Digital literacy strong in Irish youths [IrishTimes]
- Published: 29 June 2011
IRISH TEENAGERS are above average at reading digital and online texts, according to an educational study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The latest volume of the organisation’s Programme for International Student Assessment measured the ability of 15-year-old students to read, understand and apply digital texts, including e-mails and websites.
It found Irish teenagers ranked seventh out of 16 OECD states – behind South Korea, New Zealand, Australia and Japan but ahead of countries such as Belgium, Norway and France.
The above-average result contrasts with the poor performance of Irish students in traditional paper-based literacy tests, published by the OECD last year.
A striking feature of the latest study was that fewer students (12 per cent) across all participating countries had difficulties in digital reading compared with those who struggled in the traditional paper-based test (17 per cent). Ireland’s average score on the digital reading assessment, at 509 points, was 13 points higher than its average score of 496 points on the paper-based test.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
