Digital Equity

This chapter discusses digital equity through the lens of the digital divide. While the digital divide is as old as information communication technology itself (ICT), the COVID-19 health crisis renewed a strident interest in exposing the significant gap that still exists after close to 30 years. The digital divide then is first contextualized within the coronavirus pandemic to illustrate how inequities came further to the forefront of people's agenda. It then moves to discuss the digital divide defining the complex term and offering critical data to illustrate the areas of the world most impacted by this unfortunate reality. Different organizations and groups have made significant moves to narrow the digital gap. These strategies are discussed next. None of these groups will be fully successful if, as will be argued, they are not concerned with digital equity. Finally, the chapter makes some critical observations on future challenges facing ICT vis-à-vis the digital divide.

How Korean K-12 Educators Adapted to Online Teaching and Promoted Digital Equity During COVID-19: A Mixed-Method Study on Practices and Perceptions

The abrupt transitions to online teaching during COVID-19 have exacerbated educational discrepancies worldwide. South Korean schools faced similar challenges primarily due to the insufficient infrastructure and pedagogical guidelines for online teaching. This mixed-method case study investigated how Korean K-12 teachers and administrators converted to online teaching and addressed related digital equity issues during their first semester of online teaching in response to the pandemic. Interviews, as well as survey responses at the beginning and end of the semester, were analyzed through Activity Theory (AT) and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) frameworks. The study's key insights were that the digital equity issue is related to quality teaching issues beyond infrastructural problems and that teachers took various strategies to maximize the effectiveness of their blended teaching. We aim to shed light on supporting equitable online learning and sustaining positive changes in the post-COVID era.

Planning to maintain the status quo? A comparative study of digital equity plans of four large US cities

The term digital equity is at the forefront of municipal government planning to mitigate digital equity. Digital equity signifies a desired future to be achieved, yet its meaning is not well-established. As such, planning for digital equity offers an opportunity for new discursive construction. This study examines how municipal governments have constructed the concept of digital equity through textual evidence, the digital equity plans of Kansas City, MO, Portland, OR, San Francisco, CA, and Seattle, WA. Adopting an approach from critical discourse studies, comparative analysis of the texts demonstrates how digital equity plans conceive of digital equity, characterize current problematic circumstances, and prescribe actions to make change. The plans have strikingly little to say about why digital inequality has emerged, yet they prescribe actions that indicate a more complex understanding of the problem than they articulate. The dynamics of policy diffusion suggest that the work of early adopters will influence other municipalities to create similar plans. Thus, the current moment is ripe for scholars to influence municipal planning for digital equity and participate in its discursive construction in both academic research and policymaking circles.

Generic Digital Equity Model in Education: Mobile-Assisted Personalized Learning (MAPL) through e-Modules

This study addresses the challenges most learners face in Third World and developing countries concerning education accessibility in an emergency. On the basis of the shortcomings found in a review of past studies, this scoping review introduces adapted model mobile-assisted personalized learning (MAPL), which focused on full distance learning using the personalized learning (PL) concept. This concept is rarely used in the classrooms of Third World and developing countries. MAPL is technology-integrated and customized PL but it does not depend on artificial intelligence. This model bridges the digital divide that hinders learners in accessing education by providing flexibility, regardless of weak internet reception or low bandwidth, among other hindrances, in Third World or developing countries. Learners in these countries inevitably opt for mobile devices as their preferred learning tool. MAPL is necessary and can aid underprivileged learners who are highly dependent on mobile devices. Rethinking and reforming current teaching practices are required. In this study, a pool of 60 articles from 2011 to 2021 was qualitatively synthesized. Among the articles, 29 focused on PL, 15 on mobile learning, and 16 on the potentials of MAPL. The findings indicate that MAPL could be a viable solution for achieving equity in education for every learner during full-fledged distance learning.

Positioning Students to Explore Math with Technology

The authors discuss digital equity from the perspective of using math action technologies to position all students as mathematics explorers.

Editorial: Systemic Perspectives on New Alignments During COVID-19: Digital Challenges and Opportunities

This overview of the articles presented in this issue considers the digital challenges and opportunities of the systemic perspectives on new alignments resulting from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. New challenges and opportunities were addressed by the 13 working groups of EDUsummIT2019 prior to the pandemic. However, the evidence and analyses presented in this issue have built on those originally identified perspectives by reviewing recent (2020/2021) research, development and practice across many educational sectors and contexts. We have shown that the status quo in the majority of education systems across the world has been thrown out of kilter. This has resulted in new alignments needing to be made to take account of the enforced remote learning when schools have been closed and blended learning has become widely practised even at school level. The most prominent of these have been caused by changes in digital equity which consequently imposes new challenges to policy makers, teachers and learners. This special issue stimulates reflection in and on practice as well as help problematizing new research challenges.

Virtual exchange: towards digital equity in internationalisation

This volume includes a collection of short papers presented at the second International Virtual Exchange Conference (IVEC) hosted virtually at Newcastle University in September 2020. The contributions address the conference theme, towards digital equity in internationalisation, and offer fresh insights into the current state and future of online intercultural communication and collaborative learning. Providing examples of interdisciplinary, multinational, and multimodal research and pedagogy in virtual exchange from around the world, this book will appeal to educators, administrators, researchers, and internationalisation leads in higher education interested in supporting and implementing virtual exchange.