Digital divide: A critical context for digitally based assessments

Abstract

Student learning is increasingly taking place in digital environments both within and outside schooling contexts. Educational assessments are following suit, both to take advantage of the conveniences and opportunities that digital environments provide as well as to reflect the mediums of learning increasingly taking place in societies around the world. A social context relevant to learning and assessment in the digital age is the great differences in access to and competence in technology among students from different segments of societies. Therefore, access and competency in relation to technology become critical contexts for evaluations that rely on digitally based assessments. This chapter examines the digital divide between students from different segments of the society and discusses strategies for minimizing effects of digital divide on assessments of student learning. The research focuses on two types of demographic groups—gender and socioeconomic status (SES) groups—that have been highlighted in research on the digital divide. The research utilizes data from IEA’s International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) 2013 for Grade 8 students administered in 21 jurisdictions around the world. It thus provides an international perspective on digital divide as an important context for international assessments as well as assessments within jurisdictions such as Mexico that are conducting assessments in digitally based environments.

Emergency Remote Education, Family Support and the Digital Divide in the Context of the COVID-19 Lockdown

“…It is necessary to delve into the possible effects of the digital divide and how it evolves over time, as well as its factors and consequences, in order to adapt as much as possible to the policies and strategies to ensure that the educational-digital environment proposed is ideal for everyone [28,39]. The strategy must have an integral approach that addresses all the realities of the students [6].…”

“…The three categories of digital divides are not independent from each other [20]. The interaction among them is the foundation on which learning technologies pave the road to the academic and social development of students [23]; therefore, the digital divide can be related to academic performance in general [28].…”

“…Although it seemed that the problem of the digital divide was solved, recent studies have explored factors that influence the digital divide, such as gender [28], socio-economic and cultural level [23,[28][29][30], functional diversity [31], the rural/urban context [32,33] and race and ethnicity [26]. All of these factors confirm that before the pandemic situation, the digital divide still represented a great social challenge, revealing that educational centres had to develop effective strategies to balance the social and learning opportunities among students [32].…”

Potensi Tumbuhnya Generasi Internet Dalam Pengembangan Komunikasi Pariwisata Di Kepulauan Seribu Dki Jakarta

“…Apalagi bagi daerah yang tergolong pinggiran seperti pedesaan dan kepulauan, termasuk wilayah Kepulauan Seribu yang terpisah dari daratan Jakarta. Situasi ini dapat menyebabkan kesenjangan digital atau digital divide antara individu, rumah tangga, bisnis, kelompok masyarakat, atau area geografis (Ariyanti, 2013;Ercikan et al, 2018;Safril et al, 2016;Onitsuka et al, 2018).…”

Schools overcoming the digital divide: in depth analyses towards organizational resilience in the computer and information literacy domain

“…In Germany for instance, students from less privileged social backgrounds on average scored about 50 points lower on the CIL achievement scale than their counterparts from socioeconomically and/or culturally more affluent families (cf. Ercikan et al 2018;Fraillon et al 2014Fraillon et al , 2019aFraillon 2018;Senkbeil et al 2019). Although these results vary depending on how the social background is operationalized, the pattern of substantial achievement gaps relating to students' cultural or socioeconomic background can be observed in every participating educational system of IEA-ICILS 2018 (Fraillon et al 2019a).…”