Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are an integral part of our environment, and their uses vary across generations and among individuals. Today’s student population is made up of “digital natives” who have grown up under the ubiquitous influence of digital technologies, and for whom the use of ICT is common and whose daily activities are structured around media use. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of ICT use and digital skills on students’ academic performance and to explore the digital divide in France. Data were collected through face-to-face questionnaires administered to 1323 students enrolled in three French universities. Principal component analysis, a non-hierarchical k-means clustering approach and multilevel ordered logistic regression were used for data analysis and provide four main findings: first, poor investment in ICT affects students’ results; second, the ICT training offered by universities has little impact on students’ results; third, student performance improves with the innovative and collaborative use of ICTs; fourth, the acquisition of digital skills increases students’ academic performance. The results show that the digital divide still exists, and this raises questions about the effectiveness of education policies in France. They suggest also that organizational change in universities is essential to enable an exploitation of ICT.
This paper has two objectives, firstly, to identify the three basic levels of educational digital divides and to discuss them in the context of the European Union, and secondly, to develop an alternative hypothesis for educational digital trajectories instead of looking at educational divides.Section one identifies the three levels of digital divides. The first level of educational digital divide concerns differences in ICT equipment. We identify the sources and the mechanisms that help to bridge this divide (Market Dynamics and Public Policies). Then, focussing on the second level of digital divide (usages divide) we analyse why this seems to be the main problem nowadays in Europe. Finally, a third level of digital divide concerns the performance of ICT in education. We give some possible explanations for the productivity paradox which is observed in European higher education.Section two is devoted to the explanation of the diversity of usage of ICT between countries and universities. ICT allows different contextualisation and adaptation to the local context. Universities are developing several digital trajectories and instead of benchmarking universities we look at the explanations for this diversity. Two key elements were explored here: competition strategy of universities and students' attitudes towards the technologies. Keywords
Most research on the influence of ICT on students' results and future professional insertion is carried out in the field of educational science. The authors of this article consider, however, that the educational science approach is too limited, and add an economic dimension to it. Their case study of a group of economics students encompasses the academic environment, the socio-economic context, and students' personal characteristics. One of their conclusions is the necessity to rethink evaluation models and the force of complementarity between traditional teaching and technology mediated teaching -assuming that the teachers' engagement is equal.
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