Students’ Engagement with Information and Communications Technologies

Abstract

The International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) 2018 investigated students' experience of using information and communication technology (ICT), their frequency of using ICT for a range of different purposes at and outside of school, and their dispositions toward the use of ICT. This study built on the knowledge about variations in the extent and type of ICT use by students established in ICILS 2013. With large representative samples it is possible to report not only on levels and patterns of ICT engagement but on the relationships of ICT engagement with student attributes. Student engagement with ICT was informed by the opportunity to learn construct. ICILS 2018 investigated both the in-school and out-of-school time that students engaged with ICT because students learned about and developed skills in using ICT in both environments. Students were also asked about the content of the ICT learning they had experienced at school and aspects of their attitudes to ICT. Slightly fewer than half of the students in grade 8 had been using computers for five or more years and computer experience was associated with students' computer and information literacy (CIL). Only one in five students reported ICT use on a daily basis for school-related purposes but seven out of ten students reported ICT use on a daily basis outside school. School-related use of ICT most often involved internet searching and document production. Use of ICT outside school most frequently involved listening to downloaded or streamed music, playing games and searching for online information about things of personal interest. Most students were confident users of ICT and saw benefits of ICT for society. Male students had greater expectations than female students of using ICT for work or study in the future.