A rapid development of technology has been changing the way we teach and learn. Digital devices, such as mobile devices, are becoming part of everyday practice in schools. As they provide a suitable environment for supporting educational goals, the im...
A rapid development of technology has been changing the way we teach and learn. Digital devices, such as mobile devices, are becoming part of everyday practice in schools. As they provide a suitable environment for supporting educational goals, the importance of digital education is being highlighted. Digital education means using digital devices for teaching and learning for educational purposes. Digital education has been shown to have educational effects in several ways : It facilitates interaction between teachers and students; it promotes students’ participation in learning; and it increases students’ exploratory learning. In addition, students’ satisfaction with digital education appears to be high. In recognition of such advantages, governments around the world include ICT education in their national curriculum and highlight the digital competency as one of the key competency in the 21st century. However, these investments and emphasis do not always result as desired. It is not every student is digitally competent; there has been a huge gap in digital competency among students. Although active digital education is required for teachers in practice, it has been found that teachers have difficulties in actively implementing digital education due to their external factors such as insufficient resources, or internal factors such as teacher’s negative attitude. In order to strengthen students’ digital competence and to activate teacher’s digital education, it is important to understand the aspects of digital competency of elementary school students and to explore how the teacher’s instruction is being affected by the student’s digital competence.
Therefore, this study aims to explore elementary school teacher’s perception of elementary students’ digital competence and digital education. The specific research questions that guided the study are as follows: First, How do elementary school teachers perceive the digital competency of students? Second, how do elementary school teachers perceive that the student’s digital competency affects the teacher’s instructional design and implementation? Third, what strategies do elementary school teachers recognize as necessary to improve students’ digital competency?
To answer the above mentioned research questions, the study takes the form of an exploratory study. Data were collected through interviews with 14 elementary school teachers and thematic analysis was used for analyzing the interviews. First, interview questions were constructed through literature review, and criteria for research participants selection was prepared. Afterwards, the interview with elementary school teachers who actively practice digital education was conducted about an hour and recorded in audio. While conducting the interview, the main points of the interview were arranged in the research notes. Due to the limited time, interview with a new participant and transcribing the recordings of the previous interview were held in the same time. At last, no new contents appeared in the interview, and the interview was terminated when there were 14 participants. After the interview, initial codes were generated from the interview data. By connecting the codes, a few themes were derived and reviewed. The main themes were then identified by defining and naming the reviewed themes.
As a result of research, 5 themes for research question 1, 5 themes for research question 2, and 3 themes for research question 3 were derived. Regarding the aspect of students' digital competency, the elementary school teacher perceived that students' digital competency level varies according to their educational experiences in using digital devices and types of digital devices, and differences exist between regions and specific parts of digital competency. Moreover, teachers recognized that students who has higher level of digital competency, participate in digital education activities more positively and their competency is growing. Next, the effect of the student's digital competency level on the teacher's instructional design and implementation showed that there was a difficulty in practicing digital education classes considering the student's digital competency. Nevertheless, teachers showed their enthusiasm for the class while looking at students who has positive attitude about digital education. To take into account the differences in digital competency level between students, they planned and provided differentiated curriculum digital education and collaborative learning. Also, they give support through teachers and colleagues during the class. Lastly, it was thought that to improve the digital competency level of students, it is necessary to provide a lot of experience in digital education and to enhance the competency of teachers who practice digital education, and to create an appropriate environment for practicing digital education.
This study explored teachers’ perspective on the differences in digital competency of elementary school students and the difficulties of class practice. Moreover, it revealed the importance of digital education practice of teachers to strengthen the digital competency of students.
As a result, a circular digital competency model was proposed to indicate the link between digital competency and digital education. The model explains that students with less digital experience show a lower digital competence; students with more digital experience have a higher digital competence. At this time, the teacher's digital education support the student's digital experience, which can create a virtuous cycle that leads to the student's high digital competency. This means that students digital competence can be enhanced if teachers’ digital education is enriched. In addition to this, it is necessary to activate the teacher community and teachers’ network for digital education. It is expected that the findings of this study will contribute to the development of research on digital competences in Korea.