Three of four Danish eight-grade students cannot identify characteristics of scams in digital communication, or evaluate the reliability of information presented on a crowdsourced website.
On November 12, 2024, the international and Danish results of ICILS 2023 (International Computer and Information Literacy) were released at a conference at the Danish School of Education (DPU), Aarhus University. ICILS is a large-scale quantitative study, looking at eight-grade students’ computer and information literacy skills as well as their computational thinking skills.
In this article, I focus on the Danish results that I have been involved in analyzing. One of the main findings is that Danish students have gotten significantly less competent in computer and information literacy.
Specifically, in Denmark, three out of four students are at or below level 2 out of the study’s four levels of computer and information literacy. Computer and information literacy is defined as “an individual’s ability to use computers to investigate, create, and communicate in order to participate effectively at home, at school, in the workplace, and in society” (Fraillon 2024).
At level 2, students can mainly use computers to complete basic tasks such as locating information, creating, and making basic edits in information products. What they cannot do is, for example, “recognize that the credibility of web‐based information can be influenced by the identity, expertise, and motives of the people who create, publish, and share it” (Fraillon 2024). For example, they cannot “identify characteristics of scams in digital communication”, “evaluate the reliability of information presented on a crowdsourced website”, or “identify when content published on the internet may be biased as a result of a publisher’s content guidelines or advertising revenue directing content” (Fraillon 2024).
“[…] in essence, this means that they are available for manipulation. At a time when companies, influencers, lobbyists, demagogues and cybercriminals have become even better at getting their will across, this is especially bad”, explains Jeppe Bundsgaard (as cited in Rolan-Kjærsgaard 2024, own translation) who is the national research coordinator of the study in Denmark. He argues that it is a serious problem that students do not have the skills to navigate the world safely and critically. “Unfortunately, it does not require that much to trick them into believing that something is good or true. We have an example where students are presented with a webpage that is clearly an advertising webpage with a lot of claims about an invented product. We question the students on whether you can trust what it says. There really are not many percent, just under a fifth, who can recognize that it is a fake product and that you should be quite critical about that webpage,” he says (as cited in Rolan-Kjærsgaard 2024, own translation).
Insufficient skills are not a local Danish issue. Danish students are actually among the highest performers of the participating countries. Additionally, Danish students are frequent users of IT both in and outside of school, and it is essential that they learn to understand what is going on behind the screen.
One of our conclusions of the study is that more than ever before, it is essential that we implement education in understanding digital technologies in schools. In Denmark, a subject called technology comprehension has been defined, which, among other things, aims to help students develop an understanding of the possibilities and consequences of digital technologies in order to be able to act meaningfully in society (EMU 2022).
Such a subject is needed more than ever – also because we can see large differences in students’ skills depending on their socio-economic background. As we put it in the report: “The school is in many ways our only hope in an unequal battle with very strong commercial interests.” (Bundsgaard et.al 2024, own translation).
The study is conducted by Jeppe Bundsgaard, Sofie Gry Bindslev, Elisa Nadire Caeli, Elisabeth Grønhøj and Elisabeth Rasmussen, and it is funded by the Danish Ministry of Children and Education and Aarhus University, Arts.
References
Bundsgaard, J.; Bindslev, S. G.; Caeli, E. N.; Grønhøj, E. & Rasmussen, E. (2024). Danske elevers teknologiforståelse og skærmbrug. Resultater fra ICILS-undersøgelsen 2023. Aarhus Universitetsforlag. https://unipress.dk/media/20958/icils_2023.pdf
EMU (2022). Formål for forsøgsfaget teknologiforståelse. https://emu.dk/grundskole/teknologiforstaaelse/formaal
Fraillon, J. (ed.) (2024). An International Perspective on Digital Literacy. Results from ICILS 2023. International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). https://www.iea.nl/sites/default/files/2024-11/ICILS_2023_International_Report_0.pdf
Mette Rolan-Kjærsgaard, M. (2024). Det går ned ad bakke for danske skoleelevers digitale kompetencer. DPU, Aarhus University. https://dpu.au.dk/om-dpu/nyheder/nyhed/artikel/det-gaar-ned-ad-bakke-for-danske-skoleelevers-digitale-kompetencer
Photo: Pernille Tranberg
