameworks, which identify digital skills and competencies drawn from the UK, from across the wider European Union, and internationally to include Australia. It will also briefly explore who and what is driving this agenda. The models will be set within the context of recent evidence that highlight the deficits that exist in children and young people's skills and competencies in order to emphasise the need for schools to address this issue. In order to consider the issue more practically, it will consider the digital skills and competencies of one young person who is currently in transition to explore how useful the frameworks are for the development of their skills. These data are drawn from a small pilot project currently underway, exploring how young people in mainstream schools who are blind or visually impaired use digital technologies -such as the computer and Internet -for learning at school, home and in other environments. In particular, this paper will draw on the data to address the following research questions: • How far do the frameworks enable understanding of young people's digital skills and competencies? • How might the frameworks be implemented in practice? • How do digital technologies support life transitions?

Background

'Digital skills and competencies' as a term describes an often expanded multifaceted range of competencies which are difficult to define given the different perspectives and professional disciplines engaged in the field [START_REF] Meyers | Digital literacy and informal learning environments: an introduction[END_REF]. These skills have variously been called 'digital literacy', 'media literacy', 'computer skills' and 'Internet literacy'.

Debates about what should constitute digital skills and competencies are prolific and the abundance of these debates -also set out in policy -in themselves contest Prensky's notion of 'digital natives' [START_REF] Prensky | Digital natives, digital immigrants[END_REF]. Prensky argued that 'digital natives', young people born in the last 3 decades who have always been surrounded by digital media: are '…all "native speakers" of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet' (p.1). As so-called 'digital immigrants', Prensky argued that (older) educators needed to up-skill in order to address new ways of learning in order to engage this new type of learner. Since 2001, much research has contested the view that all young people have an innate capacity to learn how to use digital technologies effectively. A recent face-to-face survey was carried out in the UK by the Princes Trust to explore what they refer to as 'digital literacy' [START_REF]Princes Trust: Digital Literacy Survey[END_REF]. The survey included 1,378 young people aged between 15 to 25 years of age which also comprised 265 young people classed as NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training). Whilst the survey found that many young people feel confident in carrying out a wide range of tasks, particularly social activities such as e-mailing friends (66%), accessing social media sites (64%), 12% reported that they do not think their computer skills are good enough to use in the job they want; 10% of NEETS feel "out of their depth" using a computer; and 17% of NEETS believe they would be in work today if they had better computer skills. A larger project, 'EU Kids Online' again carried out a face-to-face survey, in this case with 25,000 9 to 16-year-olds in 25 European countries to understand their online activities, skills and self-efficacy. The data show that children from lower socio-economic status homes are gaining less digital skills and competencies than their more affluent counterparts; younger children in general have less developed skills accompanied by less confidence using them; girls have slightly less confidence about their skills than boys; and the majority of children gauged their skills to be less than their parents (only 36% said it is 'very true that they know more than their parents'). As the authors reported, this finding again debunks the myth of the digital native [START_REF] Sonck | Digital literacy and safety skills. EU Kids Online[END_REF]. These findings could be expanded upon drawing on other international research studies which demonstrate evidence about the level of development of children's digital skills and competencies and whether they are underdeveloped and in turn require intervention in order to address this.

In recognition that a problem does exist, there have been numerous calls and initiatives for the development of young people's digital skills and competencies in schools including from industry in the UK. The Confederation for British Industry has highlighted the need for action in this respect [START_REF]Confederation for British Industry: First steps: A new approach for our schoolsambition [noun] a desire and determination to achieve success[END_REF], as have the video games and video effects industries [START_REF] Livingstone | Next Gen. Transforming the UK into the world's leading talent hub for the video games and visual effects industries: A Review[END_REF]. The UK government have recently issued a new curriculum to be introduced in September 2014 for England for both primary (ages 5 to 11 years) and secondary (ages 11 to 16 years) children and young people. Within the curriculum for computing, it is stated that: 'Computing also ensures that pupils become digitally literate -able to use, and express themselves and develop their ideas through, information and communication technology -at a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world' [3, p.204]). More broadly, the European Commission's Europe 2020 flagship initiative Digital Agenda for Europe emphasises the need for young people, workers and all citizens to have '… the skills needed to meet 21st century challenges' [6]. These attributes are seen as important for economic recovery and growth within the European Union. In Australia, the Melbourne Declaration on the Educational Goals for Young Australians [START_REF]The Melbourne Declaration on the Educational Goals For Young Australians[END_REF] states that in a digital age, young people need to be highly skilled: 'Rapid and continuing advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) are changing the ways people share, use, develop and process information and technology. In this digital age, young people need to be highly skilled in the use of ICT. While schools already employ these technologies in learning, there is a need to increase their effectiveness significantly over the next decade (p.5).'

Introduction of Frameworks for Digital Skills and Competencies

In light of the developments summarised above, three frameworks for the development of digital skills and competencies have been identified for analysis in this paper. Criteria for inclusion were:  Must be based on empirical research.  Must be recent (i.e. developed in the last 5 years).  Must be broken down into different elements and descriptions of the constituent skills and competencies.  Must be written in the English language.  Must be represented in a diagrammatic form for ease of top-level representation.  Must have the main focus on digital skills and competencies rather than broader elements of 21st-century skills.

In light of these criteria, frameworks from Australia, Europe and the United Kingdom were selected for comparison: two aimed at helping teachers to develop their students' skills [START_REF] Hague | Digital literacy across the curriculum[END_REF][START_REF]ACARA): Information and communication technology (ICT) capability[END_REF]; the other aimed at supporting the development of "All citizens" to "create consensus at European level about the components of Digital Competence" [14, p.7]. Given the large number of models of digital skills and competencies developed, the selection could be expanded upon in a further extended study (see for instance the National Council for Teachers of English in the United States [START_REF]National Council of Teachers of English: 21st-Century Literacies. A policy research brief[END_REF] or BECTA [START_REF]BECTA: Digital literacy. Teaching critical thinking for our digital world[END_REF] in the UK. The details considered in each of these frameworks were: components of the framework (see Figures 1, 2 and3); which organisation produced it; when it was produced; who it was aimed at; what its stated purpose was; and how it was produced.

Methodology and Methods

In order to consider the frameworks more practically, an individual case has been drawn from an ongoing small-scale study about how young people with visual impairments in mainstream schools use digital technologies for learning. Firstly, the three frameworks were considered straightforwardly by placing them side-by-side to compare and contrast the differences and correspondences. The comparison took place at the level of headings and brief description of content which represent each dimension of digital skills and competencies, as set out in Table 1. The decision was made to explore the frameworks at this level of detail for the purposes of cross comparison. However it should be noted that the IPTS framework in particular sets out the different dimensions of digital competencies in much more detail, and analysis of this could be usefully expanded in further work. Also, the IPTS and ACARA self/student assessment frameworks could be used to evaluate young people's digital skills and competencies in depth.

Data from the individual case being researched as part of the ongoing digital technologies for learning by visually impaired young people project was then drawn upon to look more practically at the different frameworks. The case was selected from the larger project sample as an example of a student who is currently in transition from school to college, to understand more concretely how the selected frameworks appear in terms of understanding and potentially developing young people's digital skills and competencies. This approach therefore provides a means of exploring the frameworks more practically and how they might be implemented in practice. In relation to this student's visual impairment and therefore the relevance of the case to understanding the development of digital skills and competencies, Passey argues that there are differences between learners which need to be recognised so that learning can accommodate '… learner's individual needs, their interests and aptitudes, so they can gain to the greatest possible level' [17, p.103].

