La competencia digital de los preadolescentes gallegos/as antes de la pandemia: ¿y ahora qué?

The lockdown suffered in spring 2020 involved, among other changes, the widespread application of online training at all educational levels, highlighting not only problems related to technological resources and connectivity but also to students' formative deficiencies, such as a level development of the digital competence (DC) too limited to fulfil the ongoing challenges. In this context, we present the results of a study carried out in Galicia during the 2018-2019 academic year in order to delve into 6th-grade students' digital competence; a mixed methods research composed of a first qualitative phase, a multiple-case study, and a second one, quantitative, in which an assessment test of the DC was applied. The results attained show an average level of 5.96 out of 10 in DC, with an important difference between the two components of this punctuation; namely, knowledge and skills (M=5.10) and attitude (M=8.04). The case studies also allow us to observe: information-search processes carried out unsystematically and whose results are not adequately contrasted; differences between genders in the communicative area; scarce problem-solving skills; too basic content-creation strategies, and differences between teenagers’ attitude towards security and their actual behaviours. The conclusions stress the role of school in the development of DC in a digitalised future.