Country context

The Netherlands ranks 10th in the world for human development (Source: UNDP), with a Gini of 25.7 (Source: World Bank)
The Dutch curriculum integrates media studies and computing into elementary and secondary education
The Dutch government is active in policy making around digital inequalities, but this mainly accounts for providing accessible content for all. There is limited attention paid to improving motivation, usage opportunities and outcomes. Some agencies focus on digital skills (e.g. municipalities, UWV, Tax and Custom organization)
Multi stakeholder partnerships are working on issues of digital skills and inequalities, such as Mediawijzer.net and ECP
There is a research group (led by Alexander van Deursen) at the University of Twente that actively works on conceptualisations and measurements of digital inequalities

Alexander van Deursen – Digital inequalities and IoT — In this video, which is part of a series of short interviews with the international partners of the From Digital Skills to Tangible Inequalities project, Professor Alexander van Deursen (University of Twente) summarises his research agenda and shares some surprising insights resultant from his study.

DiSTO NL projects

DiSTO NL projects include the bi-annual DiSTO NL survey and involvement in ySkills. There are also two related spin-off projects that utilise DiSTO thinking: Inequalities in the Internet of Things and digital skills for the Dutch workforce.

Despite the growing role of the internet in all industries, many organisations are not yet fully exploiting the opportunities that the internet offers. For example, research shows us that many managers overestimate the digital skill levels of their staff. These skills involve (digital components of) creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, communication and cooperation; they should be considered a prerequisite for innovation, or, the digital skills of the 21st century.

One of the current projects focuses on digital skills in the creative industries, which have innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship as the basis for their products and services. Even though ICTs play an enormous role in the sector, organisations need further development, especially in terms of skills. In order to achieve the intended competitive advantage, it is necessary to map the current and expected needs for 21st Century Digital Skills: what exactly are these skills? What is the current level of those skills? How can organisations and workers support further development?

Funding: NWO/NRO/CA-ICT

Further information: Centre for Digital Inclusion

The range of devices that communicate via the internet – the Internet of Things (IoT) – is growing rapidly, and requires capable users. Due to the ease of accessing the IoT, one might think that digital inclusion is less necessary: whereas the 'normal' internet requires digital skills for operating hardware and software, and for online information, communication, and content creation, these are partly unnecessary with the IoT, where data is processed in the background and decisions are made without user intervention. However, our research shows that users are in increasing need of digital skills to navigate this evolving digital environment.

The project 'Any Thing for Anyone' was launched to investigate digital inclusion in relation to the IoT. After all, there are many potential benefits for individuals and for society. Smart devices can support individuals in making better decisions, for example, about energy consumption or health. Furthermore, the production of so-called big data, that smart devices collect, is a public good that policymakers can use for critical decisions.

Funding: NWO VIDI

Further information: Centre for Digital Inclusion

DiSTO NL was part of the original DiSTO projects (in collaboration with the UK) that were initiated in 2014. Their main objective was the development of theoretically informed measures that can be used to explain how people use the internet and what the benefits might be. DiSTO NL achieved this through:

A systematic review of the literature to develop scales to measure internet use and subsequent benefits
Conducting cognitive interviews in the Netherlands (and the UK) to refine the measurement scales (N=30)
Online survey pilot tests of the instrument in the Netherlands and the UK with a representative sample of internet users to test the internal validity of the scales (N=300)
Conducting a complete nationally representative survey of Internet users in the Netherlands to test the scales for both internal and external validity of the measurement scales (N=1107)

Impact

The measures have fed into the World Internet Project surveys, the Global Kids and Mobile Kids Online surveys, and have been developed and adapted in close collaboration with the other partners on the DiSTO survey projects
The conceptual model has informed the skills and use scale development of ITU (International Telecommunications Union), DigComp (EU Commission), UNICEF and the Essential Skills Index in the UK

Various stakeholders have used the model to shape tools for evaluating policies and interventions in the NL.

Alexander van Deursen

Alexander van Deursen is a Professor of Digital Inequality, Director of the Centre for Digital Inclusion and Chair of the Department of Technology, Human and Insitutional Behaviour at the University of Twente. He has published widely in communication science journals that critically discuss key issues arising from the scale and speed of technology development. Professor van Deursen has advised the Dutch government, European Commission, International Telecommunications Union, UNESCO and other national and international organizations on the social implications of the Internet, specifically on how to account for the contribution of technology to increasing social inequalities.

Ester van Laar

Ester van Laar works as an Assistant Professor in the department of Communication Science and has worked as a postdoctoral researcher on the ySKILLS project, which is concerned with measuring children’s and adolescents’ digital skills and wellbeing. In her research she combines various qualitative and quantitative research methods to identify and measure the skills youth and working professionals need to learn in the 21st century. She has substantive experience with measuring innovative and new conceptualisations of digital skills by means of both performance tests and surveys. Her research interests include digital inequality, digital skills, 21st-century skills, the workforce and wellbeing in a digital age.

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