The ongoing small-scale study from which this data are drawn is exploring the situation for visually impaired young people in terms of access to digital technologies, uses and how digital technologies influence learning in both formal and out-of-school settings. It is also considering how digital skills and competencies developed by this group of visually impaired young people support formal and out-of-school learning and it is this part of the project which is drawn on here. The research is qualitative in design; and involves 16 participants between the ages of 11 to 18 years. School visits include a semi-structured interview with each young person, observation in the classroom of how they use digital technologies for learning and interviews with the support team. Sixteen detailed case studies will be developed from the data. Where possible, common themes will be drawn out across the sample through adopting a constant comparison approach [START_REF] Strauss | Qualitative analysis for social scientists[END_REF]. Nevertheless, this may not be appropriate because the young people in the sample may have other impairments, which may vary across the group and weaken a cross comparison approach.

'Laura' (a pseudonym) is a 16-year-old girl with a significant visual impairment who lives in the North of England. She was interviewed in May 2014 shortly before taking her examinations and before leaving school in July 2014. She has been selected for this paper as she is currently in transition and making choices about whether to move into the sixth form at the school or outside to a different college. Indeed, during a semi-structured interview she reflected on how her digital skills and competencies could influence her future career. She was also observed in a science lesson using digital technologies. Nevertheless, as this was a revision class, she was mainly using an iPad to access a Microsoft (MS) PowerPoint presentation prepared by her teacher through using the iPad's zoom facility during which the whole class including Laura were being asked questions. This engagement with technology was more limited than if Laura had been, for instance, using the iPad to create content, communicating and collaborating.

Comparison of Frameworks

Dimensions/headings

Comparison of the three frameworks showed that for the most part, the categories described and the dimensions of each framework can be mapped onto each other (see Table 2). This is perhaps unsurprising given that when considered in detail, it emerged that all 3 were underpinned by international research and analysis of other models. Even so, these similarities also represent a convergence to a large degree of what are seen to be the digital skills and competencies needed by young people today in Australia, Europe and within a specific European Union country, the UK. Where headings do exist which are not reflected in other frameworks, the content within these headings has mainly been conflated under other headings. For instance, the Futurelab framework has a separate category for collaboration. Nevertheless, elements of collaboration have been integrated into the IPTS and ACARA dimensions under the heading of communication. The order of the headings in Table 2 has been dictated by the dimensions/headings set out in the Futurelab framework (starting from Functional skills on the upper left of the diagram) and then the other frameworks are set out by how they correspond to this. Nevertheless, the diagrammatic form of the Futurelab framework suggests less of a hierarchy than the other two frameworks which have a linear order which could potentially be viewed as a hierarchy of their relative importance. The extent of intentionality for this is unclear.

Given the overall similarities and convergence between the frameworks, it was decided to form composite headings by looking across the headings from the 3 original frameworks to show correspondence. This also allows for consideration of how the dimensions of the frameworks can be used practically to interpret one young person's skills. The paper does not intend to evaluate the usefulness of each framework individually given the extent to which they overlap; however, it will briefly consider how the content described by three of the dimensions/headings may concur or differ across the frameworks.

Practical Application of the Frameworks

Table 2 has shown how the content of the dimensions/headings within each framework map onto each other. This section will therefore focus on the practical application of the digital skills and competencies as represented by the composite headings. Three dimensions have been chosen given that this is a short paper, and being selective will allow for more depth in exploration of the issues. Nevertheless, this could be usefully expanded upon. The three dimensions selected have also been chosen where data from the case study of Laura can provide examples of content within each category.

Functional skills/managing and operating ICT/problem solving

All 3 frameworks have aspects of this dimension which mainly describes having the appropriate technical knowledge and skills needed to carry out the other dimensions of the frameworks. The IPTS framework is interesting in that it includes that users also need to be able to identify digital competence gaps within this dimension. This is described as: 'To understand where own competence needs to be improved or updated, to support others in the development of their digital competence, to keep upto-date with new developments' (p.6). This is an important dimension of the frameworks in emphasising the need to update and develop further technical knowledge and skills.

This dimension is useful for understanding the functional skills which Laura possesses alongside somewhat more extended skills to use digital technologies to overcome visual impairment. She is a competent user of an iPad which she accesses through the built-in accessibility functions. She also uses a laptop with supernova magnification as an assistive technology. She has the functional skills to access a range of devices and software to support her studies. In relation to the need to update and expand knowledge and skills, it is interesting that Laura says that she is able to do most of the things she wants to with digital technologies. Nevertheless, this does not account for other applications and potential uses which Laura might find helpful but does not yet know exist.

6.2

Creativity/content creation/creating with ICT All 3 frameworks describe creativity as being an essential competence online both in terms of content creation and in having the necessary digital skills and competencies to be actively creative more broadly. For example, in the Futurelab framework, creativity is described in terms of: creating a product or output; thinking creatively and imaginatively; and creating knowledge and knowledge production. The IPTS framework also includes the need to consider copyright and licenses within this dimension, and programming, which the others do not.

In relation to Laura, this category has particular resonance as she said that her favourite subject at school is 'Creative media'. For this subject, she needs to create both films and photographs. She described how she really enjoys going out filming, editing the results in Adobe Premiere Pro and using an optical mouse which enlarges what she is editing in detail. Her interest in the subject combined with having the digital skills and competencies to do this means that her decision about what to do next -whether school or college -hangs on this subject and where best to pursue it. She is as yet undecided. But her ability to do well in this subject (enabled by digital skills and competencies), and to have the skills needed to do so, are crucial in this decision.

E-safety/safety/applying social and ethical protocols and practices when using ICT

There is more divergence between the 3 frameworks in this dimension, immediately signalled by the broader ACARA heading. Nevertheless, all 3 frameworks include the issue of personal safety. The Futurelab model for E-safety puts the onus on critical thinking and what is referred to as 'critical awareness', protecting yourself online personally and in terms of copyright, knowing the risks, cyberbullying; and virus protection. The IPTS dimension is somewhat similar, emphasising safety and security, physical and psychological well-being, risks and threats, protection of personal data, and cyberbullying. It also includes protection of the environment. The ACARA dimension of 'Applying social and ethical protocols and practices when using ICT' is broader and appears to place more prominence on intellectual property rights, storage, digital information security practices; and personal security. It also takes a wider view in the expectation of a developed understanding on the impact of ICT on society and on the benefits and consequences of ICT, setting this dimension within a wider context. When Laura was asked about online safety, interestingly her immediate response was in relation to having been bullied off-line rather than online. She said that this had happened more at primary school than at the secondary school which she attends now. And she put this down to being the only person with a disability. She said that she had been called 'horrible' names. In relation to transition, she said: '... It just makes you tougher, it makes you in some ways ready for the workplace because it's not going to be all happy and all sweet and everyone is going to be okay with everything'. More positively, Laura said that she had not been bullied much online. On Facebook she only accepts people who she knows face-to-face and who she would like to see her 'timeline'. Also on Facebook if somebody acted in a way that upset her, she said that she could 'block them' suggesting she felt more empowered to do this online than off.

