Bridging the Digital Divide among Students

Journal of Knowledge & Communication Management Volume 5, Number 1, April 2015, pp. 42-52 DOI: 10.5958/2277-7946.2015.00004.2

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Bridging the Digital Divide among Students Aswathi P.1 and Mohamed Haneefa K.2* 1

Research Scholar, 2Assistant Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, University of Calicut, Calicut, Kerala, India E-mail id: *[email protected]; [email protected]

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ABSTRACT Digital divide refers to the inequalities between people with effective use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and those with very limited or no use at all. It has been a concern of people in all walks of life and it is more prevalent among academic communities. Developed countries reduce digital divide among students through improved ICT infrastructure. However, the availability of ICT infrastructure does not guarantee equality in use of technology. Usage divide can be seen among students due to differences in their skills as well as the intensity and purpose of their use of ICT. There exist a number of factors including social structure, culture, economic background and skills which may result in digital inequality among students. This paper presents an overview of different factors contributing to the digital divide among students and discusses how to bridge the digital divide. Keywords: Digital divide, Students, ICT, Education, Digital inequalities, Access divide, Usage divide, Socio-economic divide

INTRODUCTION Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has influenced all aspects of human endeavours. Advancement in ICT and widespread use of digital media has brought to the digital age. But the inequalities in ICT access and use create an information gap termed as digital divide, among those who can access ICT and those who cannot. There are many reasons for the digital divide. Social and economic structure cause unequal access to knowledge and information. People in the higher economic strata tend to acquire media generated information more easily than those in the lower strata. Traditional media are replaced by digital media, which leads to differences in access and use of information. These differences essentially constitute the digital divide (Torres and Infante, 2011). Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defined the term digital divide as the gap between individuals, households, business and geographic area at different socioeconomic levels with regard to both their opportunities to access ICTs and their use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities (2001). *Corresponding author

Bridging the Digital Divide among Students

ICT has transformed drastically the education sector through its variety of applications related to access, storage, preservation and dissemination of information. These changes are accepted by students in various ways. However, differences can be seen in the access and use of new technologies among students. These variations in access and usage of ICT, in turn, create a digital gap within students. Some students are able to reap the benefits of digital resources and tools, whereas some others fail to do so.




DIGITAL DIVIDE IN EDUCATION The unequal access to ICT, both at academic institutions and at home, enhances educational and societal stratification thereby bringing in digital divide. For the deprived, educational digital divide can result in loss of advantages of education such as further employment, earnings, opportunities for social and civic engagement as well as equity and civil rights issues. On the other hand, ICT can offer, those who use it judiciously, a number of educational advantages. It can offer easy access to large volume of information, thus creating an unequal opportunity to reinforce learning basic, new as well as higher-order cognitive skills. The effective use of ICT in learning is expected to increase the success rate in students (Gunduz, 2010). However, students from lower economic strata in general are unable to take the full advantage of educational opportunities of ICT due to what is called the access divide of technology. The disparity in academic success might widen because of lower accessibility to ICT. It can lead to inequalities in earnings, because the students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are in general, less prepared to compete for higher paying jobs that require ICT skill (Jencks and Phillips, 1999). By reducing the digital divide, students can be given an equal opportunity to communicate and support their life so that it eventually accelerate a student’s ability to learn, share, interact and solve his/her problem. As educational institutions can offer the foundations for lifelong learning and ICT literacy, the core strategy for solving the digital divide among students rests on methods employed in education and learning. So education is really an important factor to overcome the difficulties of digital divide and teachers occupy a key position in endeavours to solve the problems associated with digital divide. LEVEL OF DIGITAL DIVIDE AMONG STUDENTS Educational digital divide can be identified in three levels. The first level digital divide concerned with differences in ICT equipments which creates a gap between those who are well equipped from those who are not. The students who possess ICT devices engage in a rich network of relations, skills, knowledge and education. While those who are less equipped may be excluded from these factors. Income gap between social groups can be the primary reason for the first level digital divide among students. The second level of digital divide can be observed in terms of intensity or diversity of use of ICT. There can be differences in time devoted to the Internet usage, purpose of use, ability and attitude Journal of Knowledge & Communication Management

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towards e-resources and so on, which can also lead to the second level of digital divide. Another factor that influences the ICT usage is the educational strategy of educational institutions. Lack of motivation, ICT competency and interest are other factors that lead to a usage divide (second level digital divide) among students. The first level of digital divide can be enhanced by the second level as a fraction of students may end up not using ICT tools even if adequate infrastructural facilities are available to them.




