Laptop or Bust: How Lack of Technology Affects Student Achievement

Abstract

Research shows that digital divides and inequalities are related to lower socioeconomic status and detrimental to social and economic capital acquisition. Other studies show that use of information and communication technologies in the classroom can lead to worse academic performance. Nevertheless, many universities require that students own or buy a laptop, and many offer financial aid for students who cannot afford to buy one. As such, laptop ownership may be crucially tied to academic performance. Based on a large data set of incoming freshmen at a large public university in the United States, this article shows that not owning a laptop is negatively associated with overall college performance, even when controlling for socioeconomic background. Whereas we find that laptop ownership is not necessarily responsible for the higher performance of individuals in our broader sample, it could be beneficial to nonowners, which has implications for university policies seeking to provide institution-wide access to laptops and for universities’ broader interactions with students who do not own a laptop.

Digital inequality, faculty communication, and remote learning experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic: A survey of U.S. undergraduates

“…To date, cross-sectional studies have associated first or second-level digital inequality to interim outcomes. For example, Reisdorf and colleagues found that students at a large, public U.S. university who did not have a laptop during their freshman year had a lower first-year Grade Point Average (GPA), after controlling for other factors [26]. Gonzales and colleagues made a similar connection between technological maintenance issues and end-ofterm GPAs [9].…”

A tool to capture learning experiences during Covid-19

“…Researchers have warned that the closure of schools and guidelines to stay inside the home will have short-and long-term effects on students' physical and socio-emotional well-being, and are likely lead to increases in domestic violence, loneliness, depression, fear, panic, anxiety and substance use among students (Radwan, Radwan and Radwan, 2020 [7]). Furthermore, these effects may be experienced disproportionately among the most vulnerable and marginalised students in local communities and exacerbate existing disparities observed within education systems (UNESCO, 2020 [8]) 3 . Research has also shown that gender bias often leaves parents with limited resources more likely to invest in the education of their male children over their female children, making female students more likely to drop out of school than their male peers (Shahidul, 2015[9]).…”

Concluding Thoughts: What Can(’t) we Research About Emergency e-Learning?

“…This type of in-depth analysis is particularly important to recognize barriers to access and other unequal experiences of emergency e-learning. Pre-pandemic, laptop ownership (Reisdorf, Triwibowo, and Yankelevich 2020) and technology maintenance and dependability (Gonzales, Calarco, and Lynch 2020) already pointed out how socioeconomic barriers lead to an unequal experience of postsecondary education. In the age of emergency e-learning, when laptops and dependable connections are not only necessary for assignments and reading but also for the course experience, the socioeconomic barrier increases.…”