Amy Antonio

The Gender Digital Divide in Developing Countries

Empirical studies clearly show that women in the developing world have significantly lower technology participation rates than men; a result of entrenched socio-cultural attitudes about the role of women in society. However, as studies are beginning to show, when those women are able to engage with Internet technology, a wide range of personal, family and community benefits become possible. The key to these benefits is on-line education, the access to which sets up a positive feedback loop. This review gives an overview of the digital divide, before focusing specifically on the challenges women in developing countries face in accessing the Internet. Current gender disparities in Internet use will be outlined and the barriers that potentially hinder womens access and participation in the online world will be considered. We will then look at the potential opportunities for womens participation in a global digital society along with a consideration of current initiatives that have been developed to mitigate gender inequity in developing countries. We will also consider a promising avenue for future research.

Creating Educational Networking Opportunities with Scoop.it

The adoption of social media technologies by higher education institutions reflects a significant change in learning paradigms. The traditional classroom model in which instructors were the sole source of information and knowledge is being replaced by a social constructivist model that allows learners to work together to share and create content. This study explores the potential of the digital curation platform Scoop.it as a networking tool among a group of first year Information Communication Technology (ICT) students. It will be shown that Scoop.it is a useful platform for the creation and sharing of information resources with other students and the wider community. Scoop.it facilitates the creation of networks for information sharing and knowledge building, which will be referred to as educational networking, but was less successful as a platform for forming social connections.

Bridging the Age-based Digital Divide

An increasing reliance on digital technology in ones everyday life necessitates the development of digital literacy skills to enable ones continued participation in the Internet information-age. As existing services, such as banking and shopping, move increasingly online, the likelihood of excluding certain demographic groups, such as the elderly and those living in rural areas, increases exponentially. The following article outlines the results of a pilot study that explored the perceived digital literacy skills of a group of adults in a rural community. It will be shown that despite relatively low confidence levels reported by the participants, they were nevertheless keen to learn how to use digital technologies. Based on participant feedback, the study concludes that there is a need to develop pedagogical strategies to teach digital literacy skills to older adults, particularly those living in rural and remote areas.

We know our place: Indigenous community research and the ever-evaporating critical qualitative research tradition

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to use the experience of attempting to locate funding for three contiguous components of a research program to be undertaken in remote areas of Queensland to reflect upon the increasing challenges to critical qualitative research in the Australian context. Design/methodology/approach – This paper utilizes forms and formats of the composite narrator, narrative inquiry and autoethnographic techniques in putting their lived experience into the context of the neoliberalized university. Findings – As the research team developed and pursued a funding application through various university committees, the value of their work and the ways in which they were being increasingly marginalized qua researchers became starkly apparent to them. Originality/value – While Appadurai’s concern was to try to understand the inexplicable and seemingly inordinate fear of small numbers that, in contemporary times, causes large majority groups to launch horrendous campaigns of erasure against...

First Year Engagement & Retention: A Goal-Setting Approach

First year students face a daunting range of challenges as they make the transition to university life. Their experiences in the first months of university have a defining influence on their success or otherwise in their studies. The purpose of this paper is to report on the results of a case study that tests the efficacy of a student engagement and retention strategy aimed at first year students. The strategy encourages self-reflection and goal-setting by encouraging them to think constructively about their ideal future career. Once created, this idea is reinforced to become a firm goal. The student’s perception of university study is thus reframed from being an end in itself to being a means to an end. Instead of perceiving the future as endless assignments and exams, they see themselves moving purposefully towards their ideal career. This paper, therefore, describes a three-stage case study that explores the effectiveness of this engagement strategy with a cohort of 258 demographically-diverse first-year ICT students enrolled in a Bachelor of IT program. In the first stage of the strategy, the lecturer spends 20 minutes of the first four lectures presenting material across a range of cutting-edge technology topics. In addition to this, the characteristics of high-performing IT professionals are elucidated. The objective of this stage is to paint a picture of a creative, high-performing practitioner who is producing cutting-edge work. In the second stage, an assessment item is set in which the students explore their ideal career using a Web 2.0 digital curation tool; in the third stage, a series of three questionnaires are administered, the results of which are analysed to determine the students’ attitude towards the engagement strategy. In the final analysis, 63.4% of students surveyed indicated that the exercise had helped them to become more committed to finishing their degree program. It is suggested that this strategy could be generalised to work with other disciplines besides information technology. The results are sufficiently encouraging for a formal follow-up study to be performed in two and a half years, when this cohort are nearing the end of their degree program, to determine what longer term effect the engagement and retention strategy might have had on the students’ commitment to their study.

Open Learning and Formal Credentialing in Higher Education: Curriculum Models and Institutional Policies.

The discipline of education is a multi-faceted system that must constantly integrate new strategies and procedures to ensure successful learning experiences. Enhancements in education provide learners with greater opportunities for growth and advancement. Open Learning and Formal Credentialing in Higher Education: Curriculum Models and Institutional Policies is an authoritative reference source for the latest scholarly research on learner-focused approaches within adult education environments. Featuring expansive coverage on topics relating to open education, lifelong learning, and formal qualifications, this book is a crucial reference source for researchers, educators, policy makers, and educational administrators interested in the relationship between formal credentials and open education. This book features timely, research-based chapters across a variety of relevant topics including, but not limited to, educational resources, lifelong learning achievements, and the benefits of formal qualifications and licensing.

Enhancing educational opportunities with computer-mediated assessment feedback

As internet technologies make their way into developing areas, so too does the possibility of education and training being delivered to the people living in those previously unserved areas. The growing catalogue of free, high quality courseware, when combined with the newly acquired means of delivery, creates the potential for millions of people in the developing world to acquire a good education. Yet a good education obviously requires more than simply delivering information; students must also receive high quality feedback on their assessments. They must be told how their performance compares with the ideal, and be shown how to close the gap between the two. However, delivering high quality feedback is labor-intensive, and therefore expensive, and has long been recognized as a problematic issue by educators. This paper outlines a case study that uses a Learning Management System (LMS) to efficiently deliver detailed feedback that is informed by the principles of best practice. We make the case that the efficiencies of this method allow for large-scale courses with thousands of enrolments that are accessible to developing and developed areas alike. We explore the question; is computer-mediated feedback delivery efficient and effective and might it be applied to large-scale courses at low-cost?