Computer Skills and Digital Media Uses among Young Students in Rio de Janeiro

The main purpose of this paper is provide information relevant for  the formulation of new policies for the integration of technology in education from  the  discussion of research results that analyse computer skills and digital media uses among students (between 12 to 18 years old) from schools in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The schools surveyed were selected by a stratified random sample. The questionnaire allowed for statistical measurement of theoretical constructs employing non parametrical item response theory. The schools showed a homogeneous pattern with regard to the frequency of use and the ability of students to perform tasks on the computer. Most students use the computer and the Internet at home. The use of computers in schools is minimal and does not influence the students' ability. Even so, the use of a computer at school positively affects the frequency of use and suggests that schools can play a role in promoting digital inclusion. The availability of media resources at home, how long students have been using a computer and cultural practices during the students’ free time had notable positive correlations with the student’s abilities. The results suggest that the relation between age and abilities in the use of computer and internet was not significant, except in reference to school delays which were related to age and to students’ grades, i.e., the more delayed a student is, the less able he/she will be.


Introduction 1
In Brazil, according to the National Research of Households Sample for 2009 (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios -PNAD, 2009), of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística -IBGE), approximately 16 million Brazilian homes have computers with internet access.Children (10 years and older) and young adults form the most significant segment of internet users in the country.In 2009, when the data for this research were collected, the group between 15 and 17 years of age represented 62.9% of the 67.9 million people accessing the internet.
Access is still very uneven, however: 57.1% of the users have internet access at home while 35.2% use it in public places (internet cafe).There are also regional differences: in 2009, the higher percentages of users were in the Southeast (48.1%) and Centerwest (47.2%) regions, while the lower percentages were in the North (27.5%) and Northeast (25.1%) of the country.Additionally, more than half of the homes with computers (10.2 million) are in the Southeast region, with higher average incomes.
The access to IT (Information Technology) in large numbers started in 2005 with the increase of purchasing power by lower socioeconomic classes and with the implementation by the government of policies for the reduction of inequality in access to the internet.These strategies involved mainly the implementation of public computer centers and the introduction of computers in schools through the creation of computer laboratories or by providing teachers and students with individual personal computers.However, these policies were not based on research developed in the educational field, which made the proper articulation between IT integration in schools and educational projects difficult.The study reported in this paper is part of the attempt by Brazilian researchers to integrate into a research field, already consolidated internationally, on abilities acquired in the use of digital media.The main purpose is to provide information relevant for the formulation of new policies for the integration of technology in education.
Studies on abilities in the use of digital media were improved at the end of the 1990's in the most economically developed western countries, fostered by technological developments and by the broadening of media access.These studies have focused on a few aspects, such as: describing and analyzing the abilities that users of digital media develop in their daily relation with them; investigating how these abilities are developed; which of them are learned intuitively and which need to be taught, with the purpose of better comprehending the opportunities and risks involved in their use and to evaluate the different access levels of the population; analyzing opportunities and risks resulting from their use; and, fundamentally, offering evidence that supports public education, health, digital inclusion and citizen participation policies.
In the educational field, these studies also have the purpose of evaluating learning processes in order to guide the educational use of computers and the internet.A relevant part of the investigations carried out in Europe (Livingstone & Haddon, 2009;Mediappro, 2006;Kredens & Fontar, 2010 ) and in the U.S. (ITO, 2010) detected a strong presence of digital media in the daily lives of children and young adults outside schools and a slow (and sometimes inadequate) assimilation of these technologies by educational institutions.This has led agencies and international organizations to foster the financing of research in the area and to provide support for the implementation of policies.This paper presents the results of a research project entitled "Youth and Media: school and social factors" among students of the network of municipal Public Schools in the city of Rio de Janeiro.The research was conducted in partnership with the Research Group in Media and Education (GRUPEM), the Education Evaluation Laboratory (LAEd) and the Research Group for Science Education in Informal Spaces (GECENF) of the Coordination of Science Studies at the Museum of Astronomy and Correlated Sciences (MAST).The proposed study involved the development and application of questionnaires (see Appendix) to 3,705 ninth grade students , 127 teachers, and 39 directors in a sample of 39 schools, with the aim of identifying the ways in which media is utilized by students and their teachers, and the skills developed in the different kinds of use.
The research focused mainly on students' abilities in media use.The questionnaires answered by teachers and directors were analyzed separately.It was not possible to compare the students' data to those of the teachers and directors as the data bases were not compatible.In the case of teachers, the number of respondents was not considered significant for a representative sample.The questionnaires answered by the school directors contained questions about management and school climate, which were therefore different from those contained in the questionnaires answered by students and teachers.For those reasons this paper only presents the results for the students.
Results of this research are presented and compared with the results of other similar surveys such as "The appropriation of new media by youth" (Mediappro 2006), which was a reference to the development of research strategies, and Comprendre le comportement des enfants et adolescents sur Internet pour les protégés des dangers (Kredens & Fontar, 2010).These research studies, in addition to attempting to understand the risks involved in the use of internet by young adults, also tried to observe their uses of internet and the abilities developed, as well as the time dedicated to the various activities involving internet, both in their free time and at school.
In 2006, the Mediappro research, the Appropriation of New Media by Youth, was published.It observed the uses, appropriations and representations made by young adults, especially with respect to new media, in nine European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom) and in the city of Quebec (Canada).The research involved 8,743 students between the ages of 12 and 18 years.The study had as its basis the idea that the more youngsters learn how to avoid the risks of the internet (researchers considered risks such as the possibility of suffering any type of physical, psychological or financial damage in the use of internet) the greater the possibility of them navigating safely.Therefore, the young adults must be able to transform an unknown danger into a risk perception.This capability depends on abilities such as keeping their independence and critical sense, which are recurring subjects in Media-Education.The Mediappro research developed an extensive questionnaire, and, among the concepts it was designed to observe, were computer uses and abilities.The questionnaire posed questions that avoided revealing some aspects of the students´ family life, but with the purpose of knowing what they do routinely.The main objectives were to study existing practices in education for the new media; study the practices and representations of youngsters with respect to new technologies (cellular phones, internet, video games multimedia supports) through an international questionnaire; identify educational and technological recommendations that could be adapted to the concrete conditions of the target audience (schools, associations, families) and their social context; contribute to the evolution of educational practices on the internet and new technologies; and to promote a safer use of new technologies.
Kredens and Fontar's (2010) research, called Comprendre le comportement des enfants et adolescents sur Internet pour les protégés des dangers, analyses four areas: forms of participation, public nets, learning based on pairs, and literacy for new media.This research, with data collected in 2008, consisted of both qualitative and quantitative data.Forty-eight thorough interviews were carried out and served to direct the quantitative analysis (which involved one thousand French students) with the purpose of understanding their representations about the internet, contexts and types of use in general, the different uses, the knowledge and confrontation with the risks of using the internet.Giving emphasis to practice, the research was not centered only in risks.According to this research, there is a strong correlation between the representations children have about the internet and their practices on the internet.Therefore, youngsters define the internet according to their own practical use, i.e., as an entertainment tool, as a communication tool, and as a large library.
As for old media, the results show that French children prefer television and that this preference decreases with age.On the other hand, in the basic education cycle, middle school younger students prefer the internet and among students of high school the consumption of television and internet is similar.

