Internet research: an analysis of the digital competences of gifted students

ABSTRACT

With the spread of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and the ease of access to the internet, we cannot ignore that today’s students are immersed in a digital culture, marked by interactivity and a flow of information. Considering these students’ abilities to search, select, and share information, it is possible to think about and investigate how gifted students relate to ICT and the large volume of information available on the internet. Through this perspective, it is necessary to identify the skills that are specific to these students and those that are common to all digital natives, so that we can guide them and help them develop digital skills. The aim of this study is to verify if gifted and non-gifted students present digital competences related to information processing. This is a comparative study between gifted students and standard development students attending elementary school. Based on the results, we have found that most students in both groups had no concerns about the sources of research used and had not exploited enough the resources available on research sites. We emphasize that the search for information is one of the most basic skills within the digital competence, since a well-conducted research leads to safer sources of research, granting greater reliability for the information found.

Keywords:
Precocity; Giftedness; Digital competencies; Internet research