The impact of literacy on intention to use digital technology for learning: A comparative study of Korea and Finland

Information and communications technology (ICT) and digital technologies are being actively used for education, and the ICT-enabled education market continues to grow. The recent COVID-19 pandemic situation is undoubtedly very stressful, because all teaching and learning activities have been forced to move online. This is an international comparative study examining the effects of 21st century skills (e.g., digital and information literacy) on intention to use digital technologies for learning in Korea and in Finland. To conduct a rigorous comparison of the two countries, this paper conducts an empirical study on 194 Korean and 192 Finnish young people in their 20s and 30s. A theory-based conceptual model is devised to examine the differences between Korean and Finnish respondents’ ICT usage using Structural equation modelling (SEM). The SEM results showed that information literacy has a direct effect on the intention to use digital technologies for learning in Korea and Finland. The higher information literacy is directly related to higher intention to use digital technology for learning with a small effect. The effect of digital literacy on intention to use technologies is fully mediated through the habit and performance expectancy with a medium effect. In addition, this study used multigroup analysis (MGA) to examine whether the impact of digital literacy and information literacy on intention to use digital technology for learning differed between Korean and Finnish respondents. Based on these results, recommendations for prospect research and theoretical and practical implications are discussed.