Pedagogical Digital Competence—Between Values, Knowledge and Skills

Abstract

The fact that the education provided by universities and university colleges is becoming ever more digitalized has resulted in new challenges for university teachers in providing high-quality teaching and adapting to the needs of changing student populations. Digitalization has increasingly introduced a new dimension in teachers’ pedagogical skills and competences which we have chosen to call Pedagogical Digital Competence (PDC). The purpose of this paper is to discuss and define this new dimension, based on literature and concepts from neighboring areas. As our purpose is to define a concept, the discussion is of a theoretical nature and does not include a comprehensive literature survey. The discussion results in the following definition of PDC: “Pedagogical Digital Competence refers to the ability to consistently apply the attitudes, knowledge and skills required to plan and conduct, and to evaluate and revise on an ongoing basis, ICT-supported teaching, based on theory, current research and proven experience with a view to supporting students’ learning in the best possible way”. Pedagogical Digital Competence thus relates to knowledge, skills and attitudes, and to technology, learning theory, subject, context and learning, and the relationships between these. PDC is thus a competence that is likely to develop the more experienced a teacher becomes.