Whilst the issue here for Laura is off-line rather than online bullying, it is included here to show how she feels more empowered online to prevent being bullied compared with being off-line. It is also interesting that she has turned being bullied off-line to positive effect, as in some way being prepared for the workplace. Obviously it is of concern that she anticipates that she may be bullied when she enters the workplace possibly due to her visual impairment. Nevertheless, the way she rationalises how she has been bullied in the past suggests she has a well-developed coping strategy for this.

6.4

How could frameworks be implemented?

One of the questions that this paper set out to answer was how far the frameworks can be implemented in schools, taking account of the more practical consideration of a specific young person's skills and competencies at the point of transition from school to college or sixth form. The straightforward answer for all students would be to carry out student evaluations as in the ACARA framework, or ask students to self-evaluate as in the IPTS framework, and then to design interventions to address any areas needing further development. Nevertheless, the curriculum in many countries is already tightly packed and this may prevent initiatives designed to develop young people's digital skills and competencies gaining resonance. In the new curriculum for England, for example, it will be important to gauge how far digital skills and competencies will be developed through their stipulation within the curriculum for computing; and how far they can also be embedded across other subjects in the curriculum. In Australia, it will be useful to monitor the impact following the introduction of the ACARA standard. In this, further research will be necessary.

Skills and competencies in specific life transitions

A key question for this paper is also how do digital technologies support life transitions? In the case of this paper the question is more one of how do underpinning digital skills and competencies support life transitions. In relation to Laura, there is one clear example where the subject of 'creative media' is influencing Laura's choice of college or sixth form as it is a subject she would really like to continue with. It is also a subject in which the part played by digital technologies, and digital skills and competencies, are fundamental. It would be very useful to relate the findings of this chapter more broadly to studies of transition and particularly research about children and young people's 'resilience' which is known to be important for successful transition [START_REF] Newman | Interchange 78. Transitions in the Lives of Children and Young People: Resilience Factors[END_REF]. Resilience factors are seen to support transition so that children and young people are able to exhibit '… positive adaptation in circumstances where one might expect, due to atypical levels of stress, a significant degradation in coping skills to take place' (p.1). Indeed, in relation to digital skills, Graham has conceptualised this as 'techno-resiliency to describe the characteristics and strategies through which individuals are able to cope with challenging technology-related circumstances [START_REF] Graham | Techno-resiliency: An Exploration of Professional Practices in the Field of Technology-Enriched Teaching and Learning[END_REF]. Further work is needed to understand how digital technologies and the underpinning skills and competencies needed to use them can support transition. This would seem to be highly relevant in the debate about how digital competencies and skills are needed both to equip young people for changes in their lives as well as in order to be able to adopt newer technologies.

Conclusions

This paper has compared a range of recently developed frameworks and shown how the dimensions contained within them often converge. It has also sketched out previous studies which highlight the deficits that exist in some children and young people's skills and competencies. The current study could usefully be further expanded through looking in detail at a much larger sample of frameworks and explore these in relation to a larger sample of young people in transition. In an extended study, it would also be useful to set the frameworks within their cultural context in terms of why particular dimensions and elements of each framework have been given the emphasis they have. For example, Futurelab's E-safety description appears to draw heavily on current concerns in the UK about children's online safety and the risk of online grooming and sexual predation, and exposure to pornography, rather than for instance, the ACARA framework which places more emphasis on intellectual property and the wider consequences of ICT on society. It would be useful to understand the trends and concerns within each country which may be traceable into the frameworks themselves. It is also clear that the frameworks alone do not ensure implementation, and given that in Australia and the UK, for instance, emphasis on the development of these skills appears to be growing in terms of further inclusion in curricula, further research would be helpful to understand how these developments work in practice.

Fig. 1 :Fig. 2 :

 12 Fig.1: Futurelab[START_REF] Hague | Digital literacy across the curriculum[END_REF]

Fig. 3 :

 3 Fig. 3:The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority[START_REF] Newman | Interchange 78. Transitions in the Lives of Children and Young People: Resilience Factors[END_REF]

Table 1 :

 1 The elements of each framework included in the analysis.

	Framework 1: Futurelab Framework 2: IPTS	Framework 3: ACARA
	Diagram	p.19;	Diagram p.5;	outline	Diagram p.5;	outline
	descriptions and ideas for	description of different	description of different
	how teachers can foster	dimensions of digital	dimensions of digital
	digital competencies for	competencies pp.5-6	competencies pp.5-6
	learners pp.22-45

Table 2 :

 2 The dimensions/headings within the frameworks that map onto each other taking account of the content

	Framework 1:	Framework 2:	Framework 3:
	Futurelab	IPTS	ACARA
	Dimensions/headings Functional skills Problem solving	Managing and
			operating ICT
	Creativity	Content creation	Creating with ICT
	Critical thinking	Information	Investigating with
	and evaluation	(described as	ICT
		information
		management in
		the diagram)
	Cultural and	Does not directly	Does not directly
	social	map. Elements of	map. Elements of
	understanding	the	the applying social
		communication	and ethical
		dimension are	protocols and
		closest to this	practices dimension
			are closest to this
	Collaboration	Integrated into	Integrated into
		communication	communication
	The ability to	Information	Investigating with
	find and select	(described as	ICT
	information	information
		management
		within the
		diagram)
	Effective	Communication	Communicating
	communication		with ICT
	E-safety	Safety	Applying social and
			ethical protocols
			and practices when
			using ICT

Acknowledgements. The author would like to thank the tutors and young people who kindly participated in the study about how young people with visual impairments in mainstream schools use digital technologies for learning. Also, to thank Professor Don Passey for generously sharing ideas and giving much support in developing this paper and other projects.


Denise Leahy
email: denise.leahy@cs.tcd.ie

Diana Wilson

Digital Skills for Employment

Keywords: IT competency, frameworks, IFIP, CEN, basic ICT skills

How are digital skills developed for those involved in life transitions to employment? Digital skills are developed over time. Some of these skills are developed in formal education, others in informal and non-formal education settings. Digital skills are acquired over time through educational and social use of technology, through formal instruction, informal self-learning and learning from peers. Our world today requires digital skills to enable an individual to succeed in finding, evaluating and creating information for further and higher education, training and employment. This paper examines the need for these skills, some European initiatives and the frameworks which define the skills.

Introduction

Technology is changing the way people live in today's "Information Society". Work is global, personal communication is immediate and information is available at all times of the day and night. Digital skills are needed to understand and cope with these changes as a person moves through the various stages of life. As the European Union (EU) has stated, "Information and communication technologies profoundly and irreversibly affect the ways of working, accessing knowledge, socialising, communicating, collaborating -and succeeding -in all areas of the professional, social, and personal life of European young people and citizens" [START_REF]Survey of Schools -ICT in Education: Benchmarking Access, Use and Attitudes to Technology in Europe's Schools[END_REF]. The Digital Agenda for Europe [START_REF]European Commission: A Digital Agenda for Europe[END_REF] recognises the need for digital skills for innovation and growth in Europe and notes that the skill requirements are constantly changing: "In a competitive and rapidly changing world, workforces need to be capable of continuously adapting to shifting job requirements and organisation procedures related to new skill-intensive technologies" [START_REF]CEDEFOP: Research Paper No 21, Skill mismatch: The role of the enterprise[END_REF].

