Changes over Time in Digital Literacy
Digital literacy is the ability to employ a wide range of cognitive and emotional skills in using digital technologies. 6 digital skills:
(a) Photovisual literacy is the ability to work effectively with digital environments, such as user interfaces, that employ graphical communication. (b) Reproduction literacy is the ability to create authentic,meaningful written and artwork by reproducing and manipulating preexisting digital text, visuals, and audio pieces. (c) Branching literacy is the ability to construct knowledge by a nonlinear navigation through knowledge domains, such as in the Internet and other hypermedia environments. (d) Information literacy is the ability to consume information critically and sort out false and biased information. (e) Socioemotional literacy is the ability to communicate effectively in online communication platforms such as discussion groups and chatrooms. (f ) Real-time thinking skill is the ability to process and evaluate large volumes of information in real time, such as in computer games and chatrooms
These skills were tested again after 5 years in 18 high school students, 16 college students and 17 adults. A control group of 60 participants of the same age and background were also tested. All age groups showed a significant increase in performance, the adult group improved significantly more than the younger participants. This almost closed the gap between these groups in digital literacy. Only in the creative skills the performance of the younger groups decreased significantly (information task), whereas the adults improved slightly. Because the control group performed similar as the experimental group this can not be attributed to age factor or retest. Five years of experience and training improved users’ performance with digital technologies with only negative consequences for creative skills especially in the young.
The tasks were as follows: (a) Photo-visual task: Create a theater stage, using an unfamiliar interactive multimedia computer program that utilizes a graphic user interface. (b) Reproduction task: Using Microsoft Word, modify the meaning of an existing seven-line paragraph (about 100 words) by rearranging sentences, words, and letters. (c) Branching task: Plan a one-week trip to a country that was not visited by the participants, using an Internet tourist site. (d) Information task: Write a comparative, critical report on a news event that was reported in a biased way in five different Internet news resources
Experience with technology, and not age, accounts for the observed lifelong changes in digital literacy skills. Worrisome is the finding that the younger group showed a decrease in creativity and critical thinking using digital technologies in contrast to the older group who improved on this skill. Important message for educators?
Eshet-Alkalai, Y., & Chajut, E. (2009). Changes Over Time in Digital Literacy CyberPsychology & Behavior DOI: 10.1089/cpb.2008.0264
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July 9, 2009 @ 7:37 pm
Great posting. Especially the 6 digital skills are quite a usefull list.
And, without being an educator myself, I know there is a LOT of movement in the involvement of digital equipment in classrooms, from a very young age on. (I recently visited the IPON 2009 conference (www.ipononline.nl). talking about tech-savvy stuff…) If the case of a decreasing creativity is going to be replicated in research, it should be bad for the Microsoft primary school department I guess.
In quite a funny TED video there is this ‘mad scientist’ who makes glasbottles that could not exist in a 4 dimensional space for a hobby. (I believe he was a physicist) He made some pretty strong remarks on using computers in (primary) education. (he basically said to get rid of ’em all) If only I could remember this man’s name…
Do you think the results can be extrapolated to younger children dr. Shock?
July 9, 2009 @ 9:20 pm
As a 60 year old, who tends to use technology more than the medical students I teach I feel vindicated. Smile!
The creativity issue bothers me and I wonder if it isn’t more a statement of the creativity stifling environment of most young peoples lives and their need to conform rather than a result of digital literacy.
July 10, 2009 @ 9:32 am
Thanks for the link, no I don’t think you can extrapolate these findings to younger children, they tend to learn inather way with other interests, kind regards Dr shock
July 10, 2009 @ 9:34 am
That could be a plausible explanation. Med students are excellent in their presentations and performance but I am not very thrilled about their creativity and curiosity.
Kind regards Dr Shock
July 10, 2009 @ 12:04 pm
Two other question dr shock (sorry, perhaps these are simple questions, but I’m just curious): you reported the decrease in creativity is significant, but was the actual difference rather large? If that is the case, I’m still shocked. (not amazed though)
Also, the information task to me seems to be depending on other aspects of literacy as well, for instance reproduction literacy. Since all groups increased their overall performance, what could explain the difference in the information task (creativity)? Can we say the ‘cut and paste’ generation is here?
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