Browsing by Author "Puupponen, Paula"

This study concentrated on Finnish 6th grader's ICT skills and attitudes and the relations between those and the support that parents and other members of the children's social circle offers. In the modern digital society the ICT skills are of a critical value, and in the future the importance those skills only increases. The school has to be prepared for this challenge and thus it is important to understand what kind of factors are related to the formation of children's ICT skills and attitudes. In previous research it has been established that social support is an important aspect to consider when learning skills. This study was a part of a research project called Mind the Gap (2013 – 2017), which is a cooperation project between University of Helsinki, University of Jyväskylä and University of Turku, funded by the Academy of Finland. The participants were 6th grade students from the city of Helsinki. The children completed a questionnaire that was collected by research assistants. There were altogether 755 participants. First were reported the descriptive statistics of children's ICT skills and attitudes. The t-test was done to analyze the differences between genders. Linear regression analysis was done to research the relations with the support and ICT skills and attitudes. There were altogether 24 regression models formed. The results of this study shows that children's ICT skills and attitudes couldn't be explained with the support too well. The R-values were all under 5%. In the future it could be beneficial to research the topic with qualitative research methods in order to gain a deeper under-standing of these phenomena.