The third level of digital divide can be identified by performances of ICT in education. This kind of digital divide can be distinguished by students’ achievements, competency, human capital, generation of knowledge and so on. The digital divide in performance can result in a possible divide in future salary. Students who performed better in using technologies during education may get a job with high salaries, whereas those who could not perform well may resort to jobs with limited salary (Youssef and Ragni, 2008). FACTORS LEADING TO DIGITAL DIVIDE ICT offers unique opportunity to extend learning beyond classrooms. But digital inequalities prevent students to utilise those opportunities of distance learning. Digital divide is stretching over a lot of other dimensions of divide like social divide, economic divide and cultural divide in society. When the digital divide among students is explored, many factors need to be considered including socioeconomic background, gender, experience, psychological factors that prevent a student from embracing technology into their daily life. Socioeconomic disparity affects students’ access to technology and their technology competence. Technological support from educational institutions, location of institutions and confident of teachers in technological use are significant predictors of the classroom use of the technology. Factors that lead to the differences in usage of student’s ICT are detailed below. Cultural Capital Students are living in different cultures and customs. They acquire cultural knowledge through cultural expressions learned from their family socialisation and educational institutions. Cultural capital thus automatically gets generated. Cultural capital depends on the students’ background and socioeconomic class. It is passed from one generation to the next through social channels and values. So, if a student is coming from a family, rich in technology, he/she may tend to garner higher use of technology more easily. Thus, inducing change in culture requires a change in lifestyle and it involves overcoming cultural inhibitions and insecurities in developing competence for surviving in the Internet economy (Paul, 2002). Social Capital Students can participate in certain social networks, and they can maintain a good relationship with society. Students, who fail to participate in social networks, may have limited use of ICT in

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communication. There is a strong relation between family income and level of accessibility to computer and the Internet. Digital inequality is an extension of social inequality. That is, technology accessibility depends on parental income, education and their support. Students from (financially) upper class families have an opportunity to access the Internet connection at their homes and their usage level also becomes high. But in the middle class and lower class family, it is the opposite. Hence, in the case of students, the socioeconomic level affects their use of ICT and which in turn, affects their academic performance. The level of students’ family income influences their use as well as the intensity of usage of ICT tools, thereby creating differences in digital access that corresponds to socioeconomic reality.




Parental Support Parents influence students’ access and use of ICT by deciding whether to purchase or not ICT tools or the Internet facility. They may also regulate the students’ use of ICT. The decision of parents to impose constrains on their children, reflects a number of factors, including their capacity to oversee and sanction behavioural, social and cultural norms, as well as their own family background. Some parents have a negative approach to modern technology. They have a belief that students may lose their concentration in their study and the technology will mislead their children. All these factors may lead to inequality in accessing technology among students at home. Teachers Support Teachers possess a great role in promoting the use of ICT in classrooms. But in most cases, lack of confidence in technological applications as well as lack of preparation and professional development opportunity to integrate technology in their curriculum leads to marginalised use of ICT by students. Failure of educators in successful introduction of technology as well as in clear treatment of hardware–software in class rooms are to be avoided so that the students can embark in to the digital world with minimum fuss. Economic Capital These are issues related to the lack of adequate finance to access ICT infrastructure and to get connected to the Internet. The cost of electronic equipments and the Internet connections is a major obstacle faced by students from low income families. The cost of ICT is high, whereas the budget of many institutions is quite limited to access new technologies. It is very difficult to find out funds for instructional technologies. Especially, in remote and rural areas, institutions lack reliable electricity and telecommunication services or may experience problems like low bandwidth connections, damage in electrical lines, which may result in poor Internet access. Many educational institutions in developing countries cannot afford the hardware/software prices, so they often resort to purchase of used equipments or donated hardware that may be of limited Journal of Knowledge & Communication Management

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functionality (Tiene, 2002). This compromise on the quality of equipment purchased also eventually leads to increasing the digital gap between students. Institutional Reforms




