WHAT DO PISA 2012 RESULTS TELL US ABOUT EUROPEAN STUDENTS' ICT ACCESS, ICT USE AND ICT ATTITUDES?

Abstract

This study focuses on identifying the European students' access, use and attitudes towards Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as reflected by the data gathered in 21 European countries during the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). ICT access, use and attitudes are important factors that support the integration of the technology in education. Analyzing students' answers in the ICT Familiarity Questionnaire, this paper highlights that there continues to exist an important gap regarding the access at the technology. The lack of access affects students' ICT attitudes. Moreover, students from countries with a low level of ICT access in school tend to start developing ICT competences later than the students from ICT front-runners countries. The lack of competences influences the students' activities either as a stand-alone game player, or a team member during collaborative games. However, when analyzing the internet use at the school and outside the school, whether it is used in order to communicate via the email or the social networks, these differences tend to fade away. Thus, since more than 50% of all students, regardless of the country of origin, access daily the social networks. Regarding the ICT attitudes, PISA 2012 results indicate that European students see the computer as a very important tool which supports their school learning and transform their homework. Moreover, two out of three European students use the internet to gather information in order to do their homework. Despite the positive attitudes mentioned above, an increased level of negative attitudes was noticed among the students from those countries with low level of ICT access.