Information Skills of Finnish Basic and Secondary Education Students: The Role of Age, Gender, Education Level, Self-efficacy and Technology Usage

The information skills and technology use of 3,159 Finnish 12–22-year-old students were examined in this study. Data were collected using the combination of a usage habit questionnaire and a performance-based test that measured their skills when choosing a medium to seek information, defining search queries, and selecting and evaluating search results. On average, these students’ information skills were found to be insufficient. Particularly, students failed in creating search phrases, and they tended to concentrate on content relevance at the expense of source reliability. Versatility of technology use was found to be the most prominent predictor of students’ information skills. Education level also had an increasing effect on information skills, whereas age alone, within separate education levels, did not have the same effect. Self-efficacy was found to be associated only with male students’ information skills. Gender had no direct effect on information skills; rather it was identified as a moderator for the ongoing relationship between information skills and technology use. Keywords: information skills, technology usage, self-efficacy, Internet, Finnish student

Equity, Equality and Diversity in the Nordic Model of Education

Does the Nordic model of education still stand by its original principles and safeguard education for all? This Open Access volume is a carefully crafted collection of chapters that investigate the different aspects of equity, equality and diversity across the education systems in the Nordic countries. Based on data from various national and international large-scale assessments, the volume provides a better understanding of both the functions and foundations of the Nordic model, along with how the concepts mentioned above are enacted in practice. Across the chapters, data from different national and international large-scale assessment studies are used for cross- and single-country analyses on a variety of issues related to equity, equality and inequality in diverse educational settings. The investigations address different subject domains (i.e., mathematics, science, reading), age and grade groups, but also issues related to teachers and the schools themselves. In addition to these empirical chapters, the book addresses the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the ideas and tools embedded in the phenomena of equity and equality and how they have met in the Nordic model of education

DIGITAL NATIVES AND DIGITAL IMMIGRANTS: TOWARDS A MODEL OF DIGITAL FLUENCY

Recently it has been suggested that \u27digital natives\u27, a generation of young people born into the digital age, are inherently technology-savvy. If this suggestion is correct, there could be profound implications for Information Systems research, which traditionally has conducted empirical research on \u27digital immigrants\u27. This paper looks at whether there are significant differences between digital natives and digital immigrants. Our findings suggest that there is a continuum rather than a rigid dichotomy between digital natives and digital immigrants. We propose that \u27digital nativity\u27 can perhaps best be conceptualized as \u27digital fluency\u27 Digital fluency is the ability to reformulate knowledge and produce information to express oneself creatively and appropriately in a digital environment. We propose a conceptual model that outlines factors that have a direct and indirect impact on digital fluency, namely demographic characteristics, organisational factors, psychological factors, social influence, opportunity, behavioural intention, and actual use of digital technologies

Video gaming and digital competence among elementary school students

Engagement with video games can potentially advance student digital competence however, there is a digital skills gap by the time young people progress into adolescence. This current research explores how elementary school students’ digital self-efficacy might relate to experiences in video game environments to influence perceptions of digital competence. We examine the differential impact of sex, self-efficacy, and socioeconomic status (SES) on 7–10-year-old students’ (N = 613) perceptions of video gaming and their digital skills. Analysis revealed the unexpected finding that SES was inversely related to enjoyment for gaming and digital technology, with students in the lower-SES category responding more positively compared to students in higher SES categories. As expected, boys self-reported digital skills higher than girls across all SES categories. We argue for the use of gaming pedagogies to support learning in classrooms that accounts for nuances in students’ digital self-efficacy moderated by gender and SES

The Correlation Between Social Media Usage in Academic Context and Self-Efficacy Towards TPACK of Prospective Science Teachers in Indonesia

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the frequency of Social Media Usage (SMU) in an academic setting and Self-efficacy beliefs towards TK, TCK, TPK, and TPACK of Indonesian prospective science teachers. This research is quantitative based-research design using a self-administered survey. The research was conducted during the second semester of the academic year 2018/2019 from October to November 2018 in the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science of a State University located in Semarang City, Indonesia. The sample consists of 217 Indonesian prospective science teachers from the science and Biology Education Department. The result shows that the average Social Media Usage frequency has a statistically high correlation with TK Self-efficacy, TPK, and TPACK. However, in general, it does not correlate with TCK. Second, Social Media Usage for Download Media (DM), Searching Information (SI), and Entertainment and Motivation (EM) generally have a statistically medium correlation with TK, TPK, and TPACK for both male and female participants. Third, Social Media Usage for professional development (PD) has a medium correlation with TK and high correlation with TPK and TPACK. This study implies that training focuses on the application of social media in teaching, and learning should be integrated to improve Indonesian Prospective Science Teachers' TPACK

Teachers’ attitude regarding the use of ICT. A factor reliability and validity study

Análisis psicométrico y validación factorial de una escala para la evaluación del uso de las TIC en profesorado universitario (educación superior).[EN] Current research examines the need for design and validation of a unifactorial scale to measure attitudes of university teachers with regard to ICT. The main goal of this study is to achieve a simple scale, composed of a single factor contributing a clearly reliable measure with acceptable content and factorial validity. A case study is presented, which has been developed with the teaching staff of the University of Salamanca (Spain). In this case study, an expert content validation was done at a first stage. After that, an attitude scale regarding the usage of ICT in teaching was applied with a representative sample of teachers (N = 2329; n = 161). An individual analysis of the items was made with the obtained results and then a Cronbach’s alpha based reliability test was carried out to show the internal consistency of the survey. Finally, an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was applied to prove its structural soundness and unifactoriality. The main conclusion of this paper is to offer to the scientific community a tool with adequate psychometric properties that gives added pedagogical value to the introduction of ICT in higher education teaching