A Web-Based Digital Literacy Assessment for K-12 Learners in Korea: Its design and results
Submitted by:
Hyounjin Ok
Abstract:
The concept of digital literacy continues to change and education needs to actively reflect such changes for students’ life and their jobs in the future. Especially high-quality assessment of digital literacy is crucial to understanding students’ literacy skills and practices. Such assessment also provides critical information that could be used for developing appropriate teaching pedagogies to support students in developing important skills required for the 21st-century knowledge society. The focus of this presentation is on a project led by Korean literacy scholars, with the goal of developing and validating a web-based digital literacy assessment system for K-12 learners in Korea. The presenters first describe the design framework for digital literacy assessment (i.e., digital literacy as a configuration of the skills and knowledge involved in information searching, meaning making, critical evaluation, text design, representation, and communication) with the specific assessment materials and items developed within the framework. We also discuss findings from our validation study using learners’ verbal protocol data (e.g., think aloud) and human-computer interaction data (i.e., screen recordings, log files) generated during their performance on the digital literacy assessment. The third point of this presentation is to discuss hierarchical methods of the assessment for elementary, middle, and high school students based on middle school students' results. Finally, we discuss potential uses of the assessment for both research and pedagogical purposes (e.g., diagnostic, formative) as well as possible larger implications as the endeavor of making research-informed policies in literacy education.
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