Emerging tech now part of ICDL offering in schools

ICDL Ireland (International Computer Driving Licence) has launched a new offering for the coming academic year: AI, IoT, Cloud Computing and Big Data will now be covered in the syllabus.

Its highly regarded digital skills certification, which has been a staple in the technology education of many around the globe for the past 24 years, has added a wealth of modules to those already on offer, which includes the four emerging technologies.

“I think we need to encourage curiosity in technology, we shouldn’t be just leaving students to be passive consumers in technology – they need to be curious about technology because it is having such an impact on our day to day lives regardless of what kind of career path they follow, and that’s what is behind these modules,” said Linda Keane, general manager, ICDL Ireland.

ICDL has been taught in many schools in Ireland from first year students who wish to improve their ICT skills to enhance their study experience, to TY students looking to work on their ICT skills to enhance their learning capabilities prior to the Leaving Cert years.

Now with the ICDL Profile Packs for schools launched in August 2021, students can pick their modules as they go. There’s no longer core subjects, there’s now a smorgasbord of IT subjects to avail of.

The new edition offers students the choice of ten modules from the expanded range of over 25 modules. The ICDL Profile Pack can be completed over the five years a student is at school making it even easier to incorporate into timetables. Digital certificates and a world-recognised certification encourages students to feel a sense of achievement for each module they pass.

“Students can potentially choose their own learning pathway through ICDL. From this year all of the modules come with learning resources, they come with eLearning to enable the students to self-study. They will have practice tests which will allow them to gauge their progress and give them feedback before their certification tests,” said Keane.

“We have digital certificates which automatically update as they pass each module in their own learner portal.”

ICDL supports a blended learning approach whereby students can study at home and then use the classroom setting to gain further guidance from their teacher or to sit the tests to get certified. Alternatively, the ICDL Profile Pack supports self-directed learning. Through their learner portal, students can access learning resources, take practice tests to assess their progress, view results and access, download and share their ICDL digital certificate.

“It’s a modular and buildable certification. There aren’t any core subjects, but obviously it does cover some of the fundamental skills that everyone needs to use technology effectively,” said Keane.

Examples of some of those modules are Teamwork covering the main concepts and skills needed to work effectively in a team using collaborative tools and platforms, IT Security covering the main skills and knowledge needed for the secure use of ICT in everyday settings, at home and at school and Documents covering main concepts and skills needed for common word processing tasks, such as creating, formatting and finishing everyday documents.

“There are productivity modules such as Documents, Spreadsheets and Presentation which students need to be able to create their assignments, document experiments, analyse results of data sets – they are a fundamental set of modules.”

Big news for this year is that ICDL has launched a brand new set of modules to give students a conceptual knowledge of trending and emerging technologies: AI, IoT, Cloud Computing and Big Data. ICDL Insights are overview modules that are contextualised in a practical way.

“There has been a good bit of interest in those new modules for September, so we are expecting them to be chosen quite a bit,” said Keane.

The ICDL Insights modules could provide additional support to students studying the Computer Science subject for Leaving Cert or perhaps more importantly be offered to students in junior cycle to nurture an interest in Computer Science.

“It’s a nice way to expose students to kind of confusing topics regardless of whether they are going to choose computer science for Leaving Cert or whether they don’t. It’s a good way to spark someone’s interest in Stem,” said Keane.