Who needs teachers? Factors associated with learning ICT skills from teachers in a multilevel analysis of the ICILS data

Priscila Berger

doi:10.21240/mpaed/35/2019.10.22.x

Abstract

While great responsibility is placed upon schoolteachers for educating children and adolescents in media and technology, the increasing access to technology offers opportunities for youngsters to develop information and computer technology (ICT) skills informally. Thus, they do not depend solely on the school to develop computer and information literacy (CIL). Conversely, studies confirm that in some countries students report that they have learned specific ICT skills mainly from their teachers. However, little is known about the conditions under which students rely on teachers to develop CIL skills. This study explores the characteristics of students, schools, and countries that are associated with the incidence of learning CIL from teachers. Based on previous studies, a model was developed and tested employing a three-level analysis with data from 14 participant countries of the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS). The model reveals significant associations with students’ socioeconomic conditions, students’ self-efficacy in advanced ICT tasks, students’ gender and countries’ ICT Development Index score. The schools’ characteristics do not contribute significantly to the model. Furthermore, implications for the involvement of both students and teachers regarding media education in schools are discussed.

Highlights

Initiatives in several countries have led to the inclusion of media education in their formal school curricula
Variation partition coefficients (VPC)3 indicate that in terms of learning information and communication technologies (ICT) from teachers, 10% of the variance in the sample can be attributed to differences between schools, 12% of the variance to differences between countries, and 78% of the variance to differences between students
Www.medienpaed.com > 22.10.2019 127 were found with self-efficacy in basic tasks (B = -.007, SE = .001, p < .001) and with use of ICT at school (B = .004, SE = .001, p < .001), these predictors contributed very little to the explained variance, and for this reason, were dropped in the subsequent steps of the model

Summary

Introduction

Initiatives in several countries have led to the inclusion of media education in their formal school curricula. In Germany, 98% of the youngsters between 12-19 years old that participated in the «JIM Studie» [Youth, Information, Media Study] in 2018 report having a smartphone, a computer/laptop and an internet connection available at home (Feierabend, Rathgeb, and Reuther 2018). This easy access to ICTs offers new possibilities for youngsters to develop some mediarelated skills autonomously and in their exchanges with family and peers (Claro et al 2012). A significant part of the responsibility for this is attributed to schools (Buckingham 2007; Vanderlinde, van Braak, and Hermans 2009; Wilson et al 2011), and especially to teachers (Brüggemann 2013; Dias-Fonseca and Potter 2016; UNESCO 2008)

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