The Role of Generative AI in Collaborative Problem Solving of Authentic Challenges.

Measuring digital literacy across ages and over time: Development and validation of a performance-based assessment.

Measuring digital literacy (DL) across ages and tracking its growth over time have remained challenging in the area of digital literacy assessment. The current analysis reports on the psychometric properties of a performance-based Digital Literacy Assessment (DLA) instrument grounded in the DigComp 2.1 framework. Utilising a longitudinal cohort study design, the DLA was administered to Hong Kong students across three age cohorts, from lower primary to upper secondary, over a two-year period. Data were collected in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, and in 2021, during the pandemic. The analysis provides validity and reliability evidence for using the DLA in longitudinal studies to assess DL from late childhood through late adolescence. The results further suggest that students’ DL improved with grade level, with secondary students outperforming primary students but also displaying greater variability in scores. Over the two years, students generally demonstrated improvement in DL while inter-individual differences in DL growth rates widened. These findings indicate the widening of digital divides and highlight the need to investigate factors that contribute to diversity in DL development. In conclusion, our study provides evidence for the robustness of the DLA as an instrument to assess DL growth across ages and over time. Further, the DLA allowed us to uncover the substantial overlap in DL ability across different age groups and the widening second-level digital divide as children move into higher grades, and that the digital divide aggravated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Implications and challenges to the learning and assessment of DL are discussed.

Frank Reichert / Jimmy de la Torre / Nancy Wai Ying Law / Qianqian Pan / Qianru Liang

eCitizen Education 360 (2022) Project - Bulletin 1: Cumulative Impact Under New Normal Insights for Positive Actions

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019, face-to-face lessons in classrooms have been supplanted by long periods of home-based online lessons in Hong Kong schools. During this challenging period of time, many schools, families, and students have struggled to cope with this New Normal of teaching and learning. Understandably, there are widespread concerns in Hong Kong society that student learning and wellbeing may have been adversely affected. It is therefore imperative to take stock of the impact of the New Normal on students’ learning and wellbeing.

Catherine KK Chan / Cheng Yong Tan / Min Lan / Nancy Wai Ying Law / Qianqian Pan / Qianru Liang / Sisi Tao / Wenhui Li / Yimeng Li