Change toward a Creative Society in Developing Contexts—Women’s Barriers to Learning by Information and Communication Technology

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has brought about a "learning revolution" that provides conditions of changes for a "creative society." However, due to issues such as, the digital divide and gender gap, in developing countries, women face barriers to learning using ICT. As ICT spans diverse technologies, this article focuses mainly on the Internet. It aims to provide an analysis of barriers to Internet usage that have implications for the future improvement of women's education in developing contexts. Theoretically, the barriers can be attributed to two levels of factors: the first-order factors that arise due to technical and economic issues, and the second-order factors that are the result of socio-cultural-psychological issues. This further has implications for practical efforts to improve the education of women by ICT tools on the Internet in developing contexts. It is important for educational

Validating learner-based e-learning barriers: developing an instrument to aid e-learning implementation management and leadership

“…Social Support (SoSu) – “Social support is conceptualized as a protective factor in students' lives that contribute to students' successful adjustment to university” (Solberg and Viliarreal, 1997). Masoumi and Lindström (2012) also mention social support as being necessary to bring students into a e-learning environment, with effectiveness of support determining the perceived quality from the learners' perspective.Technophobia (TP) – TP is the anxiety around future interactions with any technological component (Purushothaman and Zhou, 2014). Students who exhibiting this phobia (unlike barrier 3) are actively dismissive new technology and unwilling to use technology for the means of learning (Juutinen et al , 2011; Khasawneh, 2018).…”

De-myth-tifying the gender digital divide in Latin America: libraries as intermediaries in bridging the gap

“…As pervasive in the world as it is today, the concept of the gender digital divide can be quite difficult to define, as it is made up of distinct parts. Traditionally, the phrase "digital divide" refers to an unequal distribution of information and communications technologies, resulting in a gap between those who are able to access digital information, and thus participate in the information or knowledge society, and those who are not (Purushothaman & Zhou, 2014). With increases in visibility and scholarship surrounding this issue, the past several decades have given rise to more nuanced definitions of the digital divide, incorporating considerations not only of access, with its physical and skills related barriers, but also of the use and production of information and communications technologies (ICTs) (Parmentier & Huyer, 2008;Antonio & Tuffley, 2014), as well as the communication of digital information (Hilbert, 2011).…”

“…In the simplest sense, the gender gap in digital information access is significant because of the well-documented potential transformative power of the Internet and ICTs (see Bonder, 2002;Parmentier & Huyer, 2008;Hilbert, 2011;Antonio & Tuffley, 2014;Purushothaman & Zhou, 2014). In the broadest sense, ICTs can facilitate the participation of individuals, communities, and countries in the information society and knowledge economy (Garrido & Roman, 2006;Antonio & Tuffley, 2014;Purushothaman & Zhou, 2014). When harnessed by a collective, digital technologies can facilitate community building, political organization, and grassroots advocacy efforts (Garrido & Roman, 2006;Hilbert, 2011).…”

“…In recent years, although its psychological aspects have not yet been thoroughly studied in developing contexts (Purushothaman & Zhou, 2014), technophobia has been liberally applied to women in other countries around the world (Hilbert, 2011;Antonio & Tuffley, 2014). Proponents of this view argue that, due to their natural disadvantage, it should be expected that women will benefit less from the Internet and ICTs available in their communities (Hilbert, 2011;Antonio & Tuffley, 2014).…”

Characteristics of Creative Students Versus Academic Performance

“…Creativity is defined as an attribute that thinking out of the box. In addition, creativity is one of the new key learning objectives in Higher Education Institues, (Purushothaman and Zhou, 2014). Hence, creativity should be one of the key attributes of graduates from Higher Learning Institutes.…”