Chilean student teachers' purposes of use of digital technologies: Construction of a scale based on digital competences

The acquisition of digital competences enables people's active development in different areas of society. In the case of many young people, and especially among future teachers, this acquisition is obtained through the daily use of digital technologies. Having instruments to measure digital competences associated to different purposes of use can contribute to provide feedback on the acquisition of these competences during initial teacher training processes. The aim of this study was to construct and psychometrically analyze the Scale of Purposes of Use and Digital Competences (EPUCD, by its acronym in Spanish). A sample of 618 student teachers from two Chilean universities answered a questionnaire that measures academic, entertainment, social and economic uses, considering DigComp as a digital competence framework. The statistical procedures carried out (EFA, CFA, composite reliability and average variance extracted) allowed to obtain appropriate evidences of this instrument's structural and discriminant validity and internal consistency. The acceptable psychometric properties of EPUCD allow to provide an instrument for the academic community that contributes to reveal how future teachers use these digital technologies, offering feedback on the initial teacher training process.