Annotated Bibliography

DiMaggio, Paul and Eszter Hargittai.
“From the 'Digital Divide' to 'Digital Inequality': Studying Internet Use as Penetration Increases.” Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies. Princeton University, 1 - 25. 2001.

Dimaggio’s and Hargittai’s piece is an in-depth analysis of technological inequality and scarcity, but also sheds light on the impact of what is considered internet penetration, or a country’s/region’s percentage of the total population that uses the Internet. Despite being quite older in age, I caught myself comparing my own preconceived notions of the digital divide to the advent of this technological inequality. The work itself pushes others, specifically those that have suffered from this technology scarcity in the past, to better understand and research the reasons behind the phenomenon. I see this piece as a window to better understanding what technologic inequality is, especially with regard to the internet versus more physical technologic tools.

"Expand the focus of research the 'Digital Divide' between 'haves' and 'have-nots' to the full range of digital inequality in equipment, autonomy, skill, support, and scope of use among people who are already on-line."

Ferguson, Rebecca and Simon Buckingham.
“Towards a Social Learning Space for Open Educational Resources.” Collaborative Learning 2.0: Open Educational Resources. IGI Global, 309 – 27. 2012.

“Towards a Social Learning Space” discusses the multitude of skills one can practice in an online open social learning space. While my project will discuss the crossroads of social justice and digital dispositions and frameworks, Ferguson’s and Buckingham’s article will aid in defining what exactly these terms mean, with an emphasis to more of the digital side. The tension between my project’s own emphasis of technologic scarcity and the “openness”-a term used a number of times within this piece- will actually help bridge the gap between ways in which I see these dispositions and frameworks playing out in classrooms that address technologic inequality head on. I hope to also critique aspects of the “social”, or as we’ve been coining in class, “netizen”, as they come to fruition in unequal technological spaces.

"Our interest in such 'learning to learn' research is that it provides insights into the processes that
strong and weak learners go through."

Valadez, James R. and Richard Duran.
“Redefining the Digital Divide: Beyond Access to Computers and the Internet.” The High School Journal, vol. 90, no. 3. 31 - 44. 2007.

Valadez’s and Duran’s article critiques the differences between schools with easy online access/access to technology-or in their terms, “high resource”-and classrooms that go without, “low resource”. They spend special attention to how these resources go on to dictate the kinds of class activities, homework, and discourse communities students and teachers practice/occupy, or in other words, the impact that technological inequality has within such classrooms. Closing these differences between high and low resource classrooms is the nexus of my semester project and will be integral in putting together lesson plans that-in a social pedagogy kind of way-embody these concerns of technological inequality; this will be possible with a keen understanding of how tools influences others learning explained within “Redefining the Digital Divide.”

"...how high and low poverty schools differ in terms of access, use, and support of the integration of information technology in teachers' classrooms."

Adams, Maurianne.
“Pedagogical Foundations for Social Justice Education. ” Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice. Edited by Maurianne Adams, Lee Anne Bell, and Pat Griffin. 3rd ed, Routledge, 27 - 53. 2007.

Since I am not as well-versed in social justice pedagogy -but am interested in applying these concepts within my project, “Pedagogical Foundations” has definitely helped me to get a handle on how to craft lesson plans that not only address technological inequality, but does so in a way that actually incorporates practices derived from that inequality. It is in this way, and by using this source, that I can articulate how my piece addresses not only social justice education but digital education at the same time. Principles such as “inclusivity,” “acknowledgement of marginalized and oppressed people,” and “constant awareness/vigilance of inequalities” will play key role in how I facilitate my lesson plans and framework for discussing technological inequality specifically within the classroom.

"Through highlighting the historical and contextual nature of this process here, we hope to avoid the danger of reifying systems of oppression as static or treating individuals as unidimensional and unchanging. History illustrates both how tenacious and variable systems of oppression are and how dynamic and creative we must continue to be to rise to the challenges they pose."

Selwyn, Neil.
“The Messy Realities of Digital Technology Use in Schools.” Schools and Schooling in the Digital Age: A Critical Analysis. Routledge, 22 - 37. 2011.

Selwyn’s chapter describes the obstacles both educators and students must overcome when utilizing technology as an educational tool. Among concerns raised in “Messy Realities” includes the failure to recognize the digital multiplicities inherent in these frameworks, and how that impacts bringing them to students. A relevant area unbreached includes my project’s focus of utilizing digital dispositions in a way that recognizes technological disparity, as well as the social justice implications and rationale behind why teaching such dispositions in this way is necessary-so that the pedagogies used in class epitomize the concerns actually being discussed. The piece also explicitly mentions digital dispositions, characterizing the term as a mindset on how to navigate throughout technological spaces on and off the grid.

"The use of digital technology is now a key feature of schools and schooling around the world. Yet despite its prominence, technology use continues to be an area of education that rarely receives sustained critical attention and thought, especially from those people who are most involved and affected by it."

Grant, Lyndsay and Rebecca Eynon.
“Digital Divides and Social Justice in Technology-Enhanced Learning.” Technology Enhanced Learning Research Themes. Edited by Erik Duval, Mike Sharples, and Rosamund Sutherland. Springer International Publishing AG 157 - 69. 2017.

Grant and Eynon begin to combine elements of the digital and social justice worlds by talking about the social implications of using technology through their terminology of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). Themselves derived from technology and digital spaces, I hope to explain digital dispositions as a sect of TEL. “Digital Divides and Social Justice” directly take on how pedagogy can be used to answer what is essentially just as much a social justice issue as it is a technological one. In synthesizing previous work within the fields of social justice and technology, this source comments on the lack qualitative research within classrooms; ideally one would be able to better begin such research by using the frameworks developed in my project.

"Digital inequality is a social injustice itself, but some research also explores how technology-enhanced learning might offer opportunities to address other social inequalities."

Annotated Bibliography

DiMaggio, Paul and Eszter Hargittai.“From the 'Digital Divide' to 'Digital Inequality': Studying Internet Use as Penetration Increases.” Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies. Princeton University, 1 - 25. 2001.

Ferguson, Rebecca and Simon Buckingham.“Towards a Social Learning Space for Open Educational Resources.” Collaborative Learning 2.0: Open Educational Resources. IGI Global, 309 – 27. 2012.

Valadez, James R. and Richard Duran.“Redefining the Digital Divide: Beyond Access to Computers and the Internet.” The High School Journal, vol. 90, no. 3. 31 - 44. 2007.

Adams, Maurianne.“Pedagogical Foundations for Social Justice Education. ” Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice. Edited by Maurianne Adams, Lee Anne Bell, and Pat Griffin. 3rd ed, Routledge, 27 - 53. 2007.

Selwyn, Neil.“The Messy Realities of Digital Technology Use in Schools.” Schools and Schooling in the Digital Age: A Critical Analysis. Routledge, 22 - 37. 2011.