Developing and validating of a perceived ICT literacy scale for junior secondary school students: Pedagogical and educational contributions

Educators in the 21st century increasingly argue for the importance of information and communication technology (ICT) literacy and ask how it can be acquired formally and informally for students' effective participation in this highly technology-dependent society. There are, however, insufficient empirical measures to assess students' ICT literacy. In this study, a three-factor, 17-item perceived ICT literacy scale (3F-PICTLS) assessing information literacy (information), internet literacy (communication), and computer literacy (technology) was developed and validated using a stratified random sample of 826 junior secondary school students from 36 schools in Hong Kong. Results indicated that the scale demonstrated good reliability and validity. We discussed the pedagogical and educational contributions of the scale.