Study of French elementary school students' skills and representations in ICT, the origins and means of acquiring them

Our research has been directed at the study of the use, skills and performance of ten year old pupils in regard to their usage of software such word processing, web based search engines and messaging software. We have for this purpose, conducted a field survey among more than 200 pupils. The results of this research reveal that they are gradually getting familiar with the use of external memory drives, messaging software and the skills required for computer use. We observed that most pupils have some proficiency in using word processing software and research engines. Most of their computer skills are often acquired in out of the classroom context or from family members.