Teaching digital skills to digital natives?

1. Teaching digital skills to digital natives? The role of teachers’ daily practises and attitudes towards new media Gianluca Argentin, Universityof Milano-Bicocca Marco Gui , UniversityofMilano-Bicocca

2. 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)

3. 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)

4. Our (unanswerable) research question Is there an impact of teachers’ digital practices/attitudes on their students’ digital skills?

5. Our (answerable) research question Is there a robust association between teachers’ digital practices/attitudes and their students’ digital skills?

6. Our starting point However, a small sample size (n=980) and the local nature of the survey (Trentino) constitute important limitations. 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 < 0.05).

7. Plus of present study /1 • Larger area and two very different regional contexts: • Trentino (mountainous) and Lombardy (metropolitan) T L T L

8. 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)

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. Results Estimated association between teachers practices/attitudes and their pupils digital skills

13. Were previous results about Trentino entirely wrong?

14. Results/2 Estimated association between teachers practices/attitudes and their pupils digital skills by region

15. If you prefer: Estimated interaction between region and teachers practices/attitudes on their pupils digital skills

16. A brand new research question Why did we find a robust and positive association in Trentino (twice) and a null association in Lombardy?

17. 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.).

18. Preliminary conclusions The association previously observed in Trentinobetween 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?

19. 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)