Toward People’s Community Control of Technology: Race, Access, and Education

This field review explores how the benefits of access to computing for racialized and minoritized communities has become an accepted fact in policy and research, despite decades of evidence that technical fixes do not solve the kinds of complex social problems that disproportionately affect these communities. I use the digital divide framework—a 1990s policy diagnosis that argues that the growth and success of the internet would bifurcate the public into digital “haves” and “have-nots”—as a lens to look at why access to computing frequently appears as a means to achieve economic, political, and social equality for racialized and minoritized communities. First, I present a brief cultural history of computer-assisted instruction to show that widely-held assumptions about the educational utility of computing emerged from utopian narratives about scientific progress and innovation—narratives that also traded on raced and gendered assumptions about users of computers. Next, I use the advent of the digital divide framework and its eventual transformation into digital inequality research to show how those raced and gendered norms about computing and computer users continue to inform research on information and communication technologies (ICTs) used in educational contexts. This is important because the norms implicated in digital divide research are also present in other sites where technology and civic life intersect, including democratic participation, public health, and immigration, among others. I conclude by arguing that naïve or cynical deployments of computing technology can actually harm or exploit the very same racialized and minoritized communities that access is supposed to benefit. In short, access to computing in education—or in any other domain—can only meaningfully contribute to equality when minoritized and racialized communities are allowed to pursue their own collective goals.

OUR INDIAN SHOP – E-Commerce Website Interconnecting the Farmers, Shopkeepers, Delivery Personnel and Consumers

A system named ‘Our Indian Shop’ has been developed and presented in this paper. This system involves an android application, a website and an IVR system for online selling and delivery of agricultural products from farmers to the consumers directly at the market price without the involvement of any middleman. It provides facilities of online shopping of essentials from consumers’ nearby shops as the delivery options will be localized according to pin code to lower the risks of spreading of Covid-19. It also supports selling of groceries, vegetables, and medicines by relevant shop owners directly to the consumers. It enhances the employment as delivery personnel for economically backward people or daily wagers who have lost their livelihood due to the pandemic. The IVR system is to be provided to make all the above facilities available in the offline mode for technologically backward classes, for efficient working of the system in a digital divide environment. The prime objective of this development is to promote social distancing and provide efficient technical solutions for sustainability in the post pandemic world. Our Indian Shop is an all in one platform which provides the online facilities of shopping and selling as well as it will help to enhance the employment and prevent the brokerage charges.

Digital Divide in Online Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cosmetic Course From the View of the Regional Socioeconomic Distribution

Objectives: During the pandemic, quarantine has led to the lockdown of many physical educational institutions. Thus, massive open online courses (MOOCs) have become a more common choice for participants. MOOCs are often flagged as supplemental methods to educational disparities caused by regional socioeconomic distribution. However, dissenters argue that MOOCs can exacerbate the digital divide. This study aimed to compare the participants' performance before and after the outbreak of COVID-19, analyze the impact of the epidemic on online education of cosmetic dermatology from the view of the regional socioeconomic distribution, and investigate whether MOOCs exacerbate the digital divide in the COVID-19 epidemic.Methods: The study was conducted in participants of the MOOC course Appreciation and Analysis of Cosmetics from January 2018 to December 2020. Based on the platform data and official socioeconomic statistics, correlation of multivariate analysis was used to determine the factors related to the number of total participants. A panel regression model and stepwise least squares regression analysis (STEPLS) were employed to further analyze the relationship between GDP, population, number of college students and number of total participants in different years in the eastern, central and western regions of China.Results: The number of total participants in 2020 surged 82.02% compared with that in 2019. Completion rates were generally stable in 2018 and 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic and significantly decreased in 2020 after the outbreak of the pandemic. GDP was the most important socioeconomic factor that determined the total number of participants and it was positively related to the total number of participants before and after the outbreak of the pandemic. The number of college students was unrelated to the total number of participants before the epidemic, and after the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, the number became positively related in all regions of China.Conclusions: This study shows that the epidemic pushes more people to choose MOOCs to study cosmetic dermatology, and online education could exacerbate rather than reduce disparities that are related to regional and socioeconomic status in the cosmetic field in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Challenges Experienced in Distance Education and Solution Suggestions During the COVID-19 Pandemic Period

In this study, which was carried out in order to identify the challenges experienced in distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic period and to propose solutions to these problems, the phenomenology design was used. Twelve experts who had experience of distance education during the COVID-19 period contributed to the study. The findings obtained within the scope of the study show that there are challenges such as the unpreparedness of institutions, insufficient infrastructure, increased digital divide among learners, and difficulties in measurement-evaluation processes and support services processes during the pandemic period. Regarding the solution of these problems, solutions such as investing in infrastructure, revising support services, using teaching techniques suitable for distance education, taking responsibility in learning processes, and changing measurement-evaluation techniques have been presented.

Exploring the Relation Between the Digital Divide and Government's Effort to Develop E-Participation

According to the digital divide theory, the provision of opportunities to broaden participation in political processes pose a challenge for governments worldwide. In this research, the authors analyze the relationship between the evolution governments' effort to develop citizen e-participation in public policy—measured through the UN's e-participation index—and that of national contexts variables identified by the digital divide theory at country level, using panel data for 178 countries over the period 2008-2016. The results confirm the strong and positive connection between EPI and economic development and technological infrastructure of the countries, ageing population associated to higher life standards, as well as a negative impact of rurality, gender, and political freedom and democracy result not influential, as well as education. Some practical implications derive from the findings, contributing to explain performance differences across different national settings and identifying current inequalities that still require public action to bridge the divide.