The Knowledge Society (Castells, 2000, 2011, 2012) demands a greater literacy of its citizens and allows for personal and professional development (Cantabrana, Minguell & Tedesco, 2015). Education and literacy must include not only reading, writing and calculus, but also the inclusion of digital skills; not only to be developed for students, but also for educators. Previous studies show that teacher training in ICT has not yet succeeded in equipping teachers with TPACK skills (Voogt et al., 2013) or in developing digital competence (Area, 2014; Aesart et al., 2015; Centeno-Moreno & Cubo, 2013). Technology-based Learning offers a large range of educational opportunities that would not occur in traditional style classrooms (Kalyuga & Liu, 2015). Previous research conducted (Kalyuga & Liu, 2015; Park et al., 2015) suggests that digital technologies and multimedia learning has a significant effect on a student’s emotional and metacognitive ability, positively mediating the learner and their learning experience. The increasing inclusion and development of digital technologies and the rise of new pedagogical approaches (Beetham et al, 2009;  Gutiérrez & Mikiewicz, 2013) contribute to a substantial change in the perception of education, where classroom teaching can now be complemented with academic expeditions in virtual spaces (Mikropoulos & Natsis, 2011). Although, in recent years, even though there have been many advancements and improvements in technology access and use in the classroom, other studies determine that the course-book is still the predominant resource used by teachers in education (Area et al., 2016). This raises the question as to what digital technologies are used in the classroom, in free time and project-work scenarios of secondary education students, whether educators minimising the digital divide between school and home life.  This paper aims to describe the findings of a quantitative methodology study with a descriptive design that develops endeavours to measure the digital technologies and social media used by secondary school students in a variety of scenarios where technology is used i.e. a digital scenario; these spaces are: free-time, study-time, project and work time. In order to draw conclusions and be able to guide educators towards the technological scenario trends where their students are developing. 

The research follows a quantitative methodology with a descriptive design in which data will be addressed in a descriptive and explanatory way, in order to detail the social networks and digital technologies used by Secondary Education students in Extremadura (Spain), in their free-time, study and project-work scenarios. The data collected was analysed using parametric and non-parametric tests. The hypothesis of the study were divided into two groups; those related to sex and those for age. The former supposes that male participants will use more digital technologies in all scenarios, i.e. free-time, study and project-work. Meanwhile the latter, assumes that participants of the 16-17 year-old age group will use more digital technologies than the 14-15 year olds in all scenarios. In turn, the over 17 year olds will use more digital technologies than the other two age groups. The total number of participant of the study is 78, of which 53,85% are women and 46,15% men. All participants are in the last year of Compulsory Education aged between the ages of 15 and over 17. The age ranges established in the study were: 14-15 years old (42,31%), 16-17 years old (53.85%) and over 17 years old (3,85%). Furthermore, the sample was collected in both public (48,72%) and state-maintained private schools (51.28%). The research instruments used to collect data on the use of Digital Scenarios was a Likert-scale questionnaire, ranging from 5 (Always), 4 (Often), 3 (Sometimes), 2 (Hardly Ever) to 1 (Never). The Digital Scenarios Questionnaire (DSQ) is made up of 46 items that are grouped into three dimensions with several sub-dimensions: I) Sociodemographic and Identification Data, II) Digital Technology Use (which was consequently subdivided into free-time, classroom and study and project work use) and finally III) Device use (divided into free-time and classroom use). The DSQ was constructed ensuing content validity and reliability via a group of experts and with Cronbach’s alpha scoring (∝=0,812) on the total 46 items of the instrument.

The research findings show the preferred digital technologies employed by secondary education students in free-time, study and project-work scenarios, thus giving educators the opportunity and relevant information to direct methodologies and course content to follow these tendencies. In regards to the first set of hypothesis relating to sex and digital-scenario technology use, researchers applied the student-T parametric test and the data highlights no significant differences between male and female participants in any of the digital scenarios (free-time (p=0,888), study (p=0,585) and project-work (p=0,877). Thus, we reject the working hypothesis, affirming that there are no significant differences in technology use in digital scenarios between men and women. As to the second group of hypothesis the results show that there are significant differences between age groups in regards to the digital scenario related to study (p=0,03) and project and work (p=0,008). However, the free-time digital scenario data does not show statistical differences (p=0,830). In order to discover which age groups, show significant differences we conducted an ANOVA post hoc analysis. The results show that there are significant differences regarding the 14-15-year-old age group with the 16-17-year-old age group in the digital scenario for study (p=0,02) as well as the project-work digital scenario (p=0,03). All other results are not significant. Thus, affirming that 16-17-year-old age group use more digital technologies than the 14-15 year olds in the aforementioned scenarios, excluding the free-time scenario. However, we cannot confirm that the over-seventeen year olds use more digital technology that the younger participants. The conclusions drawn from the data underline the importance of teachers possessing not only, pedagogical and content knowledge but technological awareness (Eren & Rakicioglu-Söylemez, 2017). In addition, to the need for advancing that knowledge to correctly use technology in the classroom and create useful and meaningful material for students in their preferred formats.

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