ICT AND LEARNING: DIGITAL LITERATES

The increasingly widespread use we make of digital devices in our daily lives, and the fact that they have become an integral part of our socio-cultural fabric, has redefined the ways in which we conceive, organize and carry out our everyday activities. With the advent of internet and digital technologies, society has found other spaces in which it can move, which has changed society itself. This profound change, due to the increasing diffusion of digital devices, social networks, cloud computing, etc., has brought about a metamorphosis in learning processes, and as a consequence, teaching is taking place more and more outside the classroom, and is acquiring the specific characteristics of the technological artifacts that are being used, and being redefined by them. (Smeriglio, 2016). The new generations have therefore become immersed in a technological world that nurtures and nourishes them with the multimedia languages (Biondi, Mosa, Panzavolta, 2009) that are an integral part of the devices they use, so that these become an intrinsic part of their everyday lives. At this point the need to develop the question of the relationship between the digital world and the education system seems inevitable. More specifically, we need to ask how young people approach new forms of technology, especially with regard to their studies, and how they percieve their own digital literacy. This premise formed the basis for a quantative research project based on collected data. This research method was chosen for the investigation, since the design of the survey, which was based on a self-administered questionnaire, and the expected results, provided greater security and control over the scientific validity of the results obtained. The investigation was carried out by means of a survey administered to first year students of Technology and Education media as part of the degree course in Communication and Education Science at the university of Messina. The questionnaire used in the survey was made up of 28 multiple choice questions, some of which were based on the Likert rating scale, and was based on the NSS model (National Student Survey – Havergal, 2015), and on the Attitude Toward Technology and Technology Self-Efficacy model (Motshegwe, Batane, 2015; Crittenden, 2009). To briefly summarize the results, the analysis of the data collected showed that the students had greater competence in the use of digital technologies in practical terms, rather than a broader and more significant knowledge of the digital alphabets and symbolic systems of the new media. In particular, in the students’ response to a question about the level of competence acquired during previous courses in the use of new technologies, the data shows a higher percentage for primary activities and knowledge (communications, sharing, managing) rather than for more complex activities related to programming, markup languages, web design and research methods.