DIGITAL DIVIDES AND CAPITAL CONVERSION: The optimal use of information and communication technology for youth reading achievement

Abstract

Analysis of a nationally representative survey of 15-year-old Canadian youth indicates how capital can be converted from one form to another by examining the use of information and communication technology (ICT) and reading achievements. Overall there is a negligible linear relationship but a pronounced curvilinear one between these variables, suggesting an optimal level of ICT use. This optimal point varies by gender (males are able to use ICT more before negative effects set in), and by parental education (with girls from highly educated homes gaining more from the use of ICT). Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Keywords:

• Reading achievement
• information and communication technology
• gender
• socioeconomic status
• computers

Notes

1 In order to facilitate comparability with other (international) parts of the larger Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study, we are using the items that comprised the Item Response Theory (IRT) scale created for such comparisons.

2 The Youth in Transition Survey is designed to be longitudinal. The results from Cycle 2 (collected in 2003) were due to be available in 2006.

3 HLM allows us to test for school effects, since it provides estimates of the extent of school-level variability for each of the parameters estimated. None of the slopes had statistically significant school-level variance, suggesting that neither the linear nor quadratic terms differ by school. Hence these were entered as fixed effects in the analysis. Given these results, the patterns we report are unlikely to be due simply to different uses of ICT in different schools.