Digital literacy of schoolchildren and teachers: A comparative analysis

The article considers digital literacy as a fundamental component of the media competence development. The study of the history of the issue and analysis of the existing theories showed that the research focus on the digital literacy of the adult population and do not take into account minors who demonstrate the highest interest in media technologies. The authors develop a theory of the deep mediation of the social space and argue that the indicators of digital literacy of schoolchildren should correlate with the data on teachers, who, according to the contemporary educational strategy, are responsible for increasing the media competence of society - starting from the media-oriented courses in school. In 2019, the authors conducted a survey “Media competence of schoolchildren and teachers” (N=500+500) in 10 cities of the Volga Federal District with the lowest digital literacy index. Based on the results of the comparative analysis, the article identifies a number of challenges in the field of media literacy, in particular digital literacy, and the main one is the digital divide between two generations (schoolchildren and teachers), which indicates a communication barrier that hinders interaction not only in education, but also in the social space. While schoolchildren demonstrate high interest in media technologies, their teachers seem not to be interested in media technologies not only in professional activities but also in everyday life. The authors believe that the inverse correlation of the digital literacy levels of schoolchildren and teachers prevents the harmonious development of the media competence in the Russian society.