Recent research has provided evidence that students' computer use at home is positively associated with their performance at school. However, most of the previous studies have failed to take into account the multiple determination of school performance and, in addition, to explain why using computers at home should benefit students' academic…

A lot of the study about how people use technology focuses on the youngest and swiftest: teens and college students. The revolution of sharing music files confirmed just how powerful this technological "voting bloc" is. Yet the high-tech population is diverse, encompassing seniors, midcareer workers--just about every type of person in…

This study investigated preschool teachers' beliefs and practices regarding the use of computer technology in teaching reading and writing in Jordan. The researcher developed a questionnaire consisting of two scales--Teachers' Beliefs Scale (TB Scale) and Teachers' Practices Scale (TP Scale)--to examine the role of computer technology in teaching…

Generational generalisations regarding how students interact with technology have been used in recent times to prompt calls for radical changes to the delivery of teaching in higher education. This article reports on a study aimed to investigate first-year students' technology access and usage in two contexts of use: everyday life and academic…

The purpose of this study is to examine the ICT usage and academic achievement of Turkish students in PISA 2006 data. The sample of the study included 4942 students from 160 schools. Frequencies, independent samples t-tests, ANOVAs, pearson correlation coefficients, exploratory factor analysis, and regression analysis were used. A high percentage…

This article summarises research carried out between 2006 and 2008 by IPTS (Institution for Prospective Technological Studies) in collaboration with a consortium of experts from 10 member states, led by ICEGEC. The project gathered information on eLearning developments to assess drivers and barriers and to suggest implications for policy and…

This study examines the effects of media resources in the parental home on the science performance of 15-year-old students. It employs data from the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) containing information on 345,967 respondents from 53 countries. Results show that media assets in the family home are indeed meaningful for…

Drawing on Archer's perspectives on the agency/structure relationship, this paper explains situations where students in varied, challenging circumstances find ways to negotiate difficult conditions. It reports on a 2007 study undertaken through a survey at three quite different universities in three South African provinces, addressing…

The purpose of this study is to determine the attitude of in-service science teachers towards information communication technology (ICT) in education. The study explores the relationship between in-service teachers and four independent variables: their attitudes toward computers; their cultural perception of computers; their perceived computer…

Web 2.0 technology not only offers the opportunity of massively parallel interconnected networks that support the provision of information and communication anytime and anywhere but also offers immense opportunities for collaboration and sharing of user-generated content. This information-rich environment may support both formal and informal…

Open educational resources (OER) have become new buzzwords in the glocalization of education. While OER are often espoused as enabling educational equity, the reality is not always the case. Looking only at the positives of new educational methods can mask perpetuating challenges, which makes the open aspect of OER a misnomer. Taking an…

This paper explores how girls take up, disrupt, and disavow interest in ICTs in their lives. It examines questions of access and of social risk in relation to computers in the home and how these are nuanced by gender. The paper draws on samples of text from advertisements, government websites and focus group interviews with high-school girls in…

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) initiated the Second International Technology in Education Study (SITES 2006)--a large-scale comparative survey on the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in schools. The goal was to understand the pedagogical use of ICTs in schools in 22…

This article examines women in Islamic countries with regard to sustainable futures, equity, and social justice. Some barriers to ICT use for women in the Middle East include access to computers, gender discrimination by employers, marginalized political participation, high rates of illiteracy, and lack of independence. Distance education offers a…

The potential of ICT for education and sustainable development cannot be underestimated. Using cases from some African countries and data from deprived regions in Ghana, this paper discusses the opportunities and challenges in ICT for education and sustainable development in underserved areas in Africa. Much as infrastructural development,…