Method
The Youth and Media research group collected data from 3,705 ninth grade students from 39 public schools in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro.The schools were randomly selected from the 1,024 subdivisions within the network of municipal schools in five strata, considering size, location, and availability of electronic equipment.The final sample originally had 40 schools.The questionnaires were answered by students, teachers and directors of the selected schools.Dates and times were scheduled for answering the questionnaires.All students in the 9th grade were present on the date set for answering the questionnaires, as were their teachers.The field work started on November 3 and finished on November 17, 2009.The visits to schools involved about 25 professionals hired and trained, in addition to members of the research groups who coordinated the research project.The management of one of the schools had problems with finding time available in their calendar and, after having repeatedly rescheduled the visits, asked for it to be definitely cancelled.At that point, it was no longer possible to recruit a new school.The sample was therefore composed of 39 schools, being seven Pole schools (schools who have equipment and laboratories for working with media) and eight schools in each of the other strata.
The questionnaires for the students consisted of thematic blocks (see Appendix).These were analyzed in order to build one-dimensional scales or factors in order to define the measurement of theoretical constructs of interest.For this, we used the theory of nonparametric item response that checks the fit of a Mokken scale by means of the coefficient of scalability H (Sijtsma and Molenaar, 2002).The item response theory for polytomous items is generally preferable, compared to principal component analysis, since the latter tends to produce spurious factors in the presence of items with large differences in popularity or difficulty (Van Schuur, 2003).
Questions on computer use by students formed a group of six items: (1) whether or not the student uses the computer, (2) how long he/she has been using the computer ("less than one year," "more than a year," "more than two years," "for more than five years"), (3) how frequently does he/she use the computer ("never" to "several times a day/every day") in school, (4) how frequently does he/she use the computer at home, (5) how frequently does he/she use the computer in a friend's house, and (6) how frequently does he/she use the computer in a public place.The thematic group that sought to measure the frequency of use was composed of 21 items that offered seven response options in an increasing Likert scale, ranging from "never" to "several times a day/every day."The block created to measure skills consisted of 20 items in order to identify the students' perception of their ability to perform tasks on the computer.The response options were on a rising scale of five levels: "I do not know what that means," "I know what that means, but do not know how to operate it," "I can do it, but only with the help of others," "I can do this alone, but I have some difficulty" and "I can do this alone with no problem."The items on "uses and skills" had as references the Mediappro international survey (2006) and the PISA survey questionnaire (ICT Familiarity Component for the Student Questionnaire, PISA 2006).
The block on the habits and practices of the students in their spare time was formed by listing 30 items, analyzed by confirmatory and exploratory modes.These items, offering seven response options ("never" to "several times a week"), addressed activities such as cultural habits, leisure activities outside the home, television programs watched, sports activities, and religious practices.
Responses to selected items for the study of the availability of media assets in the student's home involved a dichotomous choice.The items addressed resources of digital media, print media, and digital equipment.The exploratory procedure showed the existence of two scales: availability of media resource (8 items; H=0.44 and reliability of 0.74) and availability of books (2 items; H=0.37 and reliability of 0.31).
The socioeconomic and demographic profile of the students was observed by asking the usual questions such as those on sex, age, ethnicity/race, education of mother and father, and households, and followed the formula used in the national demographic surveys.These questions, except the last, gave rise to indicator variables in the regression models.The list of households resulted in the creation of a range of economic levels for the students (8 items, H=0.28 and reliability of 0.68).
Questions about student perceptions of violence at school followed the pattern of the evaluation of basic education in Brazil (Saeb and Prova Brasil -both administered by the Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira of the Ministry of Education).The set of items chosen for the study of perception formed a scale called "school violence related to the student" (6 items, H=0.43 and reliability of 0.65).

Results
This section presents and discusses two linear regression models.First we describe the dependent variables frequency of computer uses and abilities in the use of computers and the internet.We show how the scale variables were constructed and present their statistical properties.The variables are discussed in relation to other media studies.Then the regression models are described and their consequences discussed.
In the analysis of the data, violence perception by the students and strata did not show significant results in any of the regressions.In the same way, the relation between age and abilities in the use of computer and internet was not significant, except in reference to school delays which were related to age and to students' grades.

