| Summary: | 碩士 === 佛光人文社會學院 === 教育資訊學研究所 === 93 === A Study of Digital Divide Among Primary and Junior high schools in Yilan County
Shu-Hao Lee
Abstract
In recent years, so much impetus has been made to promote information technology skills in school children and to reduce digital divide between schools in general and remote areas. The aim of this study is to investigate whether digital divide exists between primary and junior schools, and between schools in general and remote areas in Yilan county. Through literature review, this study first identified indicators of digital divide and then extend to further examine issues related to performance and opportunities of information access in different areas and different types of schools, from the perspectives of school technology coordinators. It is intended to understand how different or common the problems are for schools of different types and different areas when it comes to implementing information technology education. Questionnaires were sent to all school technology coordinators in primary and junior schools in Yilan county. Ninety one out of 105 schools responded to the questionnaire, resulting an 87% valid response rate. Descriptive statistics are used to analyze the data.
The major findings are summarized as follows:
1.Based on the indicators examined in this study, there is no one-sided disadvantage for either schools in general districts or remote districts in the opportunities and performances of information access. While schools in general districts have lower person-computer ratio, those schools in remote districts are relatively less active and weaker in participating and winning information technology competition, compared to schools in general districts. In addition, it is comparatively less common for teachers in general districts to use information technology in their teaching than teachers in remote districts.
2.Disparities are obtained within school types, with primary schools being relatively weak in several items compared, particularly in the domain of information technology performance. Compared to teachers in junior high schools, it is relatively less common for teachers in primary schools to actually use technology in their teaching. In addition, compared to junior high schools, less computer programs or information literacy programs are planned for students above grade four in primary schools. Furthermore, primary schools are shown to be disadvantaged in competing with junior high schools in participating technology-application contests.
3.Those schools subsidized by the Ministry of Education to be the “seed schools” for information technology education are shown to perform better, than the non-seed (or unsubsidized) schools, in winning competitions, and offering information and technology literacy programs to both teachers and students. It shows that seed schools do give weight to information technology education and are benefited from being a seed school.
Finally, concrete recommendations for relevant government departments are suggested in order to improve the current divided situations; in addition, suggestions for further research are also included.
Keyword：Digital divide; Information technology education; School Technology Coordinator; School Technology Teacher; Information access
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