Secondary-school students characterized as digital natives and their use of ICTs

Abstract

The objectives of this survey research were to study (1) fundamental factors of digital natives (group of people born in the digital age) who in this article focused on secondary-school students from various regions of Thailand (2) level of their use of ICTs (3) and compare level of their ICTs uses based upon their fundamental factors (4) the relationship between ICTs use and their fundamental factors. Samples included 450 secondary-school students qualified as' digital native'. Multi-stage sampling was employed. Questionnaire was the tool used to collect the data. Statistical analysis was conducted using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Outcome of the study revealed that the majority of samples were female, science-math major students in public school with G.P.A. exceeding 3.00. In their profile creation using ICTs, they used facebook, instagram to publicize their own profiles but not to the level of creating their own webpage dedicated to specific topic yet. They used internet up to the level where they could communicate with online society besides information and video clips downloading.  In media creation, their level of use was low since they were consumers but not creators of media. In their application of knowledge on cyber space they were interested in knowledge on cyber space and followers of certain topics. On the other hand, outcome of the research showed that their uses of ICTs did not depend on their fundamental factors. Furthermore, there was a significant relationship between application of cyber knowledge and their ownership of NB and/or PC computer.