Influence of digital literacy on student performance: A conceptual framework

21st century learning requires students to develop the necessary skills, knowledge, and attitude to meet the demands of jobs in the digital era. Therefore, most school curriculums have been embedded with technology to facilitate these competencies. However, past studies have found that despite the many benefits of using technology in the educational setting, many students still lack digital literacy skills. Digital literacy is a must in the current educational setting as it enables students to organise, manage, and evaluate information using digital technologies in a responsible manner. Digital literacy also boosts student performance and motivation. This paper proposes a conceptual framework of digital literacy that can influence student performance. Preliminary research was conducted with two secondary school teachers from Klang Valley. The data obtained was supported by literature review, and used to develop a proposed framework which has three dimensions: individual factors, learning environment factors, and sociocultural factors as these factors were found to influence digital literacy and student performance. It is hoped that this framework can be used to investigate the factors of digital literacy amongst students and their influence on students' learning performance. This endeavour will also support the initiative taken by the Ministry of Education (MOE) Malaysia to prepare students for 21st century learning, in addition to aligning the education system with Malaysia's Education Blueprint 2013-2025.