Types of computer and internet use
Students participating in the survey were mostly of 14 and 15 years of age (71%).Male students form 51% of the sample.Figure 1 shows the cross distribution of sex by age group.As can be seen, females are the majority among the younger students while males are the majority among the students left behind the modal group of 15 years of age.More than 70% of the students said that they have been using computers for more than three years and that they use them mostly at home, where 47% had broad band internet connection and 15% had dial-up connection.The pattern of computer use at school must be noted, 68% of the students declaring that they never use a computer at school. Figure 2 shows the cross distribution of computer use at school (never, rarely, more than once a month) and the time the student said they've been using computers.There were no significant differences between genders in the use of computers, except with regard to online games: 43.2% of boys said they played online games intensively, while only 16.5% of the girls reported the same.Girls were more likely than boys to use the Internet for activities related to photography.This difference is not, however, explained in the literature, so it requires new research.
Although coming from the poorer classes with parents who, for the most part, have not completed high school, these young people make frequent use of digital technologies in their homes.More than half of them have broadband at home and only 30.6% reported using a computer in public spaces.Computers and the Internet are still very expensive in Brazil and the significance of their presence in the homes of low income families should be noted.It is believed that this is due to two interrelated factors; one is merchandising in character and the other is of a social nature.While, on the one hand, politically and economically, digital technologies are associated with academic achievement and professional success, on the other hand, children and young people seem to now have a sense of belonging associated with online communication and participation.Almost all advertising for computers and internet providers is anchored in the phrase "web access" and equates it to "career success".Moreover, youth culture feeds the argument that "those who are not online, do not exist".It is thus up to the family to provide access to the internet to ensure that the younger people have both a promising future and a social life.Kredens and Fontar (2010) show that, regardless of age, 93% of the activities connected to the Internet were performed at home.The preferred online platforms for most of them were Facebook, YouTube, and MSN; however, 340 other sites also appeared on the list of favorites.According to the authors, even though they share common practices, young people do not all play the same games or visit the same music sites.That led them to believe that the internet can help reconcile the demands of different groups with varying personal preferences and interests.
Mediappro ( 2006) sought to identify uses, appropriations, and representations of young people related to the new media in nine European countries and concluded that the use of the internet is universalized.In analyzing the data, they highlighted another important issue: the fact that young people indicate that they learn more about the uses and computer skills at home, either with friends, siblings or parents (Mediappro, 2006).
Both studies highlight the gap between the use of the computer and the Internet at school and at home.The young people who were surveyed access the Internet primarily from home and the authors argue that this difference in use is evident in terms of frequency, access, regulation, learning, skills development, and the type of activity.Youth and Media Research identifies only 3.4% of students using computers at school "several times a week", "once a day" or "several times a day (every day)".
The European research mentioned above and the results of this Brazilian study indicate a low frequency in the use of computers and the Internet for activities that involve acquisition of new knowledge and creative and autonomous learning.For participants in this survey, searching for information relating to the nature of school knowledge and education, using educational programs, writing texts to produce new content and activities, and preparing presentations seemed to be infrequent activities.
In this study, 27% of the students who answered the questionnaire said that they use educational programs to learn school subjects, 30.4% said they often use the computer to do their homework, and 26.8% reported using the technique of "cutting and pasting" text from the Internet to do their homework.
Table 1 presents a description of the lower end of the scale measuring the frequency of computer use.The five least popular items are shown along the percentage of responses in the lower end of the Likert scale of response options.The popularity of items are measured by the items means, that is, the sum of all responses (with the 7 point Likert scale coded numerically from 0 to 6) divided by the number of respondents.This shows students behavior in relation to activities less frequently undertaken.The complete scale of computer uses, with the statistics of scalability, is presented in the appendix.The fact that the use of educational programs ranks among the lowest seems to be consistent with the answer on the use of computers at school: 68% of the students said that they never use the computer at school.Another activity that is less frequent is the reading or downloading of digital books, which may be associated with unfamiliarity with the practice of online reading.
There is no empirical evidence of correlation between the low use of computers and the Internet at school and the low frequency of their use for educational activities.However, it does not seem absurd to assume that there is at least an absence of mediation by the schools in favor of this aspect of learning.
This study indicates young people tend to use the Internet for social activities and entertainment, as shown in Table 2, which presents a description of the higher end of the scale measuring the frequency of computer uses.This shows students behavior in relation to the most popular or most practiced items.
This preference suggests a fine delineation of a boundary between the online and offline world.If being in touch with friends and colleagues for as long as possible, talking, listening to music, and watching movies have a high priority in the lives of young people, it is not surprising that the stress is higher on the use of the internet for online activities that involve communication and entertainment.Keeping in mind the activities of youth, the results of the Youth and Media research are similar to those obtained by Kredens and Fontar (2010)."Communication via Skype, MSN, or others" is an activity carried out by 67% of young Brazilians and has the highest frequency (once a day; several times a day /every day) as compared to 75% of French young people, who have online discussions as one of their favorite activities.It is worth emphasizing that the data of the Mediappro survey were collected between 2005 and 2006, when social networking sites had started to expand.This can be one of the reasons why the use of computers to access social networks does not appear among the five preferred and more common activities of young people in that study; the use of "search engines" was most common among the young people (98%) who participated in that research.

