Högskolan i Skövde

In the age of the Internet and a changing semiotic landscape, reading and writing become increasingly complex activities in school. ICT have to be considered as a partner in the daily pedagogies. Digital media and new forms of communication are of great interest for literacy researches, particularly within the area of research that has come to be called New literacies. This article presents the results of a survey in which we asked 320 pupils about their use of information technology as part of daily literacy activities in and outside school. The study is inspired by an American study among young adolescents in New York (Agee & Altarriba 2009), but based on a wider range of ages: between 10-16 years. Our results show some significant differences in the pupils’ literacy activities based on factors such as gender, age, and attitudes towards reading and writing. Of particular interest is one group that distinguishes itself by having a negative attitude to reading and writing even though spending much time on digital literacies in and outside school.