This capstone project addresses the crucial task of equipping students from rural and poverty-stricken school districts for success beyond high school. While conventional markers of academic achievement often center around standardized testing, this study takes a wider perspective, emphasizing comprehensive approaches to education. By conducting a…

COVID-19 has brought about changes to the education system that impact teachers in multiple ways. The article discusses the views of affected teachers under the three-gap framework: access, usage, and pedagogical skills gap. Between 29 April 2020, and 29 May 2020, an online survey was administered to 550 Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR)…

This paper develops informed assumptions on the potential loss of trust as an unintended side-effect of the measures in education to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Well-founded concerns according to which the pandemic-induced closure of educational facilities and the shift to digitalized distance education are contributing to…

This paper is the second in a series of three with a common goal to present a fair OER picture for Sub-Saharan Africa, represented by large-scale studies in three countries: Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa. This paper examines a deliberate selection of four Ghanaian universities with randomly sampled students and lecturers. Distinct questionnaires…

Many schools and programs in low-income neighborhoods lack access to the technological resources, including equipment and Internet service, that those in middle- and upper-income neighborhoods have at their fingertips. This inequity creates a persistent digital divide--not a simple divide in access to technology per se, but a divide in both formal…

Distance education as one of the new and perspective forms of completing higher education increases in popularity around the world. At the same time, the development of this model of education generates new problems: organization of the study process and information security. Distance learning allows solving a problem of accessibility of higher…

Educators, policymakers, and parents alike are focused on ensuring the academic success of the nation's students. These efforts interact with the expanding use of technology, which affects the lives of students both inside and outside of the classroom. Thus, the role that technology plays in education is an evolving area of research that continues…

The purpose of this research was to determine the extent that computer-related factors affect the success of nontraditional college students. Since nontraditional students typically have fewer skills than traditionally-aged students, they may be less efficacious regarding their ability to use technology. Unfortunately, such reduced confidence may…

Web 2.0 technology not only offers the opportunity of massively parallel interconnected networks that support the provision of information and communication anytime and anywhere but also offers immense opportunities for collaboration and sharing of user-generated content. This information-rich environment may support both formal and informal…

This paper will address how the digital divide affects distance education. Lack of access for some students does raise concerns. Access to technology is often defined by what students don't have: what is called a digital divide. Access also is defined by the speed of Internet connections. Access in the future will be even greater as more computers…

In this article, the authors write about the myth of the "silver surfers"--those third-age learners adept at using the internet and other technologies for a mixture of formal and informal learning episodes. The notion of the silver surfer has endured since the latter half of the 1990s. It is sustained by the annual Silver Surfer week, media…

Technology is central to the daily routine of university life. Yet, without any formal technology prerequisites, students come to college with differing technological skills, stratified by gender, socioeconomic status, and racial backgrounds. Beyond skills, students' varied computing histories can result in a range of technology identities that…

The use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to bridge the communication gap between teacher and learner has been identified as a major characteristic of Open and Distance Learning (ODL). In many developing counties, including Nigeria, several barriers prevent OD learners from maximising the potentials of ICTs to enhance their learning.…

This paper describes the findings of an OECD project examining ICT impact measurement and analyses based on official statistics. Both economic and social impacts are covered and some results are presented. It attempts to place ICT impacts measurement into an Information Society conceptual framework, provides some suggestions for standardising…

The Southcote IT [Information Technology] Experience is an initiative in Reading, England, designed to widen access to learning opportunities and technology for all age groups. Free modular training courses, informal learning, and intense local marketing have proven to be effective practices. (SK)