The development of digital technology is revolutionizing our lives and our lives in general. Participating in the digital world while enjoying the convenience of digital has become an essential daily routine. The recent COVID-19 pandemic that has occu...
The development of digital technology is revolutionizing our lives and our lives in general. Participating in the digital world while enjoying the convenience of digital has become an essential daily routine. The recent COVID-19 pandemic that has occurred worldwide is ‘sometimes distant learning’, accelerating future education using digital. In a situation where online education through digital is indispensable, students are more exposed to the digital environment, and they need skills to deal with digital devices, as well as the ability to communicate with people, participate, and express themselves in a digital environment. The OECD(Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) and the Ministry of Education of Korea have suggested core competencies to live in the future. Through the Digital Kids for Asia Pacific (DKAP) project, UNESCO Bangkok Office presents Digital Citizenship Competency from an integrated perspective that responds to the crisis of the digital environment as well as the use of digital technology as a competency necessary for the future society. Research on digital citizenship exists as an extension of citizenship and a perspective that should be cultivated in an educational context. In terms of extending citizenship, there are studies on the digital citizenship instrument and the analysis of variables through it, targeting adult college students. There are not many studies from the perspective of competency in the educational context, and in particular, we developed a digital citizenship measurement instrument for elementary school students who are vulnerable to digital crises such as cyber violence, infringement of personal information and copyright, cyber addiction, and the flood of fake news. There are limited studies exploring variables affecting digital citizenship.
Therefore, this study analyzes how personal, Internet-related empirical, and Internet-related affective variables affect the development and validation of a instrument to measure the digital citizenship of elementary school students and cultivating the digital citizenship competencies of elementary school students. It was intended to derive meaningful implications for establishing. The research question for this is: First, is the digital citizenship competency instrument valid for elementary school students? Second, what are the variables that affect the digital citizenship competency of elementary school students? to be. The analysis data used the results of an online survey of 274 4th to 6th graders in 8 elementary schools in Seoul from June 16th to July 31st, 2020. The analysis method was reliability analysis, factor analysis, and descriptive statistics, T-test, one-way ANOVA, correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis were performed.
The main results shown in this study are as follows. First, it was verified that the reliability and validity of the digital citizenship competency instrument for elementary school students were good. Second, digital safety and resilience were the highest among the five areas that constitute the digital citizenship of elementary school students, and digital creativity and innovation were the lowest. Third, the variable that affects the digital citizenship competency of elementary school students in common was Internet efficacy. Fourth, the variables that influence the digital citizenship competency of elementary school students are grade level, subjective academic performance, subjective economic level, sources of information (other sources), Internet teachers (alone), and frequency of attention to Internet safety use by parents and friends. Internet efficacy, Internet result expectations, gender, information source (TV radio), computer teacher (friend), sibling's Internet learning recommendation frequency, and netiquette education experience at school. Fifth, the variables influencing elementary school students' digital literacy are grade level, academic aspiration, subjective academic performance, subjective economic level, frequency of attention to safety use of the Internet by parents and friends, Internet efficacy and Internet result expectations, and people who teach computers (friends), Siblings recommended internet learning. Sixth, the variables that affect the digital safety and resilience of elementary school students are grade level, subjective economic level, sources of information (other sources), people who teach the internet (community), frequency of internet safety use by parents and friends, Internet efficacy and Internet result expectations, information sources (TV radio), game time of the day, and people who teach computers (friends). Seventh, the variables influencing elementary school students' digital participation are subjective economic level, sources of information (other sources), leisure activities through the Internet (chat and watching TV), people who teach computers (teachers), voluntary participation clubs, Internet efficacy, Internet result expectations, Internet anxiety, and experience of netiquette education from school. Eighth, the variables that affect the digital emotional intelligence of elementary school students are subjective economic level, sources of information (other sources), frequency of attention to safe use of the Internet by parents and friends, Internet efficacy and Internet result expectations, Internet access location (other places). It appeared as a source of information (TV radio). Ninth, among the digital citizenship of elementary school students, the variables that influence digital creativity and innovation are grade, Internet teacher (alone), friends' Internet learning recommendation frequency, voluntary participation club, Internet efficacy and Internet result expectations, gender (male student ), the frequency of teachers' attention to safe use of the Internet, the frequency of recommendations for Internet learning by siblings, and the experience of netiquette education from school.
The policy implications in terms of educational administration derived based on the results of this study are as follows. First, an educational plan must be prepared so that the elements of digital citizenship competency of elementary school students can develop comprehensively and evenly. In particular, elementary school students should have opportunities to produce various contents on the Internet, communicate with people in the Internet community, and participate in social issues. Second, an educational policy that can increase the Internet efficacy and Internet results expectations of elementary school students should be established. Elementary school students in Korea use the Internet to communicate and enjoy hobbies and leisure activities, but the efficacy of learning and homework and educational programming is low. Therefore, in preparation for the online learning era, various experiences of learning and programming through the Internet should be provided. Third, education using digital should be conducted in consideration of the gender, grade, and subjective academic performance of elementary school students. In view of the fact that boys and students with low grades play a lot of Internet games and are highly addicted to the Internet, it is necessary to reinforce educational guidance for them, while at the same time linking Internet-related experiences with learning. Fourth, it is necessary to support students of underprivileged classes such as educational welfare students so that digital divide does not occur, and to secure infrastructure such as digital devices in schools. In order for the digital divide to not lead to the academic achievement gap, it is necessary to have infrastructure such as various digital devices and wireless Internet networks, and actively use smart devices in school classes. Fifth, teacher training and parent training should be conducted for teachers and parents who lead elementary school students. It is necessary to provide professional training and educational materials so that teachers can enhance the digital citizenship competencies of elementary school students, and parent training should also be provided so that parents can monitor students' safe use of the Internet at home. Sixth, it is necessary to support educational programs that can give elementary school students self-direction in Internet learning and the ability to collaborate with peers. Teachers should recommend students' self-directed learning through the Internet and support students to collaborate and present tasks to solve. Seventh, it is necessary to provide detailed guidance and attention from the educational authorities and each school regarding the places, sources of information, and purposes of use of the Internet by elementary school students, and support to facilitate communication and participation through chat.