Digital and information literacy inside and outside Spanish primary education schools

Abstract

This paper addresses the use of digital and information literacy with primary pupils and its relationship with the development of literacy inside and outside school. Information and Communication Technologies have created new opportunities for reading and writing texts in social spaces that have modified the way children learn. This study was a non-experimental, explanatory design. 1540 Spanish primary school pupils completed a self-report questionnaire based on the literacy, digital and information events developed by pupils. The data obtained were analyzed through a Categorical Principal Component Analysis (CATPCA) that identified two components related to the events “inside school” and “outside school”. These components were later used as variables to classify the socioeconomic status and type of school, curricular preferences, as well as age, sex and year of study. The results obtained show two spaces for literacy: one was promoted inside school and was based on printed texts; the other developed outside school and favoured digital and information literacy. This work concludes with the need to establish bridges which connect digital competence inside and outside school through the creation of a third literacy space.