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Digital Divides and Social Justice in Technology-Enhanced Learning

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Technology Enhanced Learning

Abstract

In this chapter we bring together the work on digital divides and social justice with the field of Technology Enhanced Learning. We provide an overview of four key papers that help to conceptualise the complex set of relationships that explain the different ways that people use (or do not use) technology and the likely outcomes this has in terms of social and educational opportunities. We then move on to explore the ways that policy makers and practitioners in TEL may help to address these differences, both within formal and informal contexts of learning, and highlight why many well intended initiatives fail. We argue that a more nuanced understanding of the complex nature of the digital divide, alongside a multi-faced research approach is required, and highlight two potential fruitful areas for further work for TEL researchers—recognising learning outside the mainstream education system and education for citizenship and political engagement. Ultimately, whatever the focus taken, we suggest that TEL researchers need to bring together efforts to tackle digital inequalities and digital approaches to tackling social and educational inequalities within a broader programme of policy and practice that commits to tackling inequalities at every level of society.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See http://microsites.oii.ox.ac.uk/oxis/; http://www2.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/EUKidsOnline/Home.aspx; http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home/; http://www.pew.org/; http://www.worldinternetproject.net respectively.

  2. 2.

    http://one.laptop.org/.

  3. 3.

    http://www.oerafrica.org.

  4. 4.

    https://www.hastac.org/collections/badges-learning-research.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol, 35 Berkeley Square, Bristol, BS8 1JA, UK

    Lyndsay Grant

  2. Oxford Internet Institute, 1 St Giles Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3JS, UK

    Rebecca Eynon

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  1. Lyndsay Grant
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  2. Rebecca Eynon
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Correspondence to Lyndsay Grant .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Katholieke Universitiet Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Erik Duval

  2. Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

    Mike Sharples

  3. Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom

    Rosamund Sutherland

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Grant, L., Eynon, R. (2017). Digital Divides and Social Justice in Technology-Enhanced Learning. In: Duval, E., Sharples, M., Sutherland, R. (eds) Technology Enhanced Learning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02600-8_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02600-8_15

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