A Preliminary Examination of Power Relationships’ Influence on Reducing the Digitally Marginalized Student Population in Jamaica.

The Digital Divide has historically been viewed as the separation of people from technology based primarily on socio-economic issues and other demographic vulnerabilities. More recent studies have expanded research into investigating the impact of other societal structures such as the power of the government on equitable distribution of Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) and other resources to the digitally marginalized population. While many strides have been made, educating children in the post-Covid era has made resolving the Divide a more pressing issue for students living in developing countries like Jamaica, where pre-pandemic, technology in education was still in its infancy. Using the Grounded Theory methodology, this research introduces preliminary findings demonstrating four power-relationships that have the power to and the power over effectively bridging the Divide and amongst the youngest of the digitally marginalized population and its effect on state-sponsored initiatives such as the OYOD

Replication Data for: Net neutrality Tweets

Twitter dataset collected in 2018 on #netneutrality. The smaller dataset is a sample of the larger full set. The sample has more detailed descriptions including bot-likelihood and senitment analysis results

Understanding Information and Communication Technology Diffusion in Developing Countries

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), in the context of education, refer to the integrated set of technologies including computers, the Internet, broadcasting technologies, and telephones that facilitate not only delivery of instructions, but also the learning processes (Khan et al., 2012). ICTs have become pervasive in various facets of human endeavors as they play integral roles in many fields including education, business, healthcare, entertainment and even everyday life. The diffusion of technology and information, however, varies globally contributing to digital divide across countries worldwide, caused due to barriers in different aspects of access such as: lack of elementary digital experience among users caused by lack of interest, computer anxiety, and unattractiveness of the new technology ( mental access ); no possession of computers and network connections ( material access ); lack of digital skills caused by insufficient user friendliness and inadequate education or social support ( skills access ); and lack of significant usage opportunities ( usage access ) (Van Dijk & Hacker, 2003). \ \ In this work, we plan to examine skills access and usage access with respect to ICT diffusion in developing countries. We focus on the transition of graduate students from a developing to a developed country for higher education. Recognizing the barriers of access in ICT diffusion in developing countries would allow us to gain a deeper understanding on the difficulties that international graduate students encounter in transitioning from their home (developing) country to a different (developed) country with the use of technology in educational settings. We aim to investigate the concerns and technology considerations regarding educational ICTs when graduate students plan to migrate. By understanding the user aspects of the digital divide , we plan to address some barriers by recommending measures to the universities as well as students to enable a better transition technology-wise, to their intended country of migration. \ \ Although there are potential benefits of ICTs in education, due to the challenges in the integration of ICTs in education faced by developing countries, the levels of ICTs adoption and diffusion in these countries are different – resulting in diverse experiences of international students. Understanding the transition barriers for international students and the current resources provided by the universities to aid their transition can inform the design of training packages on ICT use. Developing improved resources would then lead to an easier decision making process about the university, smoother acculturation to a new environment, and consequently result in a higher academic performance of international students.