Unemployment in the EU reached 10.7% by December 2013, yet the number of "digital jobs" is growing at a rate of 3% per annum [START_REF]Eurostat: Unemployment statistics[END_REF]. A recent IT Skills Audit [START_REF]Fastrack to IT: Skills Audit[END_REF] estimated an excess of over 4,500 unfilled jobs in the ICT sector in Ireland and a 2014 report from LERO, the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre, predicted that thousands of Irish software jobs could be lost as a result of the growing IT skills shortage. As technology touches all levels of society and business, e-leaders with digital skills (e-skills) are needed at every level in an organisation [START_REF] Leahy | e-skills for e-leadership[END_REF]. According to Accenture [START_REF]Every Business Is a Digital Business[END_REF], "Every Business Is a Digital Business"; it could be argued that every employee needs digital skills. In 2011, EU commissioner Neelie Kroes said, "You are nowhere without digital skills in the 21st century" 2 . But what are these skills? There have been several frameworks developed to address this issue and to help employees identify skills gaps in supporting a life transition. This paper examines the different definitions of the skills, and the skills' frameworks that have been developed to help understand what is needed during major changes in a person's life.

The Need for Skills

The world of work is changing

The concept of a 'job for life' has disappeared. Both employment and organisations are becoming increasingly precarious; many jobs have become contractual, part-time or flexible and the average lifespan of a company has fallen since 1960 from 76 years to 15 years [START_REF]Creative Destruction whips through Corporate America[END_REF]. The acquisition of digital skills can give people entering, or reentering the workplace greater choice and job security. More importantly, the decreasing cost of technologies and learning how to use them opens up new opportunities for self-employment and entrepreneurship that had previously been denied (e.g. Arduino, Raspberry Pi, 3D printers).

A person needs to demonstrate a large variety of "complex cognitive, motor, sociological, and emotional skills" [START_REF] Talja | The social and discursive construction of computing skills[END_REF][START_REF] Eshet | Digital literacy: A new terminology framework and its application to the design of meaningful technology-bases learning environments[END_REF] to take benefit from technology and the Information Society. Without these skills there is a danger of being excluded. It is important that people know how to use technology safely and securely. Using the Internet often involves entering personal details on a web page and putting pictures on a social networking site that can expose a person's privacy and can involve the person being "tagged", thus allowing the searching for all pictures which may be held in any system worldwide. This "tagging" is growing and likely to grow further -"Recently, with the popularity of social networking websites, we observe a massive number of user-tagged images, referred to as "social images", that are available on the web" [START_REF] Wu | Distance metric learning from uncertain side information with application to automated photo tagging[END_REF]. There are implications for the future, for employment prospects, future careers and personal privacy. Global positioning systems (GPS) and geographic information systems (GIS) are very useful in finding routes to unfamiliar places, but these location-based technologies can also identify where the user is at any moment as he or she moves around.

"Cloud computing" is a term used often but most people do not know that they are actually using cloud computing. With cloud computing some or all of the software and hardware services can reside on the Internet and the person using the computer need not know where. According to Hayes [START_REF] Hayes | Cloud Computing[END_REF], "As software migrates from local [personal computers] PCs to distant Internet servers, users and developers alike go along for the ride." Cloud services can be accessed by any user (client) interface, for example telephone, tablet, any mobile device, monitor, computer or any intelligent device. Large organisations are using the cloud to reduce costs by using information technology (IT) resources only when they need them as an "on demand" service. This service has been likened to the switching on of electricity [START_REF] Carr | The big switch: rewiring the world, from Edison to Google[END_REF]. There are security issues in using the cloud. Companies must consider the reliability, the service levels and the security of data and systems in the cloud; individuals must be aware of the security and privacy of their data. It is vital that people are aware of privacy issues when they are using technology in their daily and business lives, in what Moran et al. [START_REF] Moran | Beyond the Desktop Metaphor in Seven Dimensions[END_REF] refer to as "the personal information cloud, i.e., the working set of information that is relevant to the individual and his work".

Teachers

Teachers need to understand technology and its use in education. Teachers must have a basic knowledge of technology and must be able to use e-learning tools to create course content, to set assessments, to enable collaborative work and to design the administrative functionality required for their specific class. This usually involves the use of a learning management system and a content management system. Students need to know how to access the classes, register online, communicate with teachers and other students and download material as required. They all need to know when technical help is needed. Awouters et al. [START_REF] Awouters | E-learning Competencies for Teachers in Secondary and Higher Education[END_REF] believe "Teaching and learning with [information and communication technologies] ICT requires specific competencies for teachers and lecturers" and "using a Virtual Learning Environment like Blackboard or Moodle demands more didactical than technical skills. Especially elearning and blended learning is too demanding to let teachers learn to use these tools only by experimenting." ohn and Wheeler [START_REF] John | The Digital Classroom, harnessing technology for the Future[END_REF] discussing the needs of learners in the classroom identify the change that technology brings -"There is a need, for example, for students to engage with digital media in a number of ways, transcending those which are required to learn from paper-based text or images".

Bawden [START_REF] Bawden | Information and digital literacies: a review of concepts[END_REF] expresses concern that teachers have not taken up the challenges of technology and asserts that "Information literacy and digital literacy are central topics for the information sciences. They are associated with issues as varied as information overload, lifelong learning, knowledge management and the growth of the Information Society. Naturally, they have been much discussed in the literature, but not, perhaps, as much as their importance deserves; in particular, they have not impinged much on the practitioner." While there have been positive developments since 2001, in particular the rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) such as Coursera and the Khan Academy, these issues have not yet been resolved.

The management in educational establishments must also understand the needs -"Teachers who want to change need an innovative environment to act in. Therefore also management has to change." Another consideration might be the measurement of the e-skills achieved so that the effectiveness of the teaching can be measured and gaps in the process can be discovered; this is included as a priority in the Digital Agenda [START_REF]Digital Agenda: Communication From The Commission To The European Parliament, The Council, The European Economic And Social Committee And The Committee Of The Regions: A Digital Agenda for Europe[END_REF].

Information literacy

Information literacy enables the individual to be discriminating in the information available to him or her. So much data is available online and it is necessary to be able to evaluate the accuracy and integrity of such data -"IT literacy... must also capture the notion of information literacy -the ability to assess the validity of various sources of information" [START_REF] Perez | Computing for the masses: extending the computer science curriculum with information technology literacy[END_REF]. The European Union agrees: "In the global information and knowledge society, the ability to communicate competently in all old and new media, as well as to access, analyze and evaluate the power of images, words and sounds, is a fundamental skill and competence for every young European citizen. These skills of media literacy are essential for our future as individuals and as members of a democratic society" [START_REF]eLearning Europa: Approaches to Media Literacy and e-Learning[END_REF].

