Digital Literacy to Bridge the Gender Digital Divide: A Phenomenographic Study of the Digital Diversity for Arab Graduate Women in the United States

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Abo Alasrar, Heyam F.
Language:English
Published: Ohio University / OhioLINK 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1490153673225496
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spelling ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-ohiou14901536732254962021-08-03T07:00:57Z Digital Literacy to Bridge the Gender Digital Divide: A Phenomenographic Study of the Digital Diversity for Arab Graduate Women in the United States Abo Alasrar, Heyam F. Educational Technology Middle Eastern Studies Womens Studies Information Technology Instructional Design Digital Literacy Digital Divide Phenomenography Arab Women, The digital divide exists worldwide. One of the forms of the digital divide is the gender digital divide: the unequal access of Internet use among men and women. Typically, women are perceived as less capable of gaining digital skills. Through a phenomenographic approach, the researcher conducted an empirical and interpretative inquiry to map the qualitatively different ways in which Arab women in the United States understand the use of technology in their lives, the skills needed for technology use, and how they define a digitally literate person. The study also explored their relation with technology and compared their experiences in using technology in the United States to their experience in their home country. The purpose of this study was to show the variation in women’s perception of technology and to understand how to design strategies that can bridge the gender digital gap in the Arab world. Twenty women from different colleges at a Midwestern university were interviewed. Semi-structured questions were used to help women reflect on their experiences with technology. The data analysis formed five qualitatively different categories that described the ways Arab graduate women experienced the use of technology. These five categories described digital literacy as: a basic need, a contextual need, a need to connect, a lifestyle, and as an awareness of 4 the Internet culture. The categories describe digital literacy as understood by those women and what skills, from their perspective, a digital person should possess. 2017-06-12 English text Ohio University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1490153673225496 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1490153673225496 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.
collection NDLTD
language English
sources NDLTD
topic Educational Technology
Middle Eastern Studies
Womens Studies
Information Technology
Instructional Design
Digital Literacy
Digital Divide
Phenomenography
Arab Women,
spellingShingle Educational Technology
Middle Eastern Studies
Womens Studies
Information Technology
Instructional Design
Digital Literacy
Digital Divide
Phenomenography
Arab Women,
Abo Alasrar, Heyam F.
Digital Literacy to Bridge the Gender Digital Divide: A Phenomenographic Study of the Digital Diversity for Arab Graduate Women in the United States
author Abo Alasrar, Heyam F.
author_facet Abo Alasrar, Heyam F.
author_sort Abo Alasrar, Heyam F.
title Digital Literacy to Bridge the Gender Digital Divide: A Phenomenographic Study of the Digital Diversity for Arab Graduate Women in the United States
title_short Digital Literacy to Bridge the Gender Digital Divide: A Phenomenographic Study of the Digital Diversity for Arab Graduate Women in the United States
title_full Digital Literacy to Bridge the Gender Digital Divide: A Phenomenographic Study of the Digital Diversity for Arab Graduate Women in the United States
title_fullStr Digital Literacy to Bridge the Gender Digital Divide: A Phenomenographic Study of the Digital Diversity for Arab Graduate Women in the United States
title_full_unstemmed Digital Literacy to Bridge the Gender Digital Divide: A Phenomenographic Study of the Digital Diversity for Arab Graduate Women in the United States
title_sort digital literacy to bridge the gender digital divide: a phenomenographic study of the digital diversity for arab graduate women in the united states
publisher Ohio University / OhioLINK
publishDate 2017
url http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1490153673225496
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