Skills involved in the use of a computer and the internet
We define skills in this context as specific abilities needed for the efficient use of available resources on the computer and the internet.Table 3 presents the five tasks perceived as most difficult for which Brazilian students reported lower levels of skill.The difficulty of a task is measured by the item's mean, that is, the sum of all responses (with the 5 point Likert scale coded numerically from 0 to 4) divided by the number of respondents.The table also presents the percentage of responses on the two options indicating lowest abilities.The complete scale of computer skills with the statistics of scalability are presented in the appendix.
Table 4 presents the tasks perceived by students as the easiest, measured by averaging the responses to the item mean.The table also includes the percentage of the responses to the two options indicating the highest abilities.
The ability to multitask appears as the ability with the highest level of response among the young people surveyed, it being an important cognitive skill that, according to Jenkins, is part of the "New Literacies required by 'convergence culture'" (Livingstone, 2009, p. 83).It should also be noted that, for these young people, the Internet is a strong relationship tool, as observed in the Bevort synthesis report on the study conducted by Fréquence Ecoles (Kredens & Fontar, 2010, p.16).
In the Final Report by Mediappro (2006), the researchers say that despite the vaunted creative use of the internet, only a minority of the young people surveyed said that they had the skills to create and maintain their own blogs and websites.The same was also observed in the research reported here.