Institutions are the bodies that enable and support the initiatives to bring the computer and the Internet access to their students. It can provide technology access to with the support of governments and local bodies. Government can improve the policies related to ICT, but government support to improve the ICT facility is low in developing countries as compared to that of developed countries. This situation cannot alleviate the ICT usage gap existing between students in developing countries. Another major problem is the lack of technical expertise in educational institutions to set up systems and repair equipments that become malfunction. Habitus and Motivation Habitus refers to the societal attitude towards ICT. Here habitus implies willingness of a student to effectively engage in ICT or any other technological applications. Some learners possess a view that computer and the Internet do not have any strategic impact in their daily lives and use of ICT was not for them. In such a case, even if they were provided with good infrastructure facility, they may not end up in using ICT, merely due to lack of interest (Sedoyeka, 2012). In fact, the first step in getting access to digital tools and devices is to possess motivation to use computer and the Internet. Many students remain at the wrong side of digital divide due to lack of motivation. Some are not interested to use new technological strategies, whereas some others show the signs of technophobia, computer anxiety or fear and dislike to use digital resources. The factors contributing to motivational access are of social, economic, cultural and mental or psychological nature. Computer anxiety and technophobia are not considered major barriers of technology access, especially among those who have entered in higher education (Van Dijk, 2008). ICT Literacy ICT literacy is an unavoidable component in reducing the digital divide among students. Some students seem to lag behind in ICT skills because they do not have as much access to computer and the Internet as their classmates, due to the unavailability of ICT devices and tools at home, limited basic infrastructure in the area such as electricity or telephone line shortage. Students with low ICT literacy appear to be at a competitive disadvantage. Hence, ICT literacy becomes a necessary educational goal to promote students for competing digital world (Mohamed et al., 2012). The advantage of ICT access to produce knowledge cannot be enjoyed if the issues related to low computer literacy exist among students.

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Gender Divide Digital technologies can act as practical and tangible tools for women to solve longstanding inequalities in society. It can offer women to gain better education and employment. But gender continues to play a significant role regarding interest and practices of using ICT. The societal attitude and gender bias influence access to and usage of computer and the Internet (Kalyanpur and Kirmani, 2005). Males are more likely to both access and use the ICT than females. Many studies related to gender differences in using ICT revealed that female students, in general, are not interested to use emerging technologies and their intensity of use of ICT is low when compared with their male counterparts. So the gender difference also leads to enhancing digital divide among students.




Geographical Differences The location of students’ home within a country, and the location of the country within a geographical region, also forms a deciding factor in widening the ICT gap among students. Students in urban area have more access to infrastructure facility of ICT than the students from rural areas. It is also comparatively more expensive to introduce new technologies in those areas. Equipment quality is relevant to equal access to technology. Most schools in rural areas are strapped financially and cannot incorporate new technologies into their class rooms. Hence, there exist huge differences in quality and quantity of computer education in public schools when compared to private ones. In addition to this, most schools have to face the challenges like cost for maintenance and upgrading technology. Autonomy of Use Autonomy of use is an important factor that encourages students to use computer and the Internet without any restrictions. Those who get more freedom to extract information from media and can access web resources easier can perform better in using ICT tools. On the other hand, restrictions in their use of technology in classrooms or home will not support enhancing their online skills. These differences in autonomy of use are most likely to affect the students’ level of web use sophistication. Experience For convenient and effective use of ICT, students have to be familiar enough to manage modern technologies. The amount of time spent on computer and the Internet, are likely to affect their online skills. Students, who spent more time on the Internet, are likely to acquire more skills and more knowledge in using the web. Hence, the students who have been online longer are expected to be better at searching and locating information as they get more experience with the technology. Those who have little experience with ICT, on the other hand, fail to utilise effectively the online resources. Thus, experience in ICT plays an important role in minimising the digital divide among students. Journal of Knowledge & Communication Management

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BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE The students’ community rapidly being divided into those who have access to ICT and those who do not, due to digital divide. As a result of this divide, there exists a gap like that between the information rich and information poor categories. Steps may be taken to ensure that all students in an academic community have equal access to, and the ability to effectively utilise the ICT such as wireless and other mobile technologies. Efforts are to be made to ensure that all students have the opportunity to become active citizens in the society. Schools, colleges, universities may establish programmes and initiatives to introduce new digital tools and technologies and make sure that all students engage in ICT with greater efficiency and effectiveness.




