Diapositiva 1

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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
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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)

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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)

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Our (unanswerable) research question

• Is there an impact
• of teachers digital practices/attitudes
• on their students digital skills?

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Our (answerable) research question

• Is there a robust association between
• teachers digital practices/attitudes
• and their students digital skills?

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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 lt 0.05).

However, a small sample size (n980) and the
local nature of the survey (Trentino) constitute
important limitations.
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Plus of present study /1

• Larger area and two very different regional
  contexts
• Trentino (mountainous) and Lombardy
  (metropolitan)
•  

T
L
T
L
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Plus of present study /2

• 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)
•  

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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.
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Independent variable

• Index 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.

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Methods
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.
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Results
Estimated association between teachers
practices/attitudes and their pupils digital
skills
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Were previous results about Trentino entirely
wrong?
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Results/2
Estimated association between teachers
practices/attitudes and their pupils digital
skills by region
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If you prefer
Estimated interaction between region and teachers
practices/attitudes on their pupils digital
skills
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A brand new research question

• Why did we find a robust
• and positive association
• in Trentino (twice) and a
• null association in Lombardy?

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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.).

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Preliminary conclusions

• The association previously observed in Trentino
  between students skills and teachers behavior
  concerning ICTs resists to further controls
• 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?

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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)

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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