| Advancements in technology over the last two decades, have extended its reach beyond the educational and work sphere to the social, cultural, legal, and ethical aspects of our lives, creating a powerful impact on how we live, work, and connect with one another. But there are still groups where the penetration of technology is low: adults with little exposure to technology during their traditional learning years, users from lower SES, lower education levels, resulting in a digital divide between the digital haves and have-nots. This research project endeavored to study the phenomenon of digital divide through a set of theoretical frameworks: Rawls' principles of justice as fairness provided the overall social justice umbrella, Sen's capability approach grounded the study in the specificities of learners' lives and acknowledged learner diversity, and Horton's cultural education, Freire's critical consciousness, and Eubanks' critical technology education provided the pedagogical lens to understand the importance of the critical learning process in digital education. The phenomenon of digital divide was examined through the perspective of a group of non-traditional adult digital learners at a community-based technology learning center in order to illuminate what digital learning means to them in terms of their empowerment and agency, and how they might perceive conscientizacao in their learning process. The research project also examined obstacles to digital learning perceived by the learners and the actions to overcome these obstacles as identified by the participants. |
