COMMUNICATION PRACTICES OF 12-14 YEARS-OLD DIGITAL USERS

Abstract

This study aims to explore the online communication habits and practices of 12-14-year-old 50 students from an urban school. Measuring their answers on the Digital Native Scale of Timothy Teo (DNAS), this study refers to the suggested four-factor by the author, creating a framework for the analysis of their digital native profile: grown up with technology, comfortable with multi-tasking, reliant on graphics for communication, and thrive on instant rewards (Teo, 2013). The results of the study enhance the understanding of digital natives. As we expected, this research shows a high degree of comfort in online communication in their differentiated profile. It is relevant the issue of age when exemplifying digital natives’ skills. Also, it is estimated that there are similar behaviours, related with the debut age of technology use (4-5 years old). The most common actions in virtual space are surfing on the Internet, photographing, communicating, downloading, disseminating, adding to comments on colleagues’ posts. According to this study, the online communication practices of these 12-14-year-old students include in terms of content various symbols, instant bonuses, and feedback elements. From an educational point of view, these can be included in a structured manner of learning. The article proposes, in this view, several ways to integrate usual students’ communication practices in learning activities with the support of digital resources (virtual bulletin boards, online presentations, digital stories so on). The results indicate that students showed the digital native characteristics, that can be successfully used in school.

Keywords

• digital literacy
• digital native
• online communication
• technology