Discussion: explaining uses and skills
This section presents and discusses two linear regression models.The first model describes how the scale of computer use is related to the context variables and to the variables of the students' behavior.The second model describes how the scale of computer abilities is related to these same explanatory variables.This modeling allows an initial exploratory analysis of the similarities and differences in the explanations of computer utilization and computer skills of the students surveyed.
The correlation between "Use" and "Skill" is statistically significant (p=0.000) with a value of 0.57.As expected, the survey did not identify students who use computers a lot but have a low level of skill.However, the opposite is observed; for the highest levels of skill, the survey did identify students who said that they make little use of the computer.This reflects the fact that the distribution widens with increasing skill level.
In both models, seven context variables were transformed into dummy variablesstratification, sex, age, color/race, mother's education, father's education, and the length of time the student uses the computer.Below all dummies are described with their coded names in parenthesis.
The five strata generated four dummies: small schools near favelas (FP_d); large schools far from favelas (NFG_d); small schools far from favelas (NFP_d) and a special group of large well equipped schools (PM_d).Large schools near favelas, with the largest number of students surveyed, were used as a reference group.
The variable "sex" generated an indicator variable for female students (fem_d), with the male students as the reference group.The variable "age" generated five indicator variables created to reflect how the students were positioned in relation to the modal age of 15 years.Thus students could be one, two, three or more years behind (at1_d, at2_d, at3_d), one or two years ahead (av1_d and av2_d).The reference group was the mode, students with 15 years of age.In the variable "color/race," the color brown (the mode of the variable) was used as reference in the regression.So it generated three dummies for the students "color/race", white (bran_d), yellow (am_d), and black (pret_d).
The variables "mother's education" and "father's education" generated four dummy variables each: never studied (m0an_d and p0an_d), studied up to five years (m5an_d and p5an_d), studied up to nine years (m9an_d and p9an_d), and had college education (msup_d and psup_d).The reference was a group of mothers and fathers with high school education, in both cases the modal groups.
The variable "how long the student uses the computer for" generated three dummy variables: used for less than one year (me1a_d), used for more than one year but not more than three years (ma1a_d), and used for more than three years (ma3a_d).The reference group was the mode, students that had used a computer for more than five years.
So, the reference group in both regression models was the male students, 15 years old, with brown skin, having a mother and a father with high school education and who have been using the computer for more than five years.These were the modal cases among the respondents.
The regression models also included 16 ordinal or continuous scale variables describing various social, economic, cultural, and psychological conditions of the respondents.Four of these variables describe the frequency of computer use in four types of location: at school (usa_escola), at home (usa_casa), at a friend's home (usa_amigo), and in a cyber café or public place (usa_locpub).These ordinal variables were obtained with a single question for each of them, with a seven point Likert scale of response options.
Six variables describe the frequency of several practices that the respondent declared to do in his free time outside school: cultivated culture (ptl_cult), leisure activities (ptl_lazer), sports (ptl_sport), use of cellular phone (ptl_celul), watching television (ptl_telev), and religious activities (ptl_relig).Three variables on the availability of certain media resources were also included: electronic media (disp_midia), newspapers (disp_journ), and books (disp_livr).One variable on the ownership of household goods was included as a proxy for economic status.Finally, two variables on violence in schools were include, one related to violence among students (viol_alun) and another related to violence between students and teachers (viol_prof).These variables were all obtained through a mokken scale analysis of blocs of items.All scales demonstrated good scalability properties as measured by the usual statistics of non parametric item response theory.The details of each scale are not presented but can be obtained from the authors upon request.
In the regression models all 16 ordinal or continuous variables entered as a z-score obtained from the total score.The results showing only the statistically significant effects on the models of linear regression of the frequency of computer use and the skill reported by the students in the use of computers are summarized in Tables 5 and 6 below.The complete models are show in the appendix.
It was observed that the strata have no significant influence on either the pattern of computer usage or on the levels of skills required in the use of computers.This stratification which was so important in sociological models explaining proficiency in mathematics and language showed little effect here.The distribution of computer uses and skills is quite homogeneous along the strata.With regard to these two aspects of the relationship of the students with the computer, the schools seem to be quite similar.The gender inequality prevalent in Brazilian society is reflected in these results.With respect to this variable, it was found that girls use the computer less frequently, but are at par with boys where computer skills are concerned.However, when the latter scale is restricted to the items that measured technological skills, thus defining a subscale of technological skills, girls have a significantly lower skill level than boys.
