The author argues that providing students with access to resources--without the necessary supports to make full use of that access--creates educational inequity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the digital divide and inequalities among learners and compelled the need to reimagine how teachers and educators teach and support student learning no matter where they live or to what tools they have access. This essay addresses the disruption in online education caused by the global health crisis, exploring…

In both schools and homes, information and communication technologies (ICT) are widely seen as enhancing learning, this hope fuelling their rapid diffusion and adoption throughout developed societies. But they are not yet so embedded in the social practices of everyday life as to be taken for granted, with schools proving slower to change their…

Media literacy is making a comeback, spurred by students' access to unlimited information on the Internet. Can schools provide the skills students need to become media literate in a digital world? Researchers find that reading for understanding online requires the same skills as offline reading, including using prior knowledge and making…

In this article, the authors write about the myth of the "silver surfers"--those third-age learners adept at using the internet and other technologies for a mixture of formal and informal learning episodes. The notion of the silver surfer has endured since the latter half of the 1990s. It is sustained by the annual Silver Surfer week, media…

Imagine a business that with great ingenuity and expenditure of resources placed a telephone line in every worker's office, but failed to provide phone receivers for them. A new CEO of the firm would immediately recognize the need to place a phone receiver in every office with a phone line to make those lines usable. This scenario is absurd…

In last month's "Adult Learning," the authors introduced the notion of "the silver surfer", a third-age learner adept at using the internet and other technologies for a mixture of formal and informal learning episodes. They suggested that neither this image nor its obverse, the truly disconnected older adult, is helpful in understanding the ICT…

In the third wave of computing, people will interact with multiple computers in multiple ways in every setting. The value of ubiquitous computing is enhanced and reinforced by another trend: the transition to a Web 2.0 world. In a Web 2.0 world, applications and data reside on the Web itself. Schools are not yet approaching a ratio of one…

When we planned the editorial calendar with the topic ubiquitous computing, we were thinking of ubiquitous computing as the one-to-one ratio of computers to students and teachers and 24/7 access to electronic resources. At the time, we were aware that ubiquitous computing in the computer science field had more to do with wearable computers. Our…

Describes the results of the mistaken identity of an Internet electronic discussion group for President Clinton's electronic mail office. Members' actions and reactions are discussed; guidelines for using electronic discussion groups are suggested; and the popularity of electronic communication is considered. (LRW)

This article presents an interview with Jeremy Koester, an eighth grade math teacher and football coach at Alamo Heights Junior School in San Antonio, Texas. In this interview, Koester describes his use of technology in his classes and describes his dream of advancing Second Life (SL) as a distance education environment. SL is a "3-D virtual…

One of the most prominent engineers and entrepreneurs in the country, Dr. Randal D. Pinkett keeps a high profile on issues related to minorities, technology and education. The holder of five degrees, Pinkett has built an academic record that includes a doctorate and MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was also named a…

This article presents an interview with Mark Ashwill, Director of the Institute of International Education-Vietnam in Ha Noi, Vietnam, a branch of the Institute of International Education (IIE). In this interview, Ashwill talks about his work as Director of the Institute of International Education-Vietnam, the role that communications technology…

The concept of bridging the digital divide between Africa and the rest of the world draws symbolically on nineteenth century diffusion theories of linear progress and twentieth-century theories of modernization and development. This paper examines information and communication technology (ICT) policies and public-access postings on…

In this end piece, the authors argue that while this special issue shifts debates on the digital divide to address students' capacity to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for productive social purposes, access to ICT remains a major challenge in countries like Uganda, in which less than 1% of the population has access to the…