Digital Equity in Education: Hong Kong Students’ Home Computing

Abstract

A digital divide continues to be reported across and within nations, first as an access issue and later as an issue of effective use. This presentation will explore the issues of digital equity in education by presenting research findings of two empirical studies in Hong Kong on students’ home computing. The first study will present findings of a territory-wide survey of 825 eighth-graders from 36 secondary schools. Results indicate significant socioeconomic and gender effects on the home computing of students. The second study will present an in-depth case study of 22 Hong Kong students aged from 7 to 18. Three salient clusters of users emerged from the data analysis, namely ‘celebrating’ users, ‘coping’ users, and ‘struggling’ users. The findings indicate that although information and communication technology (ICT) is thoroughly integrated with students’ everyday lives, some students lack the cultural or parenting resources required to build their capacity to effectively and meaningfully use ICT. The results reveal the significance of parental mediation and cultural capital for students’ ICT use and thus digital equity. Policy implications of the findings to ICT in education will be discussed.