Moving beyond cognitive elements of ICT literacy: First evidence on the structure of ICT engagement

• The concept ICT engagement is proposed.
• ICT engagement integrates metacognitive and motivational facets.
• The factors of interest, self-concept and social exposure were empirically confirmed.
• Correlations with constructs of ICT knowledge and emotion were as expected.

The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is of immense importance in today’s digital knowledge society. As a basis for private and vocational participation in society, ICT literacy has been widely discussed in recent decades. Although motivational and metacognitive facets play an important role in developing ICT literacy and competence, studies assessing media, computer or ICT literacy often fail to present a comprehensive concept on these motivational and metacognitive facets. This article addresses this issue by integrating them into the concept of ICT engagement. Its theoretically deduced dimensions of ICT-related interest, self-concept related to the use of ICT, and social exposure to ICT were analyzed in an explorative study assessing N = 445 students aged between 14 and 17 years in the German federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. The obtained dimensional structure included the assumed factors, and suggested to distinguish a positive and a negative self-concept on using ICT as well as to separate interest in computers and interest in mobile devices factor. The ICT engagement dimensions were related to individual differences in behavioral, cognitive and emotional ICT constructs as expected.