Role of Educators Educators may try to identify more institutional and societal factors that may cause to the widening of the gender divide, so that they can incorporate gender equity strategies in their curriculum training programmes. The higher education community can make a partnership with schools that have little or limited practice with technology tools to make sure that equal opportunity in using ICT is provided to all their students. Through collaborative relationships between professors and teachers, teacher training programmes may be tailor made to include technology tools into their specific subject area. Thus, they can develop an effective teacher training programme that can be applied in their respective subject area (Kim and Bagaka, 2005). Technical assistance for teachers and their professional developments facilitate effective integration of the technology into their curriculum. There is a strong relationship between the ways teachers manage and monitor student’s use of and access to technology and their individual definition of technology integration. Each individual instructor holds a different conceptual work for what technology integration is, which is directly reflected in their self efficacy with technology use and integration (Pierson, 2001). Not all students have the same skills and knowledge in using computer and the Internet. Teachers can promote the use of the Internet among students by giving the Internet based assignments and tasks. They can also support students by providing proper training in using computer as well as utilising the Internet so that the students can improve their competency in using technological devices. If students can access relevant information, their usage rate of digital information automatically increase. For this, digital information has to be freely available and also needs to be age appropriate without any limitations on the students’ freedom (Dennis, 2009). Teacher training programme may be conducted on innovative use of technology tools or educational applications for respective subject areas instead of technology proficiency skills in isolation. Impart ICT Literacy Yu and Lin (2011) opined that ICT literacy is an essential requirement for improving the use of technology. So, it is to be integrated extensively in all sorts of subjects of study. This can improve 48



students to master their skills of professional knowledge better, improve self study skills as well as information retrieval and communication skills. Teachers also try to gradually adjust their technology concept to satisfy the new learning needs of learners in order to better equip themselves with adequate skills and technologies. The teachers need to improve their information literacy level to impart their knowledge to students in a better way. They can acquire knowledge about computer network operation skills and learn to use related software to augment their teaching in class rooms.




Promote Parental Support Parental support is an important factor in getting access and use of digital technologies. It is desired that enough efforts are undertaken to improve the awareness among parents about the importance of the use of ICT in education so that they become more likely to spend money towards ICT tools and devices like computer and mobile devices. Authority can impart ICT training to parents in order to increase their communication with their wards through email and can become better informed about their children’s performance (Mohamed et al., 2012). Role of Authority Authorities may take a continuous effort to ensure that high quality digital tools and the Internet connections are freely and easily accessible to students. They may take necessary steps to increase the technology adaptation in class rooms. They have to realise how useful the technology can be in terms of supporting their institutions’ competitiveness in global market. A more strategic use of ICT would allow any institution to open its virtual doors to student community so that students can get flexible access to its services and information. To explore the digital divide issues among students, the authority may address the students’ accessibility to technology as well as their equity in the educational experience with technology. Higher education institutions have to be equipped with adequate number of networked computers in class rooms or at least in computer labs so that the technology becomes a ubiquitous part of their educational environment. If the students have access to computer and the Internet, throughout the day, that will help promote the use of technology and become a seamless part of the learning process (Swain and Pearson, 2001). Educational authority can promote the use of ICT resources among students. It is to be ensured that the computer labs are open beyond the regular class hours. Another step to enhance the use of ICT is to educate the students to use computer as a productivity tool for various activities like research, telecommunication and technical collaboration (Swain and Pearson, 2001). Role of Libraries Librarians can play an important role in minimising the digital divide as libraries are designed to foster concepts like freedom to access information as well as lifelong learning. They can actively

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participate in the promotion of information literacy activities, including ICT and the Internet skills to students (Cullen, 2003). They can try to effectively reduce existing parity between information haves and have nots. The online facilities help people to access computers, the Internet information, learning and training. Librarians and information professionals also help or train users to locate relevant information. They can also introduce modern information retrieval systems. In order to achieve this, they have to develop good online information database and other electronic resources. Library professionals can contribute to the quality and relevancy of the content of resources through effective content management, e-resource management, digital preservation, information organisation and so on.




