Generational differences are seen as the cause of wide shifts in our ability to engage with technologies and the concept of the digital native has gained popularity in certain areas of policy and practice. This paper provides evidence, through the analysis of a nationally representative survey in the UK, that generation is only one of the predictors of advanced interaction with the Internet. Breadth of use, experience, gender and educational levels are also important, indeed in some cases more important than generational differences, in explaining the extent to which people can be defined as a digital native. The evidence provided suggests that it is possible for adults to become digital natives, especially in the area of learning, by acquiring skills and experience in interacting with information and communication technologies. This paper argues that we often erroneously presume a gap between educators and students and that if such a gap does exist, it is definitely possible to close it.

The first special issue of Learning, Media and Technology of 2020, entitled 'Education and technology into the 2020s: speculative futures', presented a series of papers looking to the future of critical research on educational technologies. As we write, just a few months later, with the coronavirus pandemic sweeping around the world, the future appears more uncertain than ever. Global infection and illness, population lockdowns, and mass closures of educational institutions have engulfed countries across the planet in the short time between issues of this journal.The global pandemic is of course not only a serious public health emergency, but a political, economic and social emergency too. Scholarship across myriad disciplines in years to come will examine the medical, political, economic and social factors defining our present moment. Many of these issues will be of interest to readers of Learning, Media and Technology. They include political manoeuvring in relation to the pandemic, from misinformation and economic measures to policies of social distancing, quarantining and isolation; the use and misuse of large-scale data, statistics and visualizations; new forms of digitally mediated work, culture and personal life; surveillance systems for 'contact tracing'; the use of predictive epidemiological modelling; the development of techniques for better public understanding of science; and the political use of behavioural economics as a public pedagogy of population management. Future papers in this journal will be written in the context of changes currently being experienced at planetary scale, and potentially dramatic shifts in the relationships between science, technology and society.In one key area we feel Learning, Media and Technology can and should make a more direct contribution to knowledge and practice during the COVID-19 pandemic: the switch to online and digital education formats and the rise of 'remote' forms of teaching and learning as a consequence of mass closures of schools, colleges and universities. In this moment of pandemic politics, where contests are being fought at multiple scales and levels over the ways to handle and resolve the crisis, distance education has become a widespread matter of concern for political authorities, education businesses, charities, teachers, parents and students alike. Education has become an emergency matter, and along with it, educational technologies have been positioned as a frontline emergency service. In recent years Learning, Media and Technology has become a key publication for critical studies of education and technology. Other outlets have responded to the rapid switch to online education with useful guidance, advice, and references to extant research from promising studies that might support educators to make the best of this new educational emergency. But the need remains for critical reflection on the planetary pivot to digitally mediated remote and distance education.We have no wish to denigrate or criticize online distance education, but rather, the ai...

Although a number of instruments have been used to measure Internet skills in nationally representative surveys, there are several challenges with the measures available: incompleteness and over-simplification, conceptual ambiguity, and the use of self-reports. Here, we aim to overcome these challenges by developing a set of reliable measures for use in research, practice, and policy evaluations based on a strong conceptual framework. To achieve this goal, we carried out a literature review of skills related studies to develop the initial Internet skills framework and associated instrument. After the development of this instrument, we used a three-fold approach to test the validity and reliability of the latent skill constructs and the corresponding items. The first step consisted of cognitive interviews held in both the UK and the Netherlands. Based on the cognitive interview results, we made several amendments to the proposed skill items to improve clarity. The second step consisted of a pilot survey of digital skills, both in the UK and in the Netherlands. During the final step, we examined the consistency of the five Internet skill scales and their characteristics when measured in a representative sample survey of Dutch Internet users. The result is a theoretical, empirically and cross nationally consistent instrument consisting of five types of Internet skills: operational, navigation information, social, creative, and mobile.

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Distinct Skill Pathways to Digital EngagementThere is considerable variety in the type of activities that people undertake online (Dutton & Blank, 2011) and a number of inter-related individual and contextual explanations for why these differences exist. Two well documented factors are socio-demographic background and ICT related skills. Yet, despite the clear links between digital literacy and digital inclusion research, these two areas of research rarely come together. While digital literacy studies have been concerned with identifying different types of digital skills and Internet use; digital inclusion research mostly examines the links between individual characteristics and engagement with the Internet using a single skills measure. Thus, we know relatively little about how the range of different digital skills may vary due to the different socio economic and demographic backgrounds of internet users. Furthermore, even in digital literacy studies little work has been conducted to understand if certain types of digital skills are related to different kinds of digital engagement or the extent to which digital skills in one realm will transfer across to many kinds of online activities. We argue that this is caused by measurement issues and a lack of an integrated theory that combines different approaches to understanding the relationships between digital skills and engagement with ICTs. This paper uses data from the 2011 Oxford Internet Surveys (OxIS) to explore these issues in the UK context.

This paper considers how educational interventions should be evaluated for their effectiveness. Five levels of effectiveness are clarified and illustrated: outcomes, behaviour, learning, reaction and participation. These levels are then discussed, within the context of research evidence for education within the medical profession. Methodological and practical research conclusions are then drawn. From an analysis of over 300 abstracts the evidence shows that only limited research on healthcare outcomes has been undertaken, and there is considerable ambiguity over what constitutes an effectiveness measure. The benefits of a consistent set of terms are then considered. Finally, five key messages are distilled from the discussion and summarized.

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The Internet is an increasingly popular medium for delivering educational material. The aim of this study was to determine the attitudes of students and their clinical teachers to the use of the Internet within a dental school in the UK. Questionnaires were distributed to undergraduate dental students in the three clinical years and to all their clinical academic teachers. All students and staff have access to computers and Internet at the university. The majority (72%) of students have access to a computer and 53% also have access to the Internet at home. Of the academic staff, 91% have a computer and 68% have access to the Internet at home. The reasons for use of the Internet differed between staff and students. Whilst equal proportions of students used the Internet for dentistry (38%) and for pleasure (35%), a higher proportion of staff used the Internet more for dentistry (36%) than for pleasure (14%). Students highlighted cost and time as barriers to Internet use, whereas staff lacked confidence in their ability to use the Internet. Less than half (44%) of the students are confident in the accuracy of information from the Internet compared to almost two-thirds (64%) of staff. This study revealed differences in the attitudes of staff and students to the use of Internet as a resource for dentistry. Students are positive to the suggestion that lectures should be presented on the web. Most students (74%) did not see that this would influence attendance at lectures whilst 91% of staff stated that it would decrease lecture attendance. In conclusion, this study revealed differences in the attitudes of staff and students to the use of Internet as a resource for dentistry.