A study of the Millennial Generation regarding information and communication technology literacy levels and comfort levels with digital life environments

Purpose. The purpose of my study was to determine to what degree there was a significant difference in the Millennial Generation's (MG's) information and communication technology (ICT) literacy levels and comfort levels with digital life environments (DLE) before and after they took introductory computer courses. In addition, I sought to determine to what degree there was a significant difference between the MG's ICT literacy levels and comfort levels with DLE with regard to ethnicity and gender before and after they took introductory computer courses.; Method. I selected a sample population from a state supported university in Texas and compared the MG's ICT literacy levels and comfort levels with DLE before and after taking traditional introductory computer courses. A self-report questionnaire was distributed twice to the MGs who were enrolled in a traditional introductory computer course. A total of 800 usable samples were stratified based on ethnicity and gender. An Independent t test, and MANOVA were used to determine the differences. In addition, a follow-up procedure was also performed with an ANOVA and a Discriminant Analysis to test my findings.; Findings. My findings indicated that introductory computer courses do improve the MG's information and communication technology literacy levels and their comfort levels with digital life environment in several sub-populations. Based on the results, African-American students had the most significant improvement in ICT literacy levels when compared to other groups. Hispanic students also had a significant increase in ICT literacy levels and their comfort levels in DLE. White/Non-Hispanic students were ranked as having the second highest ICT literacy levels among the groups and had a significantly positive result in 12 out of 13 ICT items. Furthermore, there was a significant gender difference in ICT literacy levels before the introductory computer course was taken. After taking the course, females had lower ICT literacy levels than males but not at a significant level; however, though not statistically different, females had a higher comfort level with DLE than their male counterparts did.; Key words. Millennial Generation, Information and communication technology, Technology, Digital life environments, Comfort levels with technology, Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Higher education, Introductory Computer courses, Computer courses, Computers.