Middle School Students' Information and Communication Literacy Deficits Study

Some results of the basic school (14 years old) students' information and communication competence (ICC) in the digital environment study are discussed. About 30,000 students (14 years old) took part in the study. Information and Communication Literacy is considered as the ability to use digital technologies to search, manage, integrate, evaluate and create information. It is one of the key competencies that all of basic school graduates should obtain. As the availability of digital technologies grows, the gap in the ability of students to use them productively becomes more and more noticeable. The study identifies the actual students' information and communication competencies deficits at the stage of middle school completion. Performance-based online Information and Communication Literacy test (ICL-test) was the main research tool of the study. An attempt was made to determine to what extent the level of students' ICC is related to the work of the school, and to what extent it depends on the extracurricular environment. The results of the study indicate a strong connection between the ICC of ninth graders and their out-of-school environment and a weak connection with the work of the school. The reasons for the insufficient level of the ICC in a significant part of the graduates of the basic school are discussed and recommendations for its increase are proposed. It was found that ICL-test is a reliable online instrument to measure students' information and communication competence.