Lifelong learning

Technology can facilitate learning at any time, any place and throughout one's life. Lifelong learning is becoming accepted as a necessity in personal and working lives. Included in the European Union's "Key Competences for Lifelong Learning" are the needs for competencies in "learning to learn" and "digital competence" where it is stated "Competence in the fundamental basic skills of language, literacy, numeracy and in information and communication technologies (ICT) is an essential foundation for learning". As technology is used more in education and in everyday lives, there is a need to continue to develop skills in this area. Lifelong learning can be facilitated and made more accessible with technology. Information literacy, as part of digital literacy, is necessary for participation in learning.

The European Union recognises the need for lifelong learning and talks of the "triangle of lifelong learning", this triangle being education, research and innovation. The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training [START_REF]Joint progress report on the implementation of the Education and Training 2010 work programme: Delivering lifelong learning for knowledge, creativity and innovation[END_REF] stresses the importance for society -"Lifelong learning supports creativity and innovation and enables full economic and social participation." This is not a new idea; Kilpatrick said in 1918, "We of America have for years increasingly desired that education be considered as life itself and not as a mere preparation for later living. The conception before us promises a definite step toward the attainment of this end. If the purposeful act be in reality the typical unit of the worthy life, then it follows that to base education on purposeful acts is exactly to identify the process of education with worthy living itself" [START_REF] Kilpatrick | The Project Method[END_REF].

Technology acceptance

Companies must overcome the potential barriers to the use of technology. People will use technology if they think it will help them and people will use technology if they find it easy to use. Davis [START_REF] Davis | Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease Of Use, And User Acceptance of Information Technology[END_REF], investigating why people accept technology, defined "perceived usefulness" as "the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance" and "perceived ease of use" as "the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free from effort". This "Technology Acceptance Model" (TAM) was developed in 1989. Today, people have little choice but to accept technology, therefore digital literacy is vital to understand how technology can help and how to use it. In business, digital literacy is vital to ensure the success of new systems. The King and He [START_REF] King | A meta-analysis of the technology acceptance model[END_REF] research asserts that the TAM is a reliable predictor for the successful implementation of computer systems in business. Applying the findings to digital literacy, it could be argued that digital literacy knowledge and skills address many of the issues identified and that the TAM can be applied to the use of technology in personal lives. If a person is comfortable and confident in using technology, he or she will use it. If not, the technology will be avoided or could be used incorrectly. This has implications for business in the future.

When introduced to new technology, people adopt the technology at different speeds, from those who are enthusiastic about technology and keen to adopt it to those who are slow to take it up. The Diffusion of Innovations model [START_REF] Rogers | Diffusion of Innovations[END_REF] was first used to describe farmers' attitudes in the United States towards the adoption of science and technology. However, it has been used since 1962 to describe the adoption of modern technology in business. In his research, Rogers identifies five different levels of adoption. "Innovators" are the first people to adopt an innovation; they will take risks and may fail. Usually these people are young, wealthy and are close to other innovators. "Early Adopters" are "more discrete in adoption choices than innovators" and will follow the innovators in adopting a technology. "Early Majority" people adopt an innovation some time after the innovators and early adopters. "Late Majority" people will adopt an innovation after the majority of society and "Laggards" are the last to adopt an innovation. This model is normally applied to the take-up of new or "leading edge" technology by business. Nevertheless, the model could be applied to the adoption and acceptance of technology by the ordinary citizen. Having digital literacy can increase the adoption rate and the quality of decision making, making individuals more critical of new technology and its mode of application, and understanding when it is time to be innovative and when it is time to disengage from an intrusive or exploitative innovation.

An issue which must always be considered when adopting technology is the dependence on this technology and the risk that basic skills of living could be lost. It is important to understand the "prudent" use of technology; as Prensky [START_REF] Prensky | From Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom[END_REF] says "Digital wisdom is a twofold concept, referring both to wisdom arising from the use of digital technology to access cognitive power beyond our innate capacity and to wisdom in the prudent use of technology to enhance our capabilities."

e-Leadership

The European Union describes e-Leadership as "the capabilities needed to exploit opportunities provided by ICT, notably the Internet; to ensure more efficient and effective performance of different types of organisations; to explore possibilities for new ways of conducting business/administrative and organisational processes; and/or to establish new businesses." 3 It could be argued that the skills required to be an eleader can be found not only in an Information Society environment but also in all areas of business and all levels within an organisation.

Digital Agenda

EU policy suggests that the Information Society can improve the lives of citizens, improve productivity, promote innovation and create a better society [START_REF]ETSI: Human Factors HF; Multimodal interaction, communication, and navigation guidelines[END_REF]. There have been several initiatives designed to promote the use of technology to improve lives, opportunities for citizens and Europe's position as a technology leader. The eEurope "An Information Society for all" initiative endorsed in 2002, aimed to bring every citizen into the digital age, create a digitally literate Europe and ensure that the process was inclusive by 2005 [START_REF]EU: An information society for all[END_REF].

The Action Plan to deliver eEurope 2005 was launched at the Seville European Council in June 2002 and was endorsed by the Council of Ministers in the eEurope Resolution of January 2003. It addressed public services, e-business and of broadband access. It concluded in 2005 and was followed by i2010 (European Information Society in 2010) with the objective of ensuring "that Europe's citizens, businesses and governments make the best use of ICTs in order to improve industrial competitiveness, support growth and the creation of jobs and to help address key societal challenges" [START_REF] Eu I | A European Information Society for growth and employment[END_REF]. According to the i2010 High Level Group, the "take up of ICT is expected to impact on the economy and more in general on society" [START_REF]High Level Group, Benchmarking Digital Europe[END_REF].

Replacing the i2010 initiative is the Digital Agenda as part of EU 2020. The Digital Agenda is one of seven initiatives in the EU 2020 growth strategy, which has initiatives grouped into three target areas -"Smart growth", "Sustainable growth" and "Inclusive growth" [START_REF]Flagship initiatives for EU[END_REF]. These initiatives include actions on education, youth, business/innovation, climate and inclusion. The EU has defined goals for the Digital Agenda and produces a scorecard demonstrating how each country and the EU in total are performing against these goals.

There is concern in the EU that a large part of the population is still unable to take advantage of opportunities offered by knowledge of technology, in particular people from disadvantaged groups such as the elderly or people with disabilities. The EU has declared its intention to ensure that "Every European (is) Digital" by 2015 and has an employment target for 2020 of 75% of the working-age population in employment. The working population is defined as those aged between 20 and 64 years. In order to reach the target an "Agenda for new skills and jobs" initiative was launched in 2010 [START_REF]EU: Agenda for new skills and jobs[END_REF] and digital literacy and e-skills have been included among the priorities of the initiative. These skills will be included in lifelong learning policies and actions will be taken in the areas of education and teacher training.

The Digital Agenda promises to "promote the take-up and use of the Internet in order to ensure inclusion in the digital society, namely through the extensive use of equipment and digital content and tools in education and learning, by enhancing digital literacy and skills and by improving accessibility for all, especially for persons with disabilities". Actions 57 to 68 of the Digital Agenda aim to increase e-skills and make digital literacy and competences a priority for the European Social Fund. These actions include addressing the competences of ICT users and practitioners, making digital literacy skills a priority and increasing lifelong learning and on-line education.

