In my school district we have converted over to the google tools and applications for about a year now and still many people, myself included have made some push back against using these tools for classroom work since they are not industry or societal standards. But I am changing my view after a conversation with our district technology support specialist, she pointed out to me that the basic skills are the same regardless of the tools and that tools are always going to be changing. She made the case that we need to be teaching students digital skills not how to use programs, because when the program changes they can’t transfer knowledge as readily. This begs the question, do we teach skills or do we teach tools?

As a CTE teacher I have a tendency to focus on skills while teaching how to use the tools that are needed to complete a task and by focusing on the skills students should master and not the software we give our students the ability to teach themselves even when the software they are using change. According the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics, Americans will hold roughly 10 to 20 different jobs and 3 to 5 different careers in their adult lives. This means that our students will need to be able to adapt to changes in jobs and careers. If students know and understand the process behind the work they are doing they will have enough knowledge to adapt to changes in programs or different methods used in different jobs or at different companies. This means that simply teaching tools that students will use in future jobs is not enough, we must teach them how to adapt to new and changing tool sets. This means a couple of fundamental shifts we have to make though, typically we assess a skill and move on. However if we are going to move towards a focus skills versus tools we have to be constantly assessing current and past skills as well. If we are going to be teaching skills we have to move to an assessment method that would allow  students to learn and show growth and retention of skills information. This method also allows for the retesting of skills in different situations to show a deeper level of learning and mastery. If we look at this from an assessment standpoint and assessing a student’s skill set rather than their ability to simply use a tool, we are assessing at a deeper level. We can also approach and modify learning targets in a better fashion. If skills are tied to rubric items then they can be assessed multiple times and the student has many opportunities to improve. This constant ability to improve and do better is critical for students to be successful.