While the study of literacy and general life skills dates back some time, and ICT penetration and use have attracted much research in recent years, it has seldom been possible to combine the two.1 The Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALL), however, collected information on individuals’ use of and familiarity with ICTs in relation to general literacy skills. Using this new information source, largely based on survey respondents’ self-assessment of ICT use, perceptions of experience, and degree of comfort with ICTs, this study explores the relationship between ICT use and literacy skills. It begins by profiling individuals’ access to computers, the Internet and other ICTs. It then proceeds to investigate the relationship between ICT use and literacy skills, as well as to profile ICT use by individual characteristics, including age, gender, and educational attainment. Finally, outcomes associated with both the use of ICTs and literacy skills are explored. In many parts of the paper, results for Canada are compared with those of five other countries included in the ALL survey: the United States, Bermuda, Italy, Norway and Switzerland. In some sections, patterns are also examined at the provincial/territorial level to provide additional perspective for Canada.2
Following the commercial introduction of web browsers in 1993, Internet penetration in Canada was rapid. Although in 1996 only a very small number of households used the Internet from home (7.4%), by 2001 the penetration rate approached half of all households (48.7%) and by 2003 it reached 55%, while Internet use from any location reached 64% in 2003 (Statistics Canada 2004a). Growth was fast in the beginning3,particularly among high income households. In recent years, growth has slowed as the technology becomes more widely used and the potential pool of new users becomes smaller. As we shall see later in this section, Internet use among the highest income groups is very high, which means that much of the new growth in Internet penetration depends on households currently with low incomes.
Compared with Internet penetration, the growth of personal computer use has occurred over a longer time period and has been relatively stable, considering the computer’s appeal to specialized users in its early years. By the time the Internet had gained popularity, computers were no longer in their initial growth period (Sciadas 2002). Computer growth rose steadily from 16.3% of households in 1990 to two-thirds (66.8%) of households by 2003. The penetration rate for individuals reported in ALL is slightly higher (75.6%) than the household rate, in part because families with several members are more likely to have a computer than one-person households.
In terms of other ICTs, penetration of telephones and colour televisions is nearly universal in Canada, while penetration of VCRs has stabilized at high levels for some time. CD players were taken up at a slightly faster rate than the personal computer, while growth in the proportion of cable television subscribers has stagnated in Canada, in part due to competition from other service providers, including satellite (Chart 1).
1 Some recent studies have addressed relationships between ICT use and academic performance among students. The findings are mixed, with studies showing positive, negative, and neutral relationships between specific types of ICT use and student performance (Bussière and Gluszynski 2004, Fuchs and Woessmann 2004). A review of research suggests that it is not merely the availability of ICTs, but rather the quality and type of ICT use that is a key factor in performance (Bussière and Gluszynski 2004). While some studies emphasize the role of ICT skills in today’s society, others challenge their importance or relevance, in terms of labour market returns, for example (Borghans and ter Weel 2004). This study does not attempt to measure ICT skills directly, but rather compares individuals’ attitudes and intensity of use of ICTs with literacy skills.
2 For an international comparative report on ICT use and literacy skills from the same survey source, see Veenhof, Clermont and Sciadas (2005). For a national report with detailed results for Canada, see Statistics Canada and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (2005).
3 This rapid rate of growth of a new technology was not a new phenomenon. In fact, Internet penetration occurred more slowly than the penetration of television in the 1950s (Sciadas 2002).