Abstract:

Research problem:
Learners and teachers are living in a context in which digital services for information and communication are massively spread in educational settings. These services demand new competencies, knowledge and skills. In order to face these needs, digital literacy is one of the main asset to empower learners to understand and evaluate information (Gilster, 1997) and to interpret it (Jacobson, 2012). The acquisition of such competencies in digital literacy eight facets: cultural, cognitive, constructive, communicative, confident, creative, critical and civic (Belshaw, 2011). In this way, inspired by Jenkins (2006), Canadian researchers disseminated a pyramidal evolution within digital literacy. Based on this scientist foundation, we tried to research what are the most developed digital skills which characterise elements of digital literacy and “differenciated pedagogy” (Perrenoud, 2012) in the secondary school level in France.

Approach and methods:
To analyse essential aspects of digital literacy at school, we used a “bottom-up approach” and undertook field research on three secondary schools in a French region (Franche-Comté). Firstly, we conducted four face-to-face semi-structured interviews with teachers (Quivy & van Campenhoudt,2006) and made two observations in classes where digital technologies are used. Each thematic unit of the interview was analysed and afterwards, data were crossed. Secondly, we asked twenty-four teachers to describe their pedagogical activities oriented to the acquisition of digital literacy by means of a structured document we elaborated learning objectives, planned period, humain resources involved, targeted skills, as well as indicators for evaluation and auto-evaluation.

Principal findings:
The main results of our research were evaluated with a grid analysis (Albarello, 2003). A variety of activities, prevailing inverted classrooms, interaction design, collaborative or in group works, was proposed to be realised with computer, tablets, ipads or desktop PCs. After that, we focussed on decoding and enconding informations (Robert & Bouillaguet, 1997) and we identified that digital literacy is more focussed : on problem-solving and jugment (mathematics and algorythms), creativity and networking (French language and natural sciences), synthesing and reflexion (transversal activities), appropriation and citizenship (tutoring activities) but also pooling knowledge (physical education), simulation and distributed cognition (history and geography), social awareness and cultural empowerment (foreign languages).

Keywords:

Digital literacy, communication skills, information and communication technologies, educational resources.