Brio®, the ed-tech platform for measuring school performance, together with the UiPath Foundation, with the support offered by Banca Comercială Română (BCR) as the implementation partner of the project, announces the results of the second edition of the Report on the digital literacy of students in grades I-XII from Romania. The current research investigated whether factors such as family background, access to technology, digital media use, motivation and attitudes towards technology and media, as well as various demographic variables, are closely related to, or can predict, students’ level of digital literacy. The authors proposed that the obtained results facilitate a better understanding of how digital competence appears and develops among students.
According to the report, positive attitudes towards technology, parental digital literacy, time spent on the device, usability, device complexity and digital self-efficacy are among the factors most strongly associated with students’ digital literacy.
“The ability to use technology is increasingly important for students. But when we talk about digital skills, we’re not just talking about the ability to use a phone, tablet or computer. A person’s level of digital literacy is the extent to which they possess a set of digital skills that enable them to interact actively with the digital environment in an informed and safe manner. The effects that digital literacy produces in the education system are significant. These include the development of communication and relationship skills, identifying and selecting appropriate channels for exchanging messages and information, learning the skills to build interpersonal relationships, developing creativity, originality and competitive spirit. All of them represent absolutely essential aspects in the development and education of students in Romania“, says Prof. Univ. Dr. Dragoș Iliescu, Chief Scientist & Founder of Brio®.
The results of the research show that in proportion of 21.4%, the level of digital literacy of students comes from their positive attitude towards technology. In other words, if students perceive technology and the digital world as important and useful in their lives and believe that it simplifies their lives, helps them learn better, preserve and improve their social relationships, they are very likely to develop a high level of digital competence.
“This year’s report confirms to us that the gap in the development of digital skills will not be recovered as long as children from vulnerable backgrounds do not have access to the digital means necessary to form a positive attitude towards technology and to realize the transformative potential of this one. The report’s conclusions provide the information needed to initiate change at a systemic level, but for this to be possible, change must start from the center of the system,” says Raluca Negulescu-Balaci, Executive Director, UiPath Foundation.
Time spent on devices accounts for 14.2% of students’ digital literacy. Those who spend more hours per week using a digital device have a higher level of digital literacy, and encouraging the use of electronic devices for useful and meaningful tasks can foster its growth. 11.7% of the level of digital literacy is determined by the degree of media and technology use. The more students use their cell phone, communicate via email or text, play video games, and search or socialize on the Internet, the higher their level of digital literacy.
“We do, however, draw attention to the endemic risks that excessive use of technology has on children’s physical and mental health. Its longer use is therefore a recommendation that must be treated in context: studies show that its excessive use for productive activity, such as that related to school, has less severe repercussions, or even none at all, than its use for play and spending time free”, adds Prof. Univ. Dr. Dragos Iliescu.
The level of digital literacy of parents determines the level of students in proportion of 10.3%. This means that if we have parents with low digital skills, the child will most likely also have low digital skills, and vice versa. Regarding the level of complexity of the preferred device (phone, tablet or computer), it determines in proportion 8.4% their level of digital literacy. For example, if a student comes to prefer the computer to the phone, it is very likely that their level of digital literacy will increase by about 20 points. At the same time, the more confident students are in their ability to manage in the digital environment, the better they actually do. That’s why the report shows that their self-efficacy towards the use of technology determines 7.9% of their level of digital literacy.
The results of the study also highlight the fact that the level of digital literacy of students is associated to a rather low extent with technological dependence (4.8%) and social networks (1.2%). Thus, an individual’s digital competence does not increase significantly when he is dependent on an electronic device or social networks, and the importance of using technology for activities other than these is emphasized if the level of digital competence among children is to be increased.
Comparisons by gender, background and access to technology
The results of the report also show that there is an insignificant difference between the average level of digital literacy in favor of girls, they get an average score of 51.6 out of 100, while boys have an average score of 48.8. On the other hand, when it was checked if there is a difference related to the level of digital literacy depending on the area of origin, the results obtained show that there is a consistent difference, with students from rural areas obtaining an average score of 38.9, while urban students obtained an average score of 62.9. This level, however, is rather correlated with the fact that in the urban environment children who do not have a positive attitude towards technology, do not use it regularly, do not have digitally literate parents and prefer the phone or tablet compared to the computer, will not necessarily had a higher level of digital skills.
Depending on the level of access to technology, the difference is one of high intensity in favor of those who own their own device, who obtained an average score of 53.9, compared to those who do not have an own device, who obtained an average score of 27.8 . The level of digital literacy is all the higher the more devices there are in the home, the score obtained increasing significantly from 41.7 (in the case of those with two devices) to 74.9 (those with more than five devices).
The study was conducted during November 2022-January 2023 on 2,312 respondents among pupils in the 1st to 12th grades in Romania.