#LTHEchat 243: Self exclusion – through digital inequalities

In many respects this tweetchat follows on from the fantastic discussion #LTHEchat 238: Digital Inequality led by Puiyin Wong @Puiyin, 15th June 2022. During this discussion we discovered that the three of us had made the same worrying observation during the pandemic. When we had to go online quickly one of the reasons we found students were sometimes not engaging was due to equipment at home; but there appeared to be unwillingness to admit to this. Post-pandemic, we still see some students choosing to self-exclude from technology enhanced learning activities rather than declare digital inequality issues. After some discussion we realised that we didn’t know the answer (or even a partial solution) to addressing this and therefore we are interested in insights from the community. Is this a pattern seen elsewhere? What can we do?

During this week’s tweetchat we will try and explore why this behaviour arises. Is it driven by the assumption that all students have access to the equipment and workspace both on campus and at home (and is this assumption correct)? Why might students choose not to be open about their challenges caused by digital inequalities (e.g. doing everything on a phone or poor wifi) and how this may lead to self-exclusion from their learning? Is this going to get worse in the short-term due to the cost of living crisis and in the longer term due to new technology such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) being used in learning?

How do we avoid increasing the digital divide between those who can buy kits for home and those that can’t? What can we do to mitigate this? Do these technology based approaches throw up accessibility issues, not just digital inequality?

Finally, is there anything that can be learned from previous leaps in technologies introduced into teaching pedagogy, for example the introduction and use of the internet, VLEs and associated software applications?

Facilitated invited chat around digital inequalities. Part of weekly programme LTHEChat on twitter around Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.