In Brazil, the number of male users of the internet (35.8%) is higher than the number of female users (33.9%) (PNAD, 2009).The Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br) in its research, ICT Education (2010), observed that, among the Brazilian students in the 9th grade, boys are the most intensive internet users (boys -45%, girls -41%).On the other hand, international research on internet use and abilities shows little difference in use and abilities between boys and girls (Sala & Chalezquer, 2008;Fontar & Kredens, 2010;McQuillan and d'Haenens (2009).Ito (2010) in her research Living and Learning with New Media observed that girls are more stigmatized when they are identified with geek practices, which are practices that demand a greater engagement as well as greater skills.These are practices defined as interest-oriented, which are carried out by those who also use the online world to explore interests and find information that go beyond what they have access to at school or in their local communities.The online groups allow these youngsters to keep in touch with people who have similar interests or belong to niches such as online games, creative writing, or video editing.
The race/color factor does not show any significant effect on computer use.However, declaring themselves as being white has a positive effect on their skills.Although this effect had the lowest effect among all variables as measured by the standardized coefficients, it was not included in the descriptive tables (Tables 5 and 6).
With respect to the different age groups represented by the dummy coding of the children left behind in schooling, the only one that has an influence on computer use is the one with individuals who have a delay of three or more years in relation to the regular age of 15 years.With respect to skills, all three levels of discrepancy are significant and the delay of three or more years in relation to regular age (behind 3 years) has a strong negative effect.When examining the effect of age with respect to the subscales of skills, it was observed that social skill is affected by the three levels of delay, educational skill is affected by the two higher levels of delay, and technological skill is affected only by a delay of three or more years.
A negative correlation was observed between age/grade gap and skills.There is a significant relationship between school delays and abilities in the use of computer, i.e., the more delayed a student is, the less able he/she will be.This can be a result of the effect of low self-esteem from recurring failure.According to Crahay (2006), in his study of the effects of failure in the school life of students, failure produces a negative effect in learning ability and generates low self-esteem in those who are required to repeat a grade.In addition to this, the study suggests that the successful acquisition of school knowledge can play a significant role in the development of these skills.The education (schooling) of the father and the mother were not important for explaining either of the two measures -use and skill -under study.Their influence was not significant in the analysis of technological, educational, and social skill scales.The absence of parental education having an influence on skill suggests that parents may no longer be mediators in the relationship that young people establish with technologies.
The variable on the frequency of computer use in different places presents interesting results.Computers are rarely used in schools, as mentioned before.However, the use of computers in schools has a positive influence (p=0.000) on the frequency of use and a strong positive influence (p=0.033) on abilities, suggesting that the school may have a significant role in the use of computers for different tasks.In fact, with respect to the use of computers, all variables relating to the place of use (school, house, a friend's house, or a public place) are significant and positive.On the other hand, using a computer at a friend's home is irrelevant to the abilities but using it in public places has a negative effect.
What the student does in his or her free time has an influence on computer use and skills.Three of the variables (activities connected to cultivated culture, leisure activities outside home, and using a cell phone in free time) have a positive influence on use and skills.Sports related activities show a positive effect on use but not on skills.Religious activities do not have any influence.Watching TV shows a significant effect only as far as skills are concerned.
The availability of media resources also shows a uniform effect on both dependent variables.The availability of electronic media has a strong positive effect on both use and skills, the same applying to the availability of books.On the other hand, the availability of newspapers and magazines was not deemed significant.
The positive correlation between the development of skills and the presence of media and books at home, as well as cultural activities (visits to museums, cultural centers, movies, theatre shows, etc.) suggests the need to reduce social differences, which would, in turn, make these resources accessible to all.
The basic economic variable, built to reflect the possession of household goods, does not show any effect on use and skills and is not included in the above tables.
The variables of violence, measuring the students' perception of episodes of violence involving students and teachers, were found to be insignificant.However, the few students who reported more episodes of violence in school tend to have significantly higher computer skills (p=0.018).This correlation needs to be further explored in future studies.However, with the data generated in this study, which relate primarily to verbal abuse, a consistent interpretation cannot be made.

