Developing and validating the digital skills scale for school children (DSS-SC)

ABSTRACT

As an important indicator of digital divide, the digital skills have been measured by many instruments on the netizens or adults in western countries. However, there are still few concerns on children in developing countries. This paper aimed to develop a reliable and valid digital skills scale for school children (DSS-SC) based on solid theoretical ground and robust empirical evidence. A cross-sectional study was conducted by cluster random sampling among Chinese urban-rural school children (N = 3217). After developing the initial framework and executing EFA and CFA, the final DSS-SC was a theoretically and empirically consistent instrument consisting of 22 items in 5 dimensions, i.e., Operational Skills (basic operation, information management, information navigation), Mobile Skills (software operation, device application), Social Skills (social sharing, social interaction), Creative Skills (content creation, content integration), and Safety Skills (privacy protection, risk prevention). It provided theoretical and practical significance in future research and digital education.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital skills
• ICTs
• school children
• digital divide
• scale construction

Acknowledgements

The authors thank all the headmasters, teachers, and voluntary students in the investigated 40 primary schools and 40 middle schools, for their help in collecting research data. Also, the authors are grateful to the journal editor and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by [Chinese National Funding of Social Sciences #1] under Grant ‘Smart media and children’s cognitive development’ [number 18AXW005]; and [Shanghai Municipal Funding of Social Sciences #2] under Grant ‘The impact of new media on children’s cognition and learning’ [number 2017BXW006].

Notes on contributors

Xiaojing Li

Xiaojing Li is a professor and Vice President of the School of Media and Communication at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. Her research focused on media uses and effects, new media and children, especially interested in the role of new media played in developing countries [email: [email protected]].

Roujia Hu

Roujia Hu is a graduate student of the School of Media and Communication at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Her research focused on new media use and effects, esp. among adolescents [email: [email protected]].