The digital divide in Education and students' home use of ICT

The Conference proceedings' website is located at http://conference.pixel-online.net/edu_future2012/acceptedabstracts.phpThe digital divide is a widely acknowledged global problem in the information age. The Hong Kong Government has recently launched a five-year “i Learn at home” program in 2011 to assist students from low-income families to purchase computers and pay for broadband services so that they can learn through the Internet at home. However, more recent discourses increasingly argue that the digital divide is not only about availability of networks and gadgets, but also about having or not having information. It calls for a refocus of the problem of the digital divide from a mere availability of computers and Internet network access to high order information literacy skills and education. Numerous studies indicate that the digital divide is a complex and dynamic phenomenon and the issue has been examined from a broader perspective. Given the many thousands of books and studies that have been dedicated to exploring the promises and potential of using information and communication technology (ICT) in education, the issue of the digital divide in this context deserves special attention. Students are now living with a sophisticated range of new and rapidly changing ICT tools. Thus, the digital divide in education, as an ongoing concern, should not be constructed only as an issue of technical or resource support. Unpacking the social, cultural and contextual dynamics of how students use ICT in and outside school, particularly home use of ICT, is important. This paper presents findings of a survey of 468 junior secondary students in Hong Kong. In the survey questionnaire, students were asked to report their ICT use in and outside school and perception on various issues related to contextual and family factors. The results of regression analysis indicate that students’ use ICT for learning or entertainment at home are significantly related to the variables of students’ use of ICT in school, students’ Internet literacy, formation of family rules, using ICT in public areas, parental permission, and parental monitoring. The results, obtained by means of ANOVA model, indicate that the variables of parents’ education have effect on the variables of students’ use of ICT in school, students’ Internet literacy, family cohesion, and parental participation and encouragement in students’ ICT use at home. Implications to the issues of digital divide in education are discussed. The study presented in this paper is a part of a Public Policy Research project entitled “Educational Inequality and ICT Use in Schools: Bridging the Digital Divide” funded by the Research Grants Council.published_or_final_versio

Conceptualising the digital divide

The term “digital divide” emerged in the 1990s to define inequalities in access to the Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), framing it as a matter of having or not having access to ICTs (Compaine 2001). The firsts empirical researches have shown how some specific socio-demographic variables, such as employment status, income, education level, geographic location, ethnicity, age, gender and family structure, influenced the access to the ICTs, creating a digital gap or divide among citizens (domestic digital divide) or countries (global digital divide). Such inequalities have widened during the years, despite the fact that the World Summit on the Information Society, held in Geneva (2003) and then in Tunis (2005) has stressed the idea that no one should be left out from the benefits offered by the information society. The importance of the Internet as a pre-requisite for economic and social development, has been further stressed by the United Nations in 2015 when the Internet has been included among its goals for resolving the most persistent social and economic challenges of our time (UN, 2015: 15). Indeed, in a digital enabled society, part of the human activities depends on how we access, generate and process information. It is then worth asking how the phenomenon of digital divide and digital inequalities has been approached and analysed by both scholars and policy makers and how such approach has changed over the years. Hence, the aim of this chapter is to discuss the change of perspectives in analysing and attempting to bridge the digital divide, and reconceptualise this concept by offering a nuanced theoretical approach to analyses the rise and persistence of digital inequalities

Modernity, mobility and the digital divides

The phrase ‘digital divide’ has been crucial over the last ten years in focusing attention and resources on the issues of access to and use of ICT, including e-learning, by a succession of excluded and marginal individuals and communities. This paper argues however that this is now a dangerously simplistic notion, especially in societies characterised by the postmodernity that has been catalysed by increasing mobility. The paper provides an introduction to some of the ideas and issues

Access to the Internet and Regional Structures: The Case of Italy

I study the effects of Internet access on regional structures and provide some insights into the complex question of the role of technology in regional development. The paper analyzes the distribution of access to the Internet in Italy, highlighting the differences among regions and sub-regional areas and with respect to categories of users. This is an aspect of the so-called \u201cdigital divide\u201d. I concentrate on the stability and change of regional structures in Italy, pointing at conclusions of general relevance. My analysis confirms the dynamism of the regions of the so-called \u201cThird Italy\u201d and the fundamental distinction between the North-Center with respect to the South, the Italian Mezzogiorno. My preliminary conclusions on the effects of the Internet in promoting economic development suggest lines for further investigation. Key Words: Regional development, Italy, Internet, digital divide JEL Classifications: R11, R12, O3

Digital landscapes: inclusive potential versus exclusive practice

The advantage of digital data is its flexibility which ensures it can be available in multiple formats and customised to suit individual preference. This makes it a powerful tool for establishing equity of access to digital landscapes in particular for users of assistive technology. The expression ‘Digital Divide’ originally referred to access to technology and, while this remains relevant, it now also refers to the quality of that access. Possession of the hardware alone cannot guarantee equity of participation. For users of assistive technologies in particular, all the prerequisites for access can be in place but if the digital data has not been designed with the needs of their technology in mind then their access will continue to be denied. To work effectively within digital landscapes, and transform the curriculum for the needs for future learners both on and off campus, requires an understanding of inclusive digital practice so as to minimise barriers to access. These requirements should be neither under-estimated nor their presence assumed. As the use of digital landscapes for educational purposes increases care must be taken not to widen the divide between inclusive and exclusive digital practice. This paper suggests that priority should be given to ensuring accessible digital content within higher education and that this requires individual responsibility supported by a whole institution approach; both of which must recognise the value of digital inclusion

Selection of indicators of information society development

This paper examines problem of the evaluation of the information society development. The information society is a complex phenomenon and the evaluation of its development is highly complicated. Some indicators are quite similar, others are unrelated, and therefore it is very difficult to interpret the information reflected by the indicators. This article presents the results of a research aimed at identifying the main indicators of the information society development

Urban dynamics in the Flemish countryside: a comparative study on morphological patterns and local economy dynamics

The article examines two aspects of urbanisation in the rural areas of Flanders, the northern part of Belgium. On the one hand, the evolution of the built environment is studied in terms of built-up density and the corresponding morphological sprawl pattern, from the beginning of the 19th century up until now. On the other hand, the economy dynamics in the rural areas are investigated. This shift in economic activities can be seen as part of a broader urbanisation process, with aspects such as tertiarisation and broadening of agriculture. The main driving factors behind these transformations are discussed based on literature study. It becomes clear that urbanisation of the countryside is the combined result of economic, physical, cultural and political evolutions. The comparative study in eight case municipalities with different spatial characteristics maps the evolution of the built environment and continuity of the economic activities. Temporal and regional differences are analysed and related to more location-specific driving factors. The sprawl pattern seems to have a historical ground, whereas the difference in density is related to the evolution path. Regarding the local economy dynamics, no clear regional differences can be found. The professions and other business services category has the highest density. The amount of tertiary activities proves the importance of tertiarisation on the countryside. Both studied evolutions tend to change the open space profoundly. Therefore, insights are crucial in order to develop location specific policies

DSPSR: Digital Signal Processing Software for Pulsar Astronomy

DSPSR is a high-performance, open-source, object-oriented, digital signal processing software library and application suite for use in radio pulsar astronomy. Written primarily in C++, the library implements an extensive range of modular algorithms that can optionally exploit both multiple-core processors and general-purpose graphics processing units. After over a decade of research and development, DSPSR is now stable and in widespread use in the community. This paper presents a detailed description of its functionality, justification of major design decisions, analysis of phase-coherent dispersion removal algorithms, and demonstration of performance on some contemporary microprocessor architectures.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, to be published in PAS