Conclusions
The results obtained from the lower classes of young students studying in public schools in the city of Rio de Janeiro, (the social class that now attends public schools in Brazil), and from European countries with higher socioeconomic levels suggest that perhaps we are faced with a phenomenon that is, paradoxically, universal and particular.Ways of using digital media and the skills developed from these uses are very similar amongst young people from different countries, different socioeconomic levels, and different levels of schooling even if the conditions of access to these media are unequal.
One way to understand this phenomenon is to take it as a result of a smaller impact of factors related to social class in relation to young people with Information Technology (IT) skills that correlate with the acquisition of school knowledge.Sociological research on educational inequalities has shown, for more than half a century, the strong effect of social origin, in particular parents' education, on the academic performance of students.However, studies on the use of IT skills performed in Europe (Livingstone, 2009) found a strong similarity in the use and skills of digital technologies among children and young people whose parents had different education levels, with the exception of the skills that relate to the secure use of the internet.
In the study that led to this paper, indicator variables of social origin, such as possession of durable goods and parental education, were not significant in the analysis of the factors that interfere with the ability of young people to t use the computer and internet.A possible explanation may be a result of "worldhood" (Ortiz, 1994), of digital culture, which means that there are global processes transcending groups, social classes, and nations.These processes are centered on culture, that is, appropriation that is relatively unique, at the domestic level, but is common to a world of meanings, symbols, and icons associated with the use of digital media.Digital culture can be understood as a particular form of culture; a play of the forces of globalization configured as organizational practices and skills that are invested with a high symbolic value and are, therefore, distinctive (Bourdieu, 1979).
Another possibility of understanding the phenomenon is in the fact that learning to use digital media occurs essentially in collaborative relationship between peers.The results from the Youth and Media study (like the other studies mentioned above) suggest that the most significant gain of using the computer and the Internet among the young people surveyed is seen in the context of sociability, which is understood as transmission of knowledge and values among peers.Peer learning is driven primarily by the absence of a hierarchy between the teacher and learner and by interaction between people with different skill levels.The students thus interact as equals to learn new things and are recognized at the same time for things they already know.This form of socialization and interaction has a value in itself and the satisfaction of being together takes precedence over the ends (Simmel, 1983).Young computer and Internet users learn with each other to use the machine's resources and networks efficiently and economically as well as to learn the rules of interaction and communication in digital environments.For Kredens & Fontar (op.cit.), among young people "[a] sphere of friends is without doubt the first way to find the news network" (p.6).This can also be one of the factors responsible for the strong similarities found in empirical studies on digital media skills among young people from different countries and cultures.
These results suggest that maybe the focus for school mediation should not be the pedagogic-didactic use of IT in the classroom, but the creation by teachers of activities that are focused on collaborative tasks and learning in pairs.This will require new research focusing on the adoption of instruments and criteria for the evaluation of both individual and collective gains.
We work with the hypothesis that the majority of abilities related to the use of computers and the internet are connected to the development of the abstract/reflexive thinking that depends on teaching.From this standpoint, we believe there is a mistake in the design of the policies to provide access with the purpose of fostering the use of IT in school environments.Even if teachers and students must know and master information technologies, the main objective of introducing those in schools is not to promote access; the main task of the school in the 21 st century is to create favorable conditions for the development of necessary learning abilities aiming at students' autonomous intellectual use with the purpose of acquiring knowledge and participating in the public sphere.This means that maybe the most adequate way to achieve this is the implementation of educational policies that consider self-developed abilities.At the same time, those policies have to allow for the development of teaching activities in the mediation of the students' relationship with media considering the acquisition of school knowledge and the safe use of internet.The schools' duty today is fundamentally to create strategies that favor the development of these abilities, such as the evaluation of the level of reliability of information, interpretation and production of content using different languages, self-narrative and narrative of the other, among others.
The significant effect (0.092***) of cultural consumption on t computer abilities and internet use suggests the urgency for policies focused on the broadening of access to cultural assets in the country, as well as the fostering in the school curriculum of forms of knowledge other than scientific knowledge.
Projects that pursue the implementation of cultural equipment in areas where there are none, such as peripheral areas from major cities and small cities in the country side, may contribute directly to the development of abilities in the use of digital media among youth.Thereby, cultural policy is as important as technological investment in schools.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU USED A COMPUTER FOR?
(A) Less than one year.
(C) More than three years.(B) More than one year.