Digital Skill Frameworks

Digital skill frameworks can allow a person to understand the scope of digital skills and how they relate to soft skills. These frameworks are useful to allow a person to understand, and sometimes measure, their digital skills; examples include the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) (see www.ecdl.org); for ICT professionals there are the Skills Framework for the Information Age (see www.sfiaonline.org) and the European e-Competence Framework (see http://www.ecompetences.eu/) and for organisations there is the IT-CMF Framework (see www.ivi.com). Many training and educational organisations use the frameworks to provide training, testing and certification [START_REF] Ferrari | Digital Competence in Practice: An Analysis of Frameworks[END_REF]. In the United Kingdom, the Confederation for British Industry (CBI) has undertaken surveys to identify digital as well as other skills required by employers [START_REF]Building for growth: business priorities for education and skills -Education and skills survey 2011[END_REF].

ECDL

ECDL, as a deliverable, was "one of the successful projects" within the European Union in 1997 and was reported as such to the European Commission at the end of the project evaluation. The programme has developed over the years in terms of numbers of users, contribution to skills and even contribution to the economy in some countries. In Greece, the ALBA industry study [START_REF]ALBA: IT skills, the business gain[END_REF] looked at the cost of digital "illiteracy" with 140 people and found that they spent between 48 and 148 minutes per week trying to sort problems with office software. After ECDL training, the time spent on these problems was halved for word processing and spreadsheets and was reduced by over 90% for presentations and databases.

AICA, the Italian Computer Society, did a study in 2003 with Bocconi University [START_REF]AICA: The Cost of Ignorance[END_REF] examining the cost of "digital ignorance". The study, using Italian 2003 pay rates, found that the cost of ignorance was over €2,200 per annum per employee. The Irish "Impact Report" [START_REF] O'donnell | The ECDL in Ireland: Impact Study[END_REF], examining the people in the office sector in Ireland who had taken the ECDL programme, calculated that ECDL had generated "cumulative productivity saving of €186.9 million and currently generates annual productivity savings of €62.3 million for Irish employers in this sector."

Other definitions of digital skills

Three other frameworks that consider definitions of digital skills are considered here. The Joint Research Centre, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), produced a report in December 2013 [START_REF]DIGCOMP: A Framework for Developing and Understanding Digital Competence in Europe[END_REF] which assessed the frameworks in existence at that time. The research examined the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to be digitally competent and produced descriptors of digital competence.

Summary

There is a need for digital skills in all areas of employment. Computer awareness is necessary for all employees and technical skills are a requirement for those involved in developing and maintaining systems. E-leadership is a relatively new term, but is vital for competitiveness for companies operating in today's global business environment.

Much work has been done to develop frameworks to define the competencies needed. The following skills appear in some form in the frameworks examined:

Technical skills Technical skills range from being comfortable with technology to reaching the level of an IT practitioner. They all appear in some form on the skills' frameworks.

Information handling

Information handling is an important part of digital literacy. The frameworks identify basic skills, from being able to locate and evaluate information to being able to create and synthesise information.

Communication

The basic use of communication technologies is sending email and texts. Using social networking tools, collaborating and networking are also needed as part of a digital literacy definition.

Work-related skills

The skills required will depend on the industry in which the person works and the level of seniority of the person in the organisation. For teachers, skills in IT are becoming vital, as a tool in teaching and as a subject to teach. Personal attributes A person needs to demonstrate a large variety of "complex cognitive, motor, sociological, and emotional skills". Chief amongst these, perhaps, is the ability to anticipate and exploit rapid change to fulfil personal potential and for societal benefit. Personal attitudes A person's attitude to technology will affect how he/she will use it.

Most frameworks identify the need for acceptance of technology, the awareness of ethical and security issues and the ability to be critical, creative and innovative with technology. According to the Organisation for Economic and Co-operative Development (OECD) [START_REF]OECD: Skills for the Digital Economy[END_REF] there is a worldwide demand for competent and skilled ICT practitioners and a demand for digitally literate people in all organisations and walks of life. "At the same time … [as the need for practitioners], the portfolio of basic skills needed to navigate ICT-rich environments and function effectively in our connected societies has expanded." With the rapid development of advanced automation and the increasing computerisation of non-routine tasks, including what is regarded as 'knowledge work', these skills will continue to evolve and will require on-going re-evaluation.

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-11-836_en.htm

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/ict/files/eskills/insead_eleadership_en.pdf, p10

http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/citizenship/giving/programs/up/digitall iteracy/eng/curriculum4.mspxthe

http://www.certiport.com/portal/desktopdefault.aspx?page=common/pagelibrary/About_part ners_GDLC.htm

The Microsoft Digital Literacy curriculum 4 has five parts. These are: Computer Basics; The Internet; Cloud Services and the World Wide Web Productivity Programs; Computer Security and Privacy; and Digital Lifestyles. Microsoft also provides certification at a professional level which includes the Microsoft Certified Application Specialist (MCAS) and the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS).

The Global Digital Literacy Council (GDLC) created an e-skills standard called Certiport IC³ (Certiport Internet and Core Computing Certification). According to the GDLC web site 5 , "You don't have to be focusing on a career in computers to benefit from IC³. Today, virtually any career or field of study requires the use of computers."

ICT professional skills

While all people need basic digital literacy skills, the skill needs for ICT practitioners are more comprehensive. Much work has been completed in creating a skills definition for the ICT practitioner. This includes the European Certification of Informatics Professionals (EUCIP) created by the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS); the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) created by a consortium in the United Kingdom (UK) which includes the British Computer Society and e-skills UK and the definitions created by Career Space in 1999 [START_REF]The SFIA Foundation[END_REF].

The framework (SFIA) has five areas, defined by the different capabilities required by an IT professional. The higher level skill areas are -Plan, Build, Run, Enable and Manage. There are 36 e-competences within these five skill areas. This framework was created by the European Committee for Standardisation CEN [START_REF]CEPIS: Professional e-Competence in Europe, Identifying the e-Competences of European IT Professionals[END_REF] to help a practitioner check his or her skills and identify gaps. CEPIS has recently used this framework to assess the skills of IT practitioners in Europe. According to CEPIS [ibid], "It is a reference framework of ICT competences that can be used and understood by everyone involved".

The original framework was created by CEN and published in 2008. It is now available as version 3.0 and claims "The European e-Competence Framework is a component of the long term e-skills agenda of the European Union supported by the European Commission and The Council of Ministers" [START_REF]EU: A common European framework for ICT Professionals in all industry sectors[END_REF]. The framework is available in English, French, German, and Italian and claims to comprise an agreed set of competences for ICT practitioners and managers and it "provides a European basis for internationally efficient personnel planning and development".


Don Passey
email: d.passey@lancaster.ac.uk

Digital Skills for Those in Transition -Where Next

Keywords: Digital technologies, learning landscapes, informal, formal and non-formal learning

How do digital technologies support life transitions? This chapter will provide an overview, accommodating findings presented within the previous six chapters, and highlighting areas for future research. In this context, it is clear that different learning landscapes allow for different learning approaches and enable uses of sometimes specific digital technologies. In learning contexts, a "formal curriculum offers a core range of subject needs; the informal curriculum provides opportunities for these to be developed in another context and with the support or involvement of parents, family or friends; and the non-formal curriculum provides opportunities for young people to work in teams and groups on authentic problems and products" ([1], pp. 200-201). There are implications for developing effective uses in the future that relate to supporting learners in different life transitions. An analysis of individuals in a specific life transition, and the importance of uses of digital technologies and associated digital and soft skills in a learning setting will be offered.

