Exploring Secondary School Pupils’ ICT Engagement: A Validation Study

Kleopatra Nikolopoulou,Vasilis Gialamas

doi:10.4236/ce.2016.74059

Kleopatra Nikolopoulou, Vasilis Gialamas

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2016.74059

Copy DOI

Abstract

This paper regards a validation study aiming to explore secondary school pupils’ ICT engagement. A 36-item questionnaire was administered to 246 adolescents (12 - 15 years old) of an experimental school, in Greece. Four factors were extracted: “ICT self-concept”, “social exposure to ICT”, “interest in computers” and “interest in mobile devices”. The factorial structure of the “ICT engagement” questionnaire was revealed. The majority of the pupils expressed strong interest towards both computers and mobile devices. Over 90% of the adolescents believe that the internet is very useful to find practical information, that they can handle mobile phones confidently, and that they know how to download new applications for a mobile phone. Gender was statistically significant correlated to “ICT self-concept” and “social exposure to ICT”, where the boys had higher mean values in comparison to girls. The frequency of computer use had positive correlations with the factors “ICT self-concept”, “social exposure to ICT” and “interest in computers”. It is suggested to describe adolescents’ ICT engagement with respect to discrete dimensions. In particular, the dimensions-factors “interest in computers” and “interest in mobile devices” should be distinct when defining concepts related to ICT engagement. The questionnaire is suggested to be used with other adolescent populations of different countries, in order to reveal possible similarities and differences.

Highlights

In today’s digital knowledge societies, ICT literacy is required in most areas of work and ICT-related com-How to cite this paper: Nikolopoulou, K., & Gialamas, V. (2016)
With regard to the first objective, the analysis demonstrated that there were four factors in the 36-item questionnaire: “ICT self-concept” (Factor 1 or F1), “social exposure to ICT” (Factor 2 or F2), “interest in computers” (Factor 3 or F3) and “interest in mobile devices” (Factor 4 or F4) (Table 3)
This reveals the factorial structure of the questionnaire and indicates that literature-originated constructs of “ICT engagement” do not differ between adolescent populations of different countries

Summary

Introduction

In today’s digital knowledge societies, ICT literacy is required in most areas of work and ICT-related com-How to cite this paper: Nikolopoulou, K., & Gialamas, V. (2016). The newly developed construct of “ICT engagement” comprises at least three related dimensions: ICT-related interest, self-concept related to the use of ICT and social exposure to ICT (see Zylka et al, 2015). These three dimensions are briefly explained here. The self-concept related to the use of ICT points toward personal notions about ICT-related abilities facilitating intrinsically motivated behavior It refers to individual ICT experiences, attitudes and beliefs and as such is a crucial determinant of ICT-related behavior (Janneck et al, 2013). This paper is a validation study aiming to explore secondary school pupils’ ICT engagement, using a different sample of adolescent pupils in another country

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion