Technology skill development among education majors

Abstract

This study sought to determine the influence that numerous variables have on the technology skill development of education majors. The study investigated how the participants' age, gender, race, ethnicity, level of comfort with technology, and learning style(s) correlated with their level of digital literacy. The results revealed that level of verbal-linguistic intelligence significantly correlated with the subjects' level of digital literacy, whereas the other seven multiple intelligence variables did not yield significant findings. Further statistical analysis demonstrated that each of the multiple intelligence variables (including level of verbal-linguistic intelligence) had a weak correlation with level of digital literacy when isolated from the other variables. Each one of the independent variables was found to be a poor predictor of the education majors' technology capabilities. Therefore, this article suggests that these variables (age, gender, level of prior technology use, etc.) should not be relied upon to predict a student's technology skills.