Does the digital divide matter? Factors and conditions that promote ICT literacy
Introduction
Rapid changes in information and communication technologies have increased the availability and usability of technology and thereby made its spread inevitable. This change has also manifested itself in the living spaces of individuals. With the change in the mobility of individuals due to the COVID-19 outbreak (Engle et al., 2020, Zhang et al., 2020), opportunities to work from home have been supported by legal regulations in many countries. This situation has highlighted individuals' own competencies as well as their infrastructure needs that allow for working from home.
The new period, for which people were not prepared with regard to education, resulted in the transformation of homes into classrooms in a few weeks. The adaptation of students to this distance education process is extremely important for the quality of learning service to be carried out. However, it is also known that there are differences among individuals in terms of both their access to technology and their capacity to benefit from technology use (Hargittai, 2010, Robinson et al., 2015). Accordingly, characteristics which are already important for students’ learning such as parental involvement (Boonk et al., 2018), the use of ICT in learning activities (Zhu and Mok, 2020), and educational opportunities at home (Pullen, 2015, Dimosthenous et al., 2020) have become increasingly more important. The extant literature reveals that socio-demographic characteristics create differences in students' digital competencies (OECD, 2013, Van Deursen et al., 2011). More importantly, emerging research reveal that especially disadvantaged individuals are affected greatly in this new period (Bayrakdar and Guveli, 2020, Pensiero et al., 2020) and that comprehensive educational results may arise for these individuals in the long term (Bol, 2020).
Today, digital skills are at the forefront in individuals' intense relationships with technological tools (Ertl et al., 2020). Digital literacy, which is considered as a skill, is associated with 21st century skills including cooperation, communication, citizenship, problem solving, critical thinking, creativity and productivity (Voogt and Roblin, 2012). In addition to these skills that are extant in curricula, integration of ICT into curricula has become a necessity to ensure active participation to the information society. In addition, with the ever-increasing information, access to information, and evaluation and sharing of information have come to the fore as an important competence for individuals. In the framework definitions of digital skills, it is observed that these skills are dealt with in a wide perspective that covers high-level skills rather than expressing a technical aspect of these skills (Claro et al., 2012, Fraillon et al., 2019a).
In the definitions of skills regarding ICT, the concepts of “ICT literacy” and “Computer and Information literacy (CIL)” are prominent in the literature. CIL was defined as “an individual’s ability to use computers to investigate, create, and communicate in order to participate effectively at home, at school, in the workplace, and in society” (Fraillon et al., 2014, p. 17). This definition refers to using computer technologies to collect/manage and produce/exchange information. The concept of CIL includes knowledge about hardware and software applications and an understanding of the concepts of technology rather than referring to a literacy perspective involving only the use of technology (Kuhlemeier and Hemker, 2007). ICT literacy, on the other hand, considers ICT as a basic learning tool (Fraillon et al., 2013).
Because digital skills provide flexibility to individuals in both learning and participation in the workforce, there are attempts to identify these skills and help individuals acquire them in many countries (ACARA, 2015, Claro et al., 2018, Fraillon et al., 2019b, Lorenceau et al., 2019). On the other hand, research on digital tools reveals that not every student has similar conditions and there are inequalities between students (Hatlevik and Gudmundsdottir, 2013, Lebens et al., 2009, Scherer and Siddiq, 2019, Vigdor et al., 2014, Yeo and Lee, 2020). It is stated that conditions partially improve as the development level of countries increases; however, these inequalities continue to affect individuals even for countries with good conditions, (Van Deursen and Van Dijk, 2019) and they also create a difference in individuals' activities and skills (Hargittai and Hinnant, 2008). Although some schools overcome this situation with the policies they implement (Drossel et al., 2020), how this situation affects the digital literacy levels of students will also be a guide for the policies to be implemented.
With the current research study, the effects of the variables, which are stated to create a digital divide in the literature, on the digital literacy levels of the students are examined. This study was carried out with the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) data, and it puts forth the contributions of the socio-demographic characteristics of students in successful and unsuccessful countries to their computer and information literacy (CIL) achievements.
Section snippets
Digital divide
The concept of digital divide, in the most general sense, is used to describe the difference between those who use the computer and the Internet and those who do not. Broadly, it is also defined as a concept expressing inequalities in the use of these tools, especially ICT tools and the Internet (Castells, 2002). In her two-level definition of this divide, Hargittai (2002) defines the inequality on the access side due to cost and infrastructure as level-1, and the inequality in user expertise
The present study
An examination of the literature suggests that the socio-demographic characteristics of the students (socioeconomic background, computer experience, internet access at home) are a determining factor in digital divide. On the other hand, these features also contribute to students' CIL achievements and ICT interactions. With the current research, it is aimed to reveal to what extent the difference that students experience in the elements of digital divide is reflected in their digital literacy
Participants
This research was conducted with the ICILS 2018 Korea and Chile sample. These selected countries are those with significant differences in achievements in terms of their CIL performance in the ICILS study. A total of 2875 students, 1497 boys (52%) and 1378 girls (48%), participated in the study in the Korean sample. There were a total of 3092 students, 1519 (49%) boys and 1573 (51%) girls in the Chilean sample. While it was planned to include Danish data in the study, the Korean sample, which
CIL achievement model for Korea
When the model including the independent variables created for the Korean sample was compared with the fixed model, it was seen that the test for the model was significant [χ2 (4) = 193.800, p < 0.001]. It shows that the predictor variables considered as a cluster differentiate successful and unsuccessful students significantly. With the variables determined within the scope of the research, the c-statistic value for the Korean model was found as 69.4. This value, together with the variables in
Conclusion and discussion
The main purpose of this study is to reveal how the variables that cause the digital divide play a role in students' CIL achievement. The variables of gender, parents’ level of education, internet connection and computer experience, which were determined as predictors of CIL achievement in models created for Korea and Chile, were found to be significant for both countries. In this study, it is observed in the models created with the variables that are stated to cause a digital divide in the
Limitations and future studies
Hawkins and Oblinge (2006) drew attention to the importance of level-1 factors (internet connection, technological support, etc.) in level-2 digital divides. However, it is known that the variables of gender, education level and technology experience which are known as level-2 factors (Hargittai, 2002) contribute to the level-3 complex qualities (productivity, creativity, etc.). In this study, students' existing skills (CIL) related to complex behaviors were examined. However, the innovative
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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2023, Computers in Human BehaviorCitation Excerpt :Students' socioeconomic status is related to their development and academic performance, as well as their CIL and ICT skills. After testing eighth graders from Korea and Chile, Aydin (2021) found that when parents had a low socioeconomic status, they provided less digital support and resources to foster their children's CIL. Furthermore, students in such families seemed to have fewer chances to develop computer skills or ICT competencies, which lead them to express less self-efficacy in ICT activities, indicating that socioeconomic status affects students' CIL (Hatlevik et al., 2018; Vaughn, 2000).
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Mustafa Aydin is an assistant professor at Necmettin Erbakan University. He completed his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction program. His areas of interest include large-scale assessments, literacy, curriculum and instruction.