Critical Digital Citizenship: a scale development and validation study
摘要
The rise of digital technologies, on one hand, has transformed the way learners interact with digital environments. On the other hand, we witness the digital divide and biases associated with it. This calls for a redefinition of digital citizenship. This prompted us to develop the Critical Digital Citizenship (CDC) Scale to assess school teachers’ competencies in using technology responsibly and critically interacting with online and internet environments. This scale focuses on key features such as Knowledge, Attitude, Skills, Critical Perspectives. An exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were carried out. The following goodness-of-fit index values were obtained: χ2 = 612.39, df = 266, P = 0.00, RMSEA = 0.059, GFI = 0.891, AGFI = 0.867, CFI = 0.922, RMR = 0.049; TLI = 0.912. The overall Cronbach’s alpha reliability value of the test was 0.823. The composite reliability exceeds 0.7 for every factor and the AVE > 0.5. After analysing the data, it was found that the Critical Digital Citizenship Scale (CDCS) is a valid and reliable tool for assessing the CDC competency level of teachers. The CDC scale addresses the urgent need to equip individuals with the skills to discern credible information, recognize bias, and engage in responsible, informed digital participation. This will also serve as a valuable resource for school teachers, educators, policy makers, and administrators to understand and implement critical digital citizenship in schools, as well as for researchers seeking to foster critically perspective towards digital and internet integration in education.