TY - JOUR
T1 - Digital divide among higher education faculty
AU - Soomro, Kamal Ahmed
AU - Kale, Ugur
AU - Curtis, Reagan
AU - Akcaoglu, Mete
AU - Bernstein, Malayna
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - Digital divide centers on access to various dimensions of information and communication technology (ICT) including physical access, motivation, skills, and actual usage of digital technologies. This divide tends to be even wider in the context of developing countries. Yet, there is a lack of literature on the digital divide among the faculty who teach in higher education settings. Thus, as a preliminary effort, by using a 57-item Faculty’s ICT Access (FICTA) scale, we investigated the digital inequalities (at the physical, motivational, skills, and usage levels) among Pakistani faculty in respect of their personal and positional categories. We also examined the relationship between faculty’s instructional usage of ICT and other dimensions of their ICT access. The findings revealed that there were significant differences in the faculty’s access to technology at the four levels in respect of their personal and positional categories. Further, the findings of the study shed light on the theoretical implications of the framework of successive kinds of ICT access suggested by van Dijk (The deepening divide: inequality in the information society, 2005).
AB - Digital divide centers on access to various dimensions of information and communication technology (ICT) including physical access, motivation, skills, and actual usage of digital technologies. This divide tends to be even wider in the context of developing countries. Yet, there is a lack of literature on the digital divide among the faculty who teach in higher education settings. Thus, as a preliminary effort, by using a 57-item Faculty’s ICT Access (FICTA) scale, we investigated the digital inequalities (at the physical, motivational, skills, and usage levels) among Pakistani faculty in respect of their personal and positional categories. We also examined the relationship between faculty’s instructional usage of ICT and other dimensions of their ICT access. The findings revealed that there were significant differences in the faculty’s access to technology at the four levels in respect of their personal and positional categories. Further, the findings of the study shed light on the theoretical implications of the framework of successive kinds of ICT access suggested by van Dijk (The deepening divide: inequality in the information society, 2005).
KW - Access to technology
KW - Digital divide
KW - Digital equity
KW - Faculty
KW - ICT
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85083666582&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s41239-020-00191-5
DO - 10.1186/s41239-020-00191-5
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85083666582
SN - 1698-580X
VL - 17
JO - International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education
JF - International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education
IS - 1
M1 - 21
ER -