Abstract Digital literacy (DL) is an important capacity for students’ learning in a rapidly changing world. However, tension exists between the theoretical conceptualizations of DL as a multidimensional construct and empirical studies reporting unidimensional DL scores. Also, little is known about how DL may vary among different age cohorts, and whether and at which age do performance gaps emerge with respect to gender. The focus of this research is to develop a test appropriate for measuring DL performance at different ages and a comprehensive DL assessment framework has been adopted for this purpose. Using data from three age cohorts of students (one from primary schools and two from secondary schools), the dimensionality of DL and performance differences are examined. Comparisons of unidimensional and multidimensional item response models suggest the measured DL to be a unidimensional construct. The results also show that secondary school students obtained higher levels of DL compared to primary school students. A gender gap in DL is found among secondary school students. There is also a need for further research to understand through longitudinal studies the emergence of the gender gap in DL performance.

中文翻译：

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衡量三个年龄段的数字素养：探索维度和绩效差异

摘要 数字素养（DL）是学生在瞬息万变的世界中学习的重要能力。然而，DL 作为多维结构的理论概念与报告单维 DL 分数的实证研究之间存在紧张关系。此外，对于 DL 在不同年龄组之间可能如何变化，以及是否以及在哪个年龄出现性别方面的表现差距，我们知之甚少。本研究的重点是开发一种适合测量不同年龄的 DL 性能的测试，并为此采用了全面的 DL 评估框架。使用来自三个年龄段的学生（一个来自小学，两个来自中学）的数据，研究了深度学习的维度和表现差异。单维和多维项目响应模型的比较表明测量的 DL 是一个单维结构。结果还表明，与小学生相比，中学生获得了更高水平的 DL。中学生在远程学习方面存在性别差距。还需要进一步研究，通过纵向研究来了解 DL 表现中性别差距的出现。