A recent CEDEFOP working paper focuses on the need for the development of digital skills, both in work and their better integration and use in vocational education. While schools focused, this paper may be of interest to VDC News readers.
Several tools, both online and paper-based, have been developed in Europe to support schools to self-evaluate or reflect on their digital use or capacity. In particular, the European Commission has developed SELFIE (Self-reflection on effective learning by fostering the use of innovative educational technologies). One of its aims is “to provide a 360° view of how digital technologies are used at the school and at home for training” and involves school leaders, teachers and also students in the process. SELFIE has been designed to be used by schools offering general education, upper secondary vocational schools and post-secondary non-tertiary education institutions. It’s also adaptable to meet particular local needs, the paper mentions.
The aim of the working paper is “to validate the SELFIE tool in the VET context and check the cross-comparability of the tool among different countries.” So that’s what they did. They tried it out in around twelve countries, including Italy, Germany, Spain and Belgium. It’s quite a technical paper, but the ideas and the instrument itself may be of interest to VDC News readers. Accessing the SELFIE site may therefore be valuable .
The SELFIE tool for VET and its value
The tool is structured around a series of topics, including institutional leadership, collaboration and networking, infrastructure and equipment, pedagogy – including supports, implementation and resources, student digital competences, assessment practices, and finally continuing professional development. The paper concludes that:
“Overall, we found that the tool’s questionnaires for VET are highly reliable, discriminatory and the validity of the construction of the questionnaires has been confirmed using psychometric methods. Our results have verified the scientific soundness and psychometric validity of the SELFIE tool for the VET sector, which underlines the usefulness of the tool for measuring the digital readiness of VET schools.”
There is more and possibly more useful information about SELFIE from its portal on the European Commission website. SELFIE is described on the site as “a free, easy-to-use, customisable tool to help schools assess where they stand with learning in the digital age that helps identify strengths, weaknesses and potential areas for improvement to start a dialogue about where the institution stands and how things could be improved.” There is also a short video you can watch, as well as guidance and support materials including the SELFIE questionnaire itself and a list of other potential questions. There is information about setting up and running it, all of which can be downloaded. There are also support resources for the development of digital action plans at the institutional level.
What’s on the site would need some adaptation to be used by TAFEs and other types of post-secondary VET providers in Australia. However, this is mainly in terms of adapting the language.
