Investigation of secondary school students competencies regarding educational technology standards

Technology has a deep influence on the knowledge creation and transformation processes. The digital era which shelters unique technological advances has transformed human thinking styles, behaviors, communication manners, working habits and life styles. The purpose of the current study was to develop Students? Technology Standards Scale (STSS) which could be used to identify and assess 8th graders? competencies regarding educational technology standards. A review of the relevant literature in Turkey revealed a lack of robust scale development studies which intended to identify 8th grade students competencies about educational technology standards. The first form of the scale was administered to 620 8th grade students. The sample was randomly selected from seven different regions in Turkey, which was used for an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Before the EFA, the scale included 70 items. After the analysis, the scale included 21 items under four factors. The factors were technology literacy, creativity, digital citizenship and participation, and innovation. The Cronbach?s alpha coefficient for the whole scale was .886, whereas the coefficients for individual factors ranged between .57 through .87. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted with 182 new participants to confirm the factor structure. The fit values of the CFA were acceptable after conducting a few modification indices. The findings met the current reliability and validity criteria, so it can be used in further studies. After the development of the scale, it was administered to1960 8th graders in 26 cities to represent the Turkish 8th graders better. Findings revealed that students thought they met the technology standards sufficiently. They considered themselves more proficient in technology literacy, innovation and creativity than digital citizenship and participation. Moreover, there was not a significant difference between males and females in terms of the scale factors. It was observed that students with working parents had higher scores on the scale. Furthermore, the test scores were positively affected by parents? education levels, having a computer, internet access and other technological devices at home. Through the discussion of the current findings, it is emphasized that equipping students with ICT skills from the early years of childhood is crucial, since it is not possible to succeed without having relevant ICT skills to comply with the requirements of the modern working life. The results of the study provide important insights primarily for the National Ministry of Education, The Council of Higher Education, universities and teachers since they have the potential to guide the stakeholders of the ICT integration process in educational institutions. Keywords: Technology Integration, Information Literacy, Technology Standards for Students, Scale Develeopment