Introduction

From evidence presented in the six previous symposium papers, a number of key questions can be considered:  How and under what conditions do digital technologies and skills enable a stabilising or positive impact upon life transitions?  What associated skills are concerned in developing social and cultural capital, integrated or developed alongside these digital skills?  Do digital skills enable individuals to survive situations by empowering and enabling of change rather than just responding to it?  What is the potential of digital technologies to support life transitions, in relation to recommendations about what needs to happen next? In taking our understanding further, and in developing appropriate practices to support lifelong learners in the future, there is a clear need to explore these research questions in the context of life transitions and the roles that digital and associated soft skills play in: employment; training; and school settings. Within these settings there is a need to explore different life transitions, which might build further from: an employment transition that aims to strengthen business effectiveness and efficiency through knowledge sharing developments; training transitions concerned with major employment shifts (from ex-armed forces to civilian employment); transitions concerned with major social shifts (from non-employment to employment); or school to college transitions (across a key secondary to tertiary phase). Our understanding in these fields has been considered in previous chapters in the context of emerging research from local, regional, national and international perspectives.

Implications for Research Approach and Methods

A starting point, and perhaps a fundamentally important starting point in considering research questions about those in life transitions, is to explore some of the implications for research approach and methods. What is clear from the previous papers in this section is that different research methods have been used when exploring related research questions and issues. These have spanned:  Organisational case studies (see [START_REF] Siew Hoong | An Exploratory Study on the Use of Knowledge Management System and the Employees' Perception on Organizational Knowledge Sharing and Reuse[END_REF][START_REF] Lim | Using "Yams" for enterprise knowledge sharing among knowledge workers from the perspective of a task categorisation-knowledge sharing systems fit[END_REF], where the case study is based in a single organisation, and methods to gather evidence included questionnaires and interviews.  Individual case studies (see [START_REF] Cranmer | Digital skills and competencies in schools[END_REF], where the case study is based at an individual level, where evidence is gathered through observation and semi-structured interviews.  Individual ethnographic case studies (see [START_REF] Davies | Difficult Life Transitions: Learning and Digital Technologies -Discussion Paper and Preliminary Literature Review[END_REF], where the case study is based at an individual level, where evidence is gathered at multiple times through observation, discussion and ethnographic immersion.

There is distinction here of approach and methods for gathering evidence that align with perceptions and demands of structure and complexity (or level of transition difficulty, perhaps). When individuals are within a formal organisation (like a company or a school), the structure may be considered formal, with the life transition not being considered highly complex or difficult, so organisational case studies may be considered appropriate. When individuals are within a formal organisation (such as a school), and the structure may be considered formal, but life transitions are considered in some way potentially complex or more difficult, then individual case studies might be considered to be more appropriate. These approaches and methods would fall within the more traditional case study approaches described by Yin [START_REF] Yin | Case study research: design and methods[END_REF] or Stake [START_REF] Stake | The art of case study research[END_REF]. Of note, perhaps, the use of digital frameworks to identify digital skills, such as those presented in an earlier chapter in this section [START_REF] Leahy | Digital skills for employment[END_REF], also aligns well with this form of research and development. But, when individuals are within an informal organisation (such as a mentoring or counselling group), and where life transitions are considered potentially complex and difficult, then individual ethnographic case studies might be considered more appropriate and necessary. These approaches and methods would fall within the literature described by Mead [START_REF] Mead | Coming of Age in Samoa[END_REF] or Fetterman [START_REF] Fetterman | Ethnography step by step[END_REF].

Clearly there are potential implications arising, both with regard to the nature of the evidence that is gathered, and the way that evidence may be used. Using questionnaires and interviews might suggest that a positivist view of the evidence is being considered; that there is a way to consider the evidence in terms of a quantitative concern leading to an overview. On the other hand, using individual and ethnographic case studies, where interviews, observations and an ongoing trail of evidence is captured over time, suggests that there is need to accommodate interpretative concerns; these ways are focused on qualitative concerns that allow individual needs within specific contexts to be understood quite clearly. Even considering this small number of studies suggests a need to consider fundamental elements of research approach that accommodate:  Increasing complexity of the situation at an individual level (the needs and characteristics of the individual become as important, if not more so, than the organisational and structural concerns).  Increasing difficulty with handling life transitions (where the need for understanding the role of context and surroundings, and the building of trust, becomes paramount).

Using a Framework to Explore the Key Research Questions

This chapter does not attempt to answer all of the key research questions in every life transition context that might occur. Some of the research questions are certainly the focus of studies reported in previous papers. These papers identify the dimensions within the framework of factors influencing life transitions [START_REF] Passey | Life transitions, learning and digital technologies -common threads and conceptions[END_REF], although there is an important addition to consider within the motivational dimension highlighted by one of the previous paper authors, Rogers [12] -adaptability. The dimensions and elements of the framework can be represented in tabular form (see Table 1). It is possible to use this framework as a means to identify, for any particular life transition in any given context, those elements that are considered important. Importance can be related in a number of ways:  For the individual themselves.  For those who are concerned with the transition and supporting that individual.  For those where digital technologies have the potential to support the individual.

To exemplify this approach, the example of individuals in difficult life transitions, for ex-armed forces personnel moving to civilian employment, is taken (discussed further in [START_REF] Davies | Difficult Life Transitions: Learning and Digital Technologies -Discussion Paper and Preliminary Literature Review[END_REF]). In Table 1, elements considered to be important are shown with ticks in the three right-hand columns. It should be noted that this coding is based on experience of the author from current evidence gathered:  Aimportant for the individual themselves.  Bimportant for those who are concerned with the transition and supporting that individual.  Cimportant for those where digital technologies have the potential to support the individual. 1, it is possible to identify ways that digital technologies might be further used in supportive practices. These additional ways are outlined in Table 2. In this example, the support provided by digital technologies would involve uses of either an online chat facility, or texts or emails. There is a width of literature that indicates how such support has been and can be developed in educational settings, through either mentor [START_REF] Salmon | E-moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online[END_REF] or less formal 'connector' roles [START_REF] Kotowski | The role of the connector in bridging borders though virtual communities[END_REF].

Highlighting these and discussing the importance of individuals and their roles

From details in Table 2, it is clear that communicative forms of digital technologies (chat facilities, texts, or email, for example) are likely to be vitally important if digital technologies can be used to support not only those who are in life transitions that they find difficult, but also those who are supporting them. However, while these details are suggestive, their use in practice within these situations needs to be trialled and explored.