HOW MANY OF THE ITEMS BELOW DO YOU HAVE?
(Select only one option for each line) ITEmS HOW MANY? 1) Rooms (apart from the bedroom).

Figure 1 .Figure 2 .
Figure 1.Histogram of the cross distribution, in percentages, of sex by age groups of the students in the sample

Table 1
Activities less frequently undertaken by students (i.e. with lowest item means) and the percentage of responses on the lower end of the Likert scale Note: Puc-Rio/Mast-Research Youth and media: school and social factors, 2009

Table 2
Activities more frequently performed by students (i.e. with higher item means) and the percentage of responses on the higher end of the Likert scale Puc-Rio/Mast-Research Youth and media: school and social factors, 2009

Table 3
Tasks in which students had lower skill levels (lowest items means) and the percentage of responses on the low end of the Likert scale

Table 3 (
Cont'd.)Tasks in which students had lower skill levels (lowest items means) and the percentage of responses on the low end of the Likert scale

Table 4
Tasks in which students had the highest skill levels (highest items means) and the percentage of responses on the high end of the Likert scale

Table 5
Linear regression model for the frequency of computer use

Table 6
Linear regression model for computer skills

Table A3
The complete scale of computer use with the items in order of popularity, starting with the less popular or more difficult items, as measured by the item mean M. The last column contains the scalonability H a measure of discrimination of the item Metric properties of the scale: H is the scalonability of the MoKKen Theory = 0.32; Ro is the reliability Mokken Theory = 0.90; Alpha is the Cronbach reliability of the Classical Test Theory = 0.89. Note:

Table A4 :
The complete scale of computer ability with the items in order of popularity, starting with the less popular or more difficult items, as measured by the item mean M. The last column contains the scalonability H a measure of discrimination of the item Metric properties of the scale: H is the scalonability of the MoKKen Theory = 0.41; Ro is the reliability Mokken Theory = 0.92; Alpha is the Cronbach reliability of the Classical Test Theory = 0.91.