Digital Divide in Rural Tertiary Education

Abstract

Recent studies show that Digital Divide continue to exist persistently despite efforts in a global scale to address the same through diffusion of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Inequality of access to technology as the main driving force behind these efforts, suffered deficiencies to fully capture the entire picture of the gap. The focus now is on the ability to use the technology among those who have access to it where skill and education plays a pivotal role. This is supported by findings of certain studies where digital skill particularly strategic and operational skill dictates a new frontier for bridging the gap especially in rural areas of developing countries where it is prevalent. To investigate whether there exists a digital divide among students enrolled with computer related programs in Eastern Samar State University Borongan City, Eastern Samar Philippines, the researchers conducted a survey using a questionnaire employed by Krause (2014) primarily based on LoTi H.E.A.T. Digital Age Survey developed by Dr. Chris Moersch of the LoTi Institute Carlsbad, California with modification. Data regarding gadgets and access to internet were solicited from the respondents including their perception about their related skills and later analyze and described using descriptive statistics. Results revealed that there exists a digital divide among the four groups of students (BSIT, BSCS, BSCpE, ACT) in terms of availability/access to internet and related technologies including a substantial deficiency in skill/knowledge to use the same.