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Education Dive
US students show low-to-medium tech skills
A 12-country international study shows just because students grow up
with digital devices doesn’t mean they have “sophisticated” skills.
Linda Jacobson
Nov. 5, 2019
U.S. 8th graders can use computers to gather basic information and make
simple edits. They also have some awareness of security risks in the
digital world. But they’re less likely to understand the purpose of
sponsored content on a website, use generic mapping software or know
how to control color and text when creating a presentation.
Those are among the 2018 results of the International Computer and
Information Literacy Study released Tuesday by the International
Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, which also
conducts other large-scale international studies.
Across the 12 education systems participating in the study, the average
score on the computer and information literacy portion of the test was
496 on a scale from 100 to 700. A quarter of all students scored at the
lowest level, and 18% scored below the lowest level. U.S. students
scored 519 — below Denmark, the Republic of Korea and Finland, but
ahead of several other countries, including Germany, France and Chile.
Still, the results, officials said, suggest students don’t “develop
sophisticated digital skills” just because they grow up as digital
natives.
“Confidence, and crucially, competence, in the use of digital devices
is of vital importance globally,” Dirk Hastedt, IEA executive director,
said in a statement. “It is essential that young people are taught
these skills at schools, and that their teachers are well supported in
delivering this bedrock of modern education.”
The findings confirm other recent studies in the U.S. showing students can be easily misled by digital media messages.
The U.S. actually didn’t meet the IEA’s strict sampling requirements of
having at least 75% of students in each school completing the
assessment. That means the organization can’t confirm the results are
truly representative of the entire U.S.
But Julian Fraillon, the ICILS study’s director, noted participation
rates in the U.S. were still high — 70% for students and 65% for
teachers answering questions about topics such as their own confidence
in teaching these skills and how the technologies are used in the
curriculum.
“The data are valid,” Fraillon said. “They are absolutely true
reflections of participation, representative of high proportions of
students and teachers in the U.S.”
Socioeconomic, gender divides
On tasks measuring students’ computational thinking, U.S. students
earned a mid-range average score of 498 on the scale, meaning they
“demonstrate understanding of how computation can be used to solve
real-world problems.” But they are less skilled at creating algorithms
or debugging them when problems arise.
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