Beyond school: The role of technology in K-12 students' lives and informal learning

The lives of children and teenagers are saturated with digital environments with multi-purpose uses and satisfy various needs. This study aims to expose the significance they attribute to their activities, to find out how these activities meet their needs, and to discuss their relevance to the field of child-computer interaction. The study is based on a qualitative approach, raising the voices of 29 K-12 students. The findings' analysis combined a bottom-up thematic analysis with a top-down analysis based on the Uses and Gratifications Theory. The bottom-up thematic analysis revealed three themes: the centrality of social networks, gaming culture, and new skills across digital platforms. The top-down analysis reveals a new range of present-day uses and gratifications: security needs lead to discretion and different usage modes. The research revealed that using digital environments entails informal learning, ample visual language use, acquisition of knowledge, and identity development.