Some studies have demonstrated that individuals who are experiencing life difficulties can gain from use of communicative as well as information technologies. For example, Dangwal and Sharma [START_REF] Dangwal | Impact of HiWEL learning stations on women living in shelter homes[END_REF] reported that women in sheltered homes who had experienced violence engaged with digital technologies, and these supported both recreational and educational purposes, enabling them to develop wider interests. In a school-based context, Blood et al. [START_REF] Blood | Using an iPod Touch to Teach Social and Self-Management Skills to an Elementary Student with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders[END_REF] identified impacts of handheld devices on completion of learning activities and on planning of tasks for learners with negative attitudes. However, some studies have indicated the importance of considering the selection of digital technologies that will specifically address the needs of particular groups (e.g. Schinke, Fang, Cole and Cohen-Cutler [START_REF] Schinke | Preventing Substance Use Among Black and Hispanic Adolescent Girls: Results From a Computer-Delivered, Mother-Daughter Intervention Approach[END_REF] considered this in the context of supporting adolescent girls from minority ethnic groups involved in alcohol abuse). So, while this paper has considered the ways that a framework might be used to explore how digital technologies might support those in life transitions, it is clear that it is important that each context is considered separately, so that appropriate digital technologies can be implemented, according to user and purpose.

In this context it is worth considering how the frameworks considered by Cranmer [START_REF] Cranmer | Digital skills and competencies in schools[END_REF] might offer an indication of the forms and ranges of digital skills that individuals in life transitions supported in ways indicated in Table 2 might need. Table 3 uses the Institute for Prospective Studies framework [START_REF] Ferrari | DIGICOMP: A Framework for Developing and Understanding Digital Competence in Europe[END_REF] to detail some of the range of digital skills needed, based on details in Table 2. The analysis in Table 3 suggests that while individuals could be supported through uses of digital technologies in difficult life transition situations, the range of digital skills needed by those individuals may be high. Whether individuals already have these digital skills and competencies, or how their development might be accommodated, is a question that cannot be readily answered at this time.

Conclusions

At the outset of this chapter, and at the outset of the papers in this section, four key research questions were posed:  How and under what conditions do digital technologies and skills enable a stabilising or positive impact upon life transitions?

 What associated skills are concerned in developing social and cultural capital, integrated or developed alongside these digital skills?  Do digital skills enable individuals to survive situations by empowering and enabling of change rather than just responding to it?  What is the potential of digital technologies to support life transitions, in relation to recommendations about what needs to happen next?

From the evidence presented in the seven papers in this chapter, it appears that a number of conclusions can be drawn, relating to these questions:  Digital technologies and skills can enable a stabilising or positive impact upon life transitions for some individuals. However, the applications are not necessarily widely used with groups in life transitions, and it that the more difficult or complex the transition, the more specific the application of the technology might need to be.  Associated skills concerned in developing social and cultural capital, integrated or developed alongside digital skills, have been identified in the framework shown in Table 1. How these skills are developed in association with digital skills is not identified in the studies reported here, however. It is also clear that individuals might need quite high levels of digtial competencies in order to benefit from forms of online support that might help them in difficult life transitions.  Certainly individuals can survive situations by their being empowered and enabling of change rather than just responding to it. However, the role of the digital skills and technologies appears to be at a support level rather than having a direct influence, and the roles of adept supporters in enabling change in these circumstances is also highlighted.  There appears to be a wider potential for digital technologies to support life transitions, but trials and research in this field are at a fairly early stage.

While it is possible to identify a range of important life transitions, and while it is possible to identify a framework through which to look at factors that are involved in and that influence ways individuals are able to move through those transitions, it is clear that there are important factors to consider in taking research further in this area:  Appropriate selection and choice of research approach and methods to gather evidence that will be pertinent not just to the research outcome, but beyond that outcome for the individuals and those who support them.  Matching of digital technologies to the needs of those in any specific life transition context.  Awareness and facility with the uses of digital technologies so that appropriate communication and informational interactions can be used by all concerned.  Development of appropriate interventions that focus on and support the factors that influence that transition.

Although those in life transitions may well be supported by appropriate uses of digital technologies, there are clearly many perspectives yet to be explored in order to gather relevant evidence to fully consider and focus wider application in this area.

Table 1 :

 1 Framework to consider factors influencing life transitions

	Dimension	Elements	A B C
	Digital	Concerned with the digital technologies that are
		accessible to the individual

Table 2 :

 2 Considering ways digital technologies might support individuals in life transitions

	Dimension	Elements	Ways digital technologies
			might be used by supporters
	Digital	Concerned with the digital	Finding out what digital
		technologies that are accessible	technologies individuals can
		to the individual	access
		Those that can be used	Finding out what they use
		For what purpose	Finding out what individuals use
			the digital technologies for
	Learning	The importance of learning	Using approaches to match
		continuity	previous learning
		Ways of learning rather than the	Exploring how to learn with the
		'content' of learning	digital technologies
		How to develop shifts in learning	Highlighting ways different
			approaches might support the
			individual
		The importance of information as	Sending pertinent details and
		well as communication	information updates
		Having appropriate accurate and	Eliciting regular feedback from
		useful information about the	the individual
		transition
	Social	How trust, shared understanding,	Eliciting ongoing online
		reciprocal relationships, common	discussions that broach these
		norms and cooperation are	concerns
		handled
		Considering the roles of the	Asking about and discussing
		home as well as the formal	these points as appropriate
		learning environment
		Integrating concerns of those	Asking about roles of others and
		around the individual	discussing these
		Considering how support might	Discussing possible roles and
		work within a given situation	responsibilities initially and later
		The levels of support that might	Describing how often support
		be accessible	might be provided
		Providing links	Sending links of potential use
		Building social and cultural	Exploring and highlighting this
		capital	concern in an ongoing way
		Knowledge sharing skills	Supporting a wider network
			involvement

Table 3 .

 3 Likely range of digital skills needed by individuals in ex-armed forces to civilian employment life transitions (Source of dimensions and elements:[START_REF] Ferrari | DIGICOMP: A Framework for Developing and Understanding Digital Competence in Europe[END_REF])

	Dimension of	Elements	Digital competencies needed
	digital		by those in the life transition
	competence
	Information	Identify, locate, access,	Identify, locate, access,
	management	retrieve, store and organise	retrieve, store and organise
		information	information
	Collaboration	Link with others, participate in	Link with others, participate in
		online networks and	online networks and
		communities, interact	communities, interact
		constructively	constructively
	Communication	Communicate through online	Communicate through online
	and sharing	tools, taking into account	tools, taking into account
		privacy, safety and netiquette	privacy, safety and netiquette
	Creation of	Integrate and re-elaborate	Integrate and re-elaborate
	content and	previous knowledge and	previous knowledge and
	knowledge	content, construct new	content
		knowledge
	Ethics and	Behave in an ethical and	Behave in an ethical and
	responsibility	responsible way, aware of legal	responsible way, aware of legal
		frames	frames
	Evaluation and	Identify digital needs, solve	Identify digital needs, assess
	problem	problems through digital	the information retrieved
	solving	means, assess the information
		retrieved
	Technical	Use technology and media,	Use technology and media,
	operations	perform tasks through digital	perform tasks through digital
		tools	tools

√ √ √ √ Learning

√ √ √ √ √ √ Social How trust, shared understanding, reciprocal relationships, common norms and cooperation are handled Considering the roles of the home as well as the formal learning environment Integrating concerns of those around the individual

√ √ √ √ √

√ √ √ √ √ Affective

Acknowledgement. My particular thanks are due to Paul Davies, a colleague in the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University who has undertaken the research work with those making life transitions from ex-armed forces to civilian employment that has informed this and the previous chapter I contributed to this book. My thanks also to the Research Support Office at Lancaster University who funded the life transitions research reported in this paper.