In recent years, the government of Kenya has implemented programs with the hope of moving the country to middle-income status. The government has implemented the Digital Literacy Programme, distributing tablets to schools across the country, and also a new curriculum, promoting innovative teaching that includes digital literacy, learner-centered…

Despite the fact that computer science (CS) is the driver of technological innovations across all disciplines and aspects of our lives, including participatory media, high school CS too commonly fails to incorporate the perspectives and concerns of low-income students of color. This article describes a partnership program -- Exploring Computer…

All students today are increasingly expected to develop technological fluency, digital citizenship, and other twenty-first century competencies despite wide variability in the quality of learning opportunities schools provide. Social network sites (SNSs) available via the internet may provide promising contexts for learning to supplement…

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 teaching of digital literacies is regarded as an important facet of literacy teaching in the 21st century. With many literacy tests continuing to indicate that students' levels of achievement tend to be differentiated along socioeconomic lines, it seems timely to consider the connections between home and school and how these play out in…

Over the last 10 years, information technology has been the fastest growing sector in the global economy. Nevertheless, technology and computer-based instruction have not been sufficiently integrated into the curriculum especially at institutions that serve primarily language minority, low income, and first generation, female college populations.…

Growing consensus among policy makers and educators alike suggests that our education system must be transformed to address the needs of a global society as well as the needs of the 21st century student. Often overlooked as a resource, students can contribute a valuable perspective on education. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to learn…

This paper suggests that many children from low-income and minority communities are not taught the skills and knowledge necessary to fully participate in the economic, social, and political life of the United States and that schools need to start early, to recognize the unique nature of how young children learn, and to design software that will…

This report contains several articles that focus on the new digital divide, which is no longer just one wide gap between those with and those without computers, but is instead a series of divides that create inequities for different reasons. The first article explains how certain types of students are not getting the high-tech experiences they…

In response to indicators that a decline in interest in mathematics occurs among girls--particularly those from low-income and minority groups--during middle school, the GO-GIRL (Gaining Options: Girls Investigate Real Life) program was designed to help potentially talented at-risk girls. The program aimed to build mathematical confidence, skills,…

For the twenty-seventh year, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the National AECT Convention in Chicago, Illinois. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two…