Media

HKU Faculty of Education to disseminate research findings on “Understanding the digital generation and digital divide in education: A Hong Kong story”

22 Mar 2015

Public Policy Research project ‘Digital Divide in Education: An Experiential Understanding’

The Principal Investigator of the research team on ‘Digital Divide in Education’ Dr. Allan H.K. Yuen and co-investigators will release research findings from a two-year project entitled ‘Digital Divide in Education: An Experiential Understanding’ on March 24 (Tuesday).

This project is funded by the Government’s Central Policy Unit and the Research Grants Council; it aims to conduct in-depth case studies of 22 students from junior primary to senior secondary to investigate their use of information and communication technology (ICT) for their formal and informal learning in school and outside school. Multiple sources of data were collected through direct observations, related school documents, self-reports, student work, and interviews of students, teachers, principals and parents.

A conceptual framework based on cultural capital and parental mediation will be presented to shed light on understanding the complexity of digital equity in education. Research findings indicate a general pattern of digital orientations among Hong Kong students, and differences in socioeconomic status, academic performance, gender, and levels of study. Three types of prominent user patterns were identified, namely productive users, average users, and struggling users. Each type of users is characterized in terms of their ICT use in school and at home, in particular how different types of users are in connection to parental mediation strategies. A gap between types of users in ICT use and parental mediation is apparent. Finally, recommendations to policy-makers, schools, and parents are made, in order to provide appropriate policy questions and formulations on ICT-related education and digital equity.

Media representatives are cordially invited to attend the press briefing on the major findings of the case studies. Details are as follows:
Date: March 24, 2015 (Tuesday)
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Venue: Room 101, Runme Shaw Building, HKU
Speaker:  Dr Allan H.K. Yuen, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, HKU
Research Team: Dr Wilfred Lau, Dr Jae Park, Dr Dan Wang, Dr Lu Chen, Miss M. Cheng
Language:  Cantonese and English

For media enquiries, please contact Ms. Queenie Wong, Senior Manager (Development and Communications), Faculty of Education, HKU (Tel: 2219 4270 / fax: 2540 6360 / email: qlpwong@hku.hk).