Colleagues,
Are you aware of any efforts to develop online (or other) curriculum to teach adult learners Problem Solving in Technology-Rich Environments (PSTRE) skills?
For those who may not be familiar with these, they were tested internationally in over two dozen modern industrialized nations, including the U.S. and Canada, through the OECD PIACC Survey of Adult Skills. The U.S. random sample of 5,000 adults, ages 16-65, did not do well on literacy, did even worse on numeracy, and also did not do well on these PSTRE skills. OECD/PIACC claims these are the kinds of skills needed for post-secondary education and good jobs and careers. Like the new U.S. high school equivalency exams, which are based on the CCSS, college and career readiness standards, and on Webb's Depth of Knowledge, the PSTRE domain assesses complex problems and, in higher level items, the ability to formulate the problem from the information given, and then choose and implement the best digital tools for the solution.
The purpose of this post is to find out if anyone is working on (or already has) PSTRE skills curriculum, but at some point I also hope we have a full-blown discussion on what these skills are, why they are important, as well as how we are going to teach them, if we are.
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com