Digital capital accumulation in schools, teachers, and students and academic achievement: Cross-country evidence from the PISA 2018

Abstract

The global unpreparedness for digital education became evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. To reassess the effectiveness of educational technology, we analyze PISA 2018 data using a framework of digital capital, encompassing the accumulation of technology and digital competencies embodied as hardware/software infrastructure and user competencies. We investigate the relationship between digital capital accumulated in schools, teachers, and students and academic achievement. Our results show that not all advanced ICT development in a country necessarily translates to teachers’ ICT integration in the classroom and students’ digital competence. Students’ digital readiness significantly affects their achievement, and when coupled with teachers’ ICT integration, students’ embodied digital capital has an even greater relation to academic performance.