Role of Government Government can make encouraging steps to improve the life of students through several infrastructures and other IT oriented projects. For this purpose, they can develop an ICT policy implementation commission. The commission can be funded and authorised by the government to provide ICT infrastructure and monitor their use. The Ministry of Education can take efforts to make sure that educational institutions, especially in rural areas, reap the benefits of the IT oriented project to students. They can also make sure that ICT education embedded in the curriculum and make compulsory for all students (Mohamed et al., 2012). By negotiating the computer import price, government can make cheaper access to them. It is desired to have a policy adoption towards reduction of entry costs of mobile telephony for the poor, given the limited services they could afford on their cheaper handsets. Policy makers have to adopt a comprehensive approach while implementing a policy related to solve the educational divide. They can introduce policy related to ICT which not only covers the accessibility of infrastructure but also includes the initiatives to bridge the usage divide of ICT among students. Policy decision makers at both national and international levels need to implement or support economic policies that enhance access to up to date technological and quality software programmes in educational institutions. CONCLUSION Digital divide is the disparity between those who have access to ICT and those who do not. It is prevalent among academic communities. There exist three basic levels of digital divide among students. The first level concerns the difference in ICT equipment. Second level of digital divide indicates the differences in use of the Internet and the third level of digital divide describes the disparity of performance in education using ICT. Educational level of individuals is often reported to correlate with digital inequality. The academic level of a student depends upon their socioeconomic, cultural and psychological factors. All these factors lead to deeper differences in the use of ICT. In other words, the factors like students’ skill, competency, motivation, experience, interest and autonomy of use act as major contributing factors of digital divide. Support from

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parents and teachers, within and outside the educational institutions influence the students’ use and skills of ICT and thereby affect the digital divide in education.




Digital divide puts the weaker students at a competitive and economic disadvantage due to its impacts on society at many levels. These students find it difficult to take advantage of the vast ocean of information available on the Internet. They may remain unsuccessful in competitions of national and international standards. Furthermore, the existence of educational digital divide induces an expansion of the existing workplace inequalities experienced by disadvantaged groups. To bridge the digital divide, co-ordinated efforts may be needed by governments, educational authorities, teachers and parents. Educators can make an attempt to identify more institutional and societal factors that may cause to the widening the digital divide so that they can incorporate equity strategies in their educational institution. Government can make encouraging steps to improve the ICT infrastructure in educational institutions. REFERENCES Cullen R, 2003. The digital divide: a global and national call to action. The Electronic Library, Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 247–257. doi: 10.1108/02640470310480506. Dennis AL, 2009. Children in the net: the use of technology and the Internet in the classroom. Master dissertation, The Evergreen State College. Online [http://archives.evergreen.edu/masterstheses/ Accession89-10MIT/Dennis_AMITthesis2009.pdf] (accessed on 4 August, 2014). Gunduz HB, 2010. Digital divide in Turkish primary schools: Sakarya sample. TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 43–53. Online [http://files.eric.ed.gov/ fulltext/EJ875762.pdf] (accessed on 5 August, 2013). Jencks C and Phillips M, 1999. Aptitude or success: why do test scores predict educational attainment and earnings? In: Mayer SE, Peterson, PE, eds. Earning and learning: how schools matter. pp. 15–47. Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC. Kalyanpur M and Kirmani MH, 2005. Diversity and technology: classroom implications of the digital divide. Journal of Special Education Technology, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 9–17. Kim SH and Bagaka J, 2005. The digital divide in student’s use of technology tools: a multilevel analysis of the role of teacher practices and classroom characteristics. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, Vol. 5, No. 3/4, pp. 318–329. Mohamed H, Judi HM, Nor SFM and Yusof ZM, 2012. Bridging digital divide: a study on ICT literacy among students in Malaysian rural areas. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, Vol. 6, No. 7, pp. 39–45. OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), 2001. Understanding the digital divide. Online [http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/38/57/1888451.pdf] (accessed on 9 October, 2013). Paul J, 2002. Narrowing the digital divide: initiatives undertaken by the association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Program: Electronic Library and Information Systems, Vol. 36, No. (1), pp. 13-32. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00330330210426085 Journal of Knowledge & Communication Management

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About the Authors Dr. Mohamed Haneefa K. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Library and Information Science, University of Calicut, Kerala. Prior to this, he worked at NIT Calicut, IISR Calicut and TKM College of Engineering, Kollam, Kerala. He has published several research papers in professional journals and participated and presented papers in many national and international conferences. He is a resource person for different continuing education programme, refresher courses, workshop and so on. His current research interest is primarily focussed on application of innovative information and communication technologies to solve information access and retrieval problems and information tools used to facilitate formal and informal learning in online and face to face environments. Mrs. Aswathi P. is a Research Scholar in the Department of Library and Information Science, University of Calicut, Kerala. She has completed her MLISc from the University of Calicut with second rank and distinction. She has qualified UGC-JRF in Library and Information Science.

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