Digital Literacies in Education: Navigating Reading and Writing Skills Among Students in the 21st Century

Background/purpose. In the digital era, students are expected not only to consume but also to produce meaningful and context-aware digital content. However, variations in students’ writing styles and feature usage are often overlooked in both instruction and assessment. This study represents the first attempt to quantitatively examine how different digital writing styles—Structural, Expressive, and Hybrid—relate to students’ digital literacy performance in primary education. It also investigates the potential item bias across gender and the suitability of current assessment instruments.

Materials/methods. A total of 150 elementary school students completed digital writing tasks and a literacy test. Three advanced analytical techniques were employed: Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to cluster writing styles, Differential Item Functioning (DIF) to detect item bias by gender, and Rasch-based Wright Map modeling to assess the match between student ability and item difficulty. Heatmap visualization further explored feature usage across clusters.

Results. Three distinct writing style clusters were identified. The Hybrid group demonstrated the highest literacy scores and balanced structural-expressive feature use. DIF analysis found two items biased by gender. The Wright Map showed limited coverage for high-performing students. Heatmaps confirmed strategic differences in digital feature usage aligned with writing identity.

Conclusion. Digital writing is a strategic expression of students' literacy identities. Instruction and assessment must reflect this diversity through fairness-aware item design, differentiated feedback, and inclusive literacy models.

Keywords: digital literacy, reading, writing, education, multimodal texts, digital transformation, pedagogy

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