Hello everyone,

Well, it is technically May but I was a little slow at getting April's newsletter out, so that means you will have two newsletters this month!  Bonus!

Thank you so much for your massive interest in Daniela’s literacy tools!  Wow!  She was very happy to see that you were interested in the resources, and many of you reached out to have more information about these tools.  

So, guess what? 

*waves magic wand* 🪄

Daniela is going to guest host the Voc Talk café and bring you some special literacy tool workshops in May and June!  She will be in person at PACC from 12:00 -15:00, and she will have an open online link if you want to join in from another centre.  Check out these dates:

• May 10
• June 7
• June 21

The workshop will feature a tour of the tools and how to use them in your lessons.  She will also be available to discuss any thoughts you may have about supporting students that are struggling with language and communication.  Great stuff!  The location will be posted in the calendar, and you can click here to join in online!

• Technical  skills (software & hardware)*

• Relational and organizational

• Mathematics and programming

• Data leveraging

• Integration and automation

• Process optimization

• 4.0 business management and co-opetition

     In this month newsletter, let’s focus on the first one - technical skills.  This is about your ability to use software or hardware.  This leads us to proprietary software.  Previously, I looked into the idea that we need to be aware of what softwares are being used in our trade, or what devices.  We need to have an idea of what type of digital world the trade is in, and how that digital world is being leveraged to move stuff forward.  But hang on - it isn’t about the software itself, it is about what that software permits the tradesperson to do.  We don’t all need to run out and figure out how to purchase industry specific software!  Sometimes yes, you need to have a software because it replicates what is out there in the real world.  The easy, simplest example is spreadsheet software: that’s your Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers, and Open Office Calc.  That type of software does the same thing - it organizes and compiles data based on formulas.  Sure, the interface changes a bit, and people can have some strong opinions about Excel vs. Sheets, but in the end it is doing the same thing.  If you are teaching in DEP 5731 Accounting or 5857 Secretarial Studies, do you have to expose your students to all of them?  Probably, because that trade spends a lot of time organizing and compiling data.  It doesn’t mean the students have to experience the same learning activities in all the softwares - that’s not the goal.  The digital literacy in that trade is to understand what that type of software does, what it is used for, and how to interface with it.  When they are out in the workforce, they will then leverage their digital literacy skills to upskill their knowledge if the company that they are working for uses an internal, proprietary software that they are not familiar with. Recognizing the different proprietary softwares is part of the goal, but not the core - the manipulation of it is. If the tradesperson knows that 80% of an administrative workforce is using Microsoft products, then by all means focus on that software for your students’ learning activities and create a few comparison activities to get them to understand that there are other softwares that are also used, just less frequently.  The same goes for our machinist.  It isn’t about the software used to operate the machinery - is is about understanding that in the manufacturing sector, the machines used to measure, cut and weld are operated by software, and that software is about process.  The software is programmed to complete a series of tasks, but the tradesperson is there to ensure the end result, and to apply their expertise at every step of the process.  The digital literacy there is as we mentioned before - a basic understanding of programming, but a much deeper understanding of how to measure result through an application of digital tools.

     So in that light, look at the digital world of your trade and ask yourself this:  Am I aware of what technical tools are being used in my trade?  What is that digital tool permitting the tradesperson to do?  How can I give the student experience with the goal of the tool and connect it to sound andragogical practices? I’ll let you mull that over for this month, and next month we will explore the influence of different hardwares on digital literacy in the trades.

*In Aéro Montréal’s Industry 4.0 skills for aerospace, because of the reality of their manufacturing sector, these types of technologies change very rapidly and quickly become obsolete so they do not recommend focusing skill development on them.