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Teaching digital skills to digital natives? The role of teachers’ daily practises and attitudes towards new media Gianluca Argentin, University of Milano-Bicocca Marco Gui , University of Milano-Bicocca. Theoretical context. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
Teaching digital skills
to digital natives?
The role of teachers’ daily practises and attitudes towards new media
Gianluca Argentin, University of Milano-BicoccaMarco Gui , University of Milano-Bicocca
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
Theoretical context
• From a «digital divide» (focus on “access”) to a «digital inequality» (focus on how the web is used)(Di Maggio et al. 2004; van Dijk, 2005; Bentivegna, 2009)
• Great importance of digital skills – one of the 8 key competences for EU “for social and cultural inclusion” (European Parliament, 2006; Van Dijk, 2005; Hargittai, 2008)
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
Students and digital skills
• «Digital natives» (Prensky, 2001) or «Digital na(t)ives »? Poor information skills among students(Livingstone & Helsper, 2007; Van Deursen &Van Dijk, 2009, Hargittai, 2010; Gui e Argentin, 2011, Calvani et al., 2011)
• Little attention on digital skills development (especially in its critical dimension) in Italian schools (all efforts and resources seem to go to the tecnical dimension)(IPRASE, 2009; IARD, 2010)
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
Our (unanswerable) research question
Is there an impact of teachers’ digital practices/attitudes
on their students’ digital skills?
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
Our (answerable) research question
Is there a robust association betweenteachers’ digital practices/attitudes
and their students’ digital skills?
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
Our starting point
Data from a survey carried out by the authors (Argentin, Gui & Tamanini, in press) showed a a statistically significant and substantially relevant relationship between teachers’ practices concerning ICT and the level of digital competence of their students, also when controlling for a wide set of students/schools variables (standardized correlation: 0.25, p value < 0.05).
However, a small sample size (n=980) and the local nature of the survey (Trentino) constitute important limitations.
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
Larger area and two very different regional contexts: Trentino (mountainous) and Lombardy (metropolitan)
Plus of present study /1
L T
LT
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
Bigger sample: 3.439 students (10th grade) in 181 classes (63 in Trentino and 118 in Lombardy)
More in-depht questionnaire about teachers’ behaviours and attitudes
Additional control variables at school and student level, to further test the robustness of previous association
A new standardized test, measuring in particular the level of “critical digital skills” or “information skills”
(on which students are most in need of school support according to existing evidence)
Plus of present study /2
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
Dependent variable
Improved version of the previous tool (Gui & Argentin, 2011,
cited by Hargittai e Hsieh, 2012; Hsieh, 2012).
32 items testing students’ ability to recognize different sources of information on the internet, assess their reliability,
understand possible information biases and risks.
The test has been validated and provided a reliable measures (Cronbach alpha 0.70)
of digital skills on a standardized scale.
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
Independent variableIndex derived from the questionnaire, summarizing nine items
“Do your teachers…? • help to judge the reliability of information on the Internet;• advise how to avoid viruses;• talk about the risks in online social networks;• help to set privacy limitations on your social network accounts;• talk about useful websites for school-related issues;• talk about useful websites for leisure ;• talk about the existence of groups of people that collaborate on the Internet;• use the Internet with you”. Answers: “More than one/One/None”
To reduce the risk of students misreporting, we consider the answer given by the majority (at least 60%) of students within each class.
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
OLS regression models taking into account the data class clusterization.
4 nested models: - mod0 is a null model;- mod1 controls for region and type of school track; - mod2 controls also for socio-demographic variables (sex, parental social class/education, nationality);- mod3 controls also for technological context: home and school ICT equipment, parental perceived digital skills; students’ previous school performance.
Methods
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
ResultsEstimated association between teachers practices/attitudes
and their pupils digital skills
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
Were previous results about Trentino entirely wrong?
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
Results/2Estimated association between teachers practices/attitudes
and their pupils digital skills by region
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
If you prefer:Estimated interaction between region and teachers
practices/attitudes on their pupils digital skills
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
A brand new research question
Why did we find a robust and positive association in Trentino (twice) and a
null association in Lombardy?
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
Possible explanations• Different teacher practices: is the index hiding relevant differences on
single items?• More access in L.: more technologically equipped households and
constantly available wireless in Lombardy.• More practice in L.: constant use of ICT, thanks to more frequent access
and promoting context.• More skilled parents in L.: the (slightly) higher level of (perceived)
parental digital skills could promote intra-family development of digital competence.
• Richer ICT school equipment in T.: a setting promoting the development of digital skills (for example, 56% with an Interactive Whiteboard versus 28% in L.).
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
Preliminary conclusions1. The association previously observed in Trentino between
students’ skills and teachers behavior concerning ICTs resists to further controls
2. BUT: no correlation found in Lombardy
We tested several hypothesis to explain the observed difference among contexts, but none has been empirically validated.
Unanswered question: What are the characteristics that make Trentino (and not Lombardy) an effective context for teaching digital skills to digital natives through informal daily teachers’ behaviour?
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
Further steps
• Look for additional control variables (i. e. subsample of schools located in mountainous areas in Lombardy)
• Rash validation of both measures (dependent and independent variables)
• Use teachers declaration instead of students’ reports (unluckily only for Lombardy)
Teaching digital skills to “digital natives” Rome, October 4th 2012
Do your teachers
More then one One None Total
help to judge the reliability of information on the Internet 11 24 65 100 advise how to avoid viruses 3 17 80 100 talk about the risks in online social networks 9 20 71 100 help to set privacy limitations on your social network accounts 3 10 87 100 talk about useful websites for school-related issues 20 35 45 100 talk about useful websites for leisure 6 15 79 100 talk about the existence of groups of people that collaborate on the Internet 3 11 86 100 use the Internet with you 13 25 62 100