Since 2016, Professor Nancy Law, Deputy Director, Centre for Information Technology in Education of Faculty of Education, has led a multi-disciplinary team as they embarked on a five-year long study to assess the digital competencies in school children. The project, which is known as “Hong Kong Students’ Digital Citizenship Development”, is the first education-related scheme funded by the Research Grants Council of the HKSAR Government under its Theme-based Research Scheme.

Professor Law and Dr Elizabeth Loh, Assistant Dean (Knowledge Exchange) of the Faculty, released the study’s first series of findings in April 2020, in which the digital competency levels in schools in Hong Kong becomes the spotlight due the outbreak of COVID-19 and long-term school suspensions. Reinforced by the pandemic and the need for social distancing, the issue surrounding digital citizenship is forced upon the lips of public discussion and attention. With in-person connections kept at a bare minimum, digital interactions and transactions grew increasingly indispensable, and the education industry is no exception to this trend.

How Schools are Coping under the Pandemic

In a strange way, Professor Law and her team’s study came at the perfect time in the most unimaginable situation. Because of that, she and Dr Tan Cheng Yong, Associate Professor, Academic Unit of Social Contexts and Policies of Education of the Faculty, quickly launched a new study – “eCitizen Education 360” – during June and July 2020 to specifically tackle how schools were coping with online teaching so far. The study aimed to source evidence regarding the impact of school suspension to call for community-wide actions in creating a New Normal and to provide support on the learning and wellbeing of various education stakeholders in an overarching fight against the adversities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Receiving immense support from schools, teachers, parents and students alike, Professor Law and Dr Tan have gleaned much insights into Hong Kong students’ digital competency.

Digital Literacy below Average 

In a day and age where smartphones and tablets are such commonplace, glowing visibly behind store windows in every step or two, it is easy to forget that owning these electronic gadgets is still a privilege. Even for a high-tech city like Hong Kong, not everyone can afford having an assortment of these gadgets at their fingertips. This is particularly true with students. Most parents think that acquiring digital literacy is something excessive since they do not necessarily contribute to academic achievements. In fact, some parents deem having a smartphone as an all-evil distraction, especially for those at a younger age who has weaker resistance and self-control.

According to the International Computer and Information Literacy Study in 2013, Hong Kong students’ performance was lower than all other developed economies that participated in the study, like Germany and the Netherlands (Note 1). From Professor Law’s assessment based on data collected locally from Primary 3, Secondary 1 and Secondary 3 students from November 2018 to March 2019, it is unsurprising to learn that students’ competence in digital literacy and cognitive aspects of collaborative problem solving are generally low.

Digital Divide Due to Socio-Economic Gap

At the same time, there is also a stark contrast in performance across and within schools, which Professor Law believes is a result of a gap in socio-economic background among students. On one hand, students with IT-savvy family members or an abundant digital equipment may be more familiar with sophisticated applications of technology. These students gain digital literacy through their own use of digital technology like smartphones and computers for socialising and entertainment, which makes them more likely to develop high-level digital competence regardless of school intervention. On the other hand, students lacking digital products at home may perform considerably less well. Of course, schools play an important role as well in providing opportunities for students to undertake learning tasks that require the use of digital technology. In other words, a within-school distribution in digital competence is very reflective of a student’s opportunity to acquire digital competence skills outside of school-arranged activities.

Professor Law further points out that this issue cannot be resolved simply by ensuring that all students have adequate access to devices like desktop, laptop or tablet computers, and internet connectivity, although this would be absolutely necessary. For one thing, owning a laptop does not necessarily mean that the student knows how to make the best use of it. For another, these students may not have a quiet environment to partake in online learning.

What Schools Can Do to Help

Much to our dismay, the pandemic is likely to go on for a while. Given the chances of suspensions are unfortunately high and that the COVID-19 situation is incredibly unpredictable, Professor Law highly recommends a repertoire of e-learning pedagogies for different kinds of learning outcomes and student needs to be developed by schools. Whenever circumstances permit for face-to-face lessons, schools should be prepared to make the best out of them as appropriate segments of the curriculum. As the enforcers of the curriculum, teachers too are recommended to sharpen their digital skills through professional training in order to facilitate online teaching.

Only through joint efforts from the community can we overcome the challenges COVID-19 has brought about and create a “New Normal”.

eCitizen Education 360 (2022) Project 

Building on the strengths of the eCitizen Education 360 (2020) Project, Dr Law and her team worked on the eCitizen Education 360 (2022) Project, which is designed to provide a comprehensive picture on how students, parents, schools, and teachers adapt in the New Normal after multiple waves of school suspensions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Project aims to identify the cumulative impact on learning and well-being outcomes of students since then.

Data collection was conducted from July to early September 2022, involving a total of 51 schools (20 primary schools and 31 secondary schools). Over 8,000 students, 3,000 parents, 800 teachers, and 200 school leaders took part in the Project.

As compared to 2020, results in 2022 show that (1) primary and secondary students experienced more online learning activities and had more confidence in online learning. However, secondary school students had less positive online learning and well-being outcomes than primary students (e.g. self-efficacy, self-regulation strategies, cyberbullying experiences), and were much less likely to seek help from adults; (2) parents were most concerned about the impact on their children’s learning due to school suspensions; and they increased their interactions and involvement with their children’s teachers and schools in 2022; Furthermore, parents of secondary students were less involved in their children’s learning and had lower parenting self-efficacy; and; (3) school leaders and teachers reported more e-learning practices in 2022; were most concerned about the impact of prolonged suspensions on students’ academic standards; and found strategies to provide professional development and other facilitative mechanisms for the enhancement of e-learning, a collaborative school culture and community support, were the most important in helping schools to cope with the challenges in the New Normal.

The project team and respondents from the fields of education, child development and social welfare also put forward several recommendations for various stakeholders including the concerned communities and policy makers, while calling for collective efforts to keep track of the cumulative impact brought by the pandemic and continue to provide support to students, parents, schools and teachers.

Note 1

International Computer and Information Literacy Study (2013) 
https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/icils/countries.asp