Online Educa Berlin. eLene- EE (Economics of e- learning)

Index  Welcome (Mikael Sjöberg): 5 minutes  Project overview and connection with main objectives (David Castillo): 5 minutes  WP1: Cost-Benefit Analysis (Niklas Hanes and David Castillo): 30 minutes  WP2: Students Achievement (David Castillo and Toni Femenias): 30 minutes  Coffee break: 20 minutes  WP3: E-learning Indicators (Susanna Sancassani and Andrzej Wodecki): 40 minutes  WP4: E-learning and Digital Divide (Adel Ben Youssef): 40 minutes  Summary and topics for further discussion (Deborah Arnold): 10 minutes

Project overview – Economic Framework  Universities have important challenges: generalise access to education, improve educational attainment levels, respond to social demand of lifelong learning and fit workers needs of specific skills and abilities.  E-learning is a good opportunity for universities to reach these objectives, as a general diffusion of education may lead to significant benefits.  Individual benefits: higher productivity and wages, higher likelihood to participate in the labour market, greater probability to experience less unemployment, effects on health, on intergenerational cognitive development, better analytical skills, better adoption of consumption technology, higher saving rates.  Social benefits: improvement of productivity levels and rates of economic growth and spillover effects to the whole society.  eLene-EE objectives:  WP1. Efficiency  WP2. Student’s performance  WP3. Indicators  WP4. Digital divide.

Project overview – Economic Framework  Rapid knowledge creation and easy access to knowledge: the emergence of a knowledge-based economy  ICT can be seen as a suitable technological base for knowledge economy development  The main hypothesis is that ICT are the technical paradigm on which current dynamics of the industrial revolution is based.  ICT can be situated at the material basis of the economic growth for many developed countries since  Productivity increase is consistent with a positive trend in labour quality explained by the rise in average levels of educational attainment.  It is confirmed the existence of complementarities between technical and organisational change and skilled labour input through the demand for specific skills and abilities.

EDUCA BERLIN – 12th International Conference on Technology Supported Learning & Training November 29 – December 1, 2006 From Digital divides to Digital Trajectories (WP 4) Adel Ben Youssef ADIS – University of Paris Sud - France

1. DIGITAL DIVIDE : GENERAL ASPECTS  Concept widely used but poorly defined in the economic literature  A concept linked to the agenda of international institutions : United Nations, EOCD, ITU…  ICTs cause Inequalities (social exclusion)  Main theoretical contributions : (Long-Scott, 1995), (T. Arquette, 2002) (Scadias, 2002), (OCDE, 2004), (Corrocher et Ordanini, 2002), (Pohjola, 2002), (Koski, Rouvinen et Ylä-Anttila, 2002), (Antonelli, 2003), (Steinmuller 2002), (Rallet et Rochelandet, 2003), (Bo Carlsson, 2004).

2. Definition of Digital Divides (EOCD, 2001)  “The gap between individuals, households, business and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels with regard both to their opportunities to access information and communication technologies (ICTs) and to their use of Internet for a wide variety of activities.  The digital divide reflects various differences among and within countries. The ability of individuals and businesses to take advantage of ICTs varies significantly across the OECD area as well between OECD and non member countries. Access to basic telecommunications infrastructures is fundamental to any consideration of the issue, as it precedes and is more widely available than access to and use of the Internet.”

3. Different levels of Digital Divides  Among countries : Global digital divide  Among regions within a country : Spatial digital divide  Among urban and non urban areas  Among group of persons (ethnic DD,...)  Among groups of persons (aged people vs young people...)

4. Why Inequalities (Explanations of Digital Divides)  Income (Ebo, 1998),  Occupation (Losh, 2004, McLaren & Zappalא,2002),  Gender and Age (DiMaggio, 2004),  Education (Rainie, 2004, Rainie & Packel, 2001),  geographic centrality (Chen & Wellman, 2003, Rainie, 2004),  Ethnicity and race (Hoffman et al., 2000, Hoffman et al., 1999, Novak et al., 1997),  language (Foulger, 2001),  skills (Robinson, 2003),  autonomy (Dasgupta et al., 2002),  affordability (OECD, 2001),  competitive market structure (Dutta & Jain, 2004),  communication infrastructure (Horrigan & Rainie, 2004, Horrigan, 2004a,, 2004b, Katz & Rice, 2003, Wareham et al., 2004).

5. Four types of Digital Divides  First Level Digital divide (Access to ICTs)  Infrastructures  Telecommunications Equipments  Second Level Digital divide (varieties of Uses of Educational ICTs):  Uses, Intensity of uses, and Diversity of uses  Third Level of Digital divide (Performances) :  Why some people perform better than other when they use ICT?  Fourth Level of digital divides (Learning divide)  Level of learning, way of learning, the process of learning

6. Educational ICTs  A wide range (continuum) of digital pedagogical tools is nowadays available to teachers and students. They include Computers, , electronic presentations, Discussion Room, Platforms, Visio-conference, interactive white board, Wikis, Blogs, Podcasts…  These new tools have different impacts on the learning process since they change its scope (new students, people all over the world, worldwide competition,…), its methods (course size, learning events, online exercises, simulations, auto- evaluation,…), and its sequencing (full time face-to-face, full time on-line, blended learning, long-life learning…).

7. Four types of Educational Digital Divides  First Level Digital divide (Access to EICTs)  What are the main determinant of access to e-learning as a lifelong education mechanism?  What are the basic technologies and are all persons able to accede to these technologies?  Second Level Digital divide (varieties of Uses of Educational ICTs): How people use the educative ICT? Diversity of uses, efficient use, models of use, best practices, Intensity of uses  Third Level of Digital divide (Performances) :  Why some people perform better than other when they use EICT? (job market and achievement)?  Learning process digital divides  Are some people (regions, groups of persons) developping new models of learning more efficient than others.

8. First level of Educational Digital Divide  What are the main technologies and how students accede to these technologies (Internet, Computers, Mobile phone, Platforms...)  First level of Digital divides are explained mainly by differences in : revenues, technological profiles (competences in ICT), Education levels…  Public policies are very important at this stage (equipment, access to the technology…)  This question is not a novelty (First level of digital divide in general)

Example : Average number of students per computer, 2000 and 2003 United-states63 Norway76 United kingdom84 Sweden126 Italy168 Spain2412 Deutschland2412 Finland106 Japan145 Portugal7414 Greece5812

9. Second level of Educational Digital Divide  Uses : How people use the educative ICTs? Is there any national patterns?  Main uses of ICT in education (short list): communication (between students, between students and teachers…), cooperation (between students), interactions...  information…  Explaining the differences in uses among persons in e- learning setting and among countries  Explaining the Intensity of uses of ICT (Leguel, Pénard and Suire, 2002, 2004 and 2005), Leguel (2004 and 2006)

10. Third level Educational Digital Divide  Performances : How people perform after using the educative ICTs? Is there any national patterns? (Labour Market and Education outcomes)  Three main outcomes:  Achievement  Returns on the job market  Externalities  Explaining the differences in performances among persons in e-learning setting and among countries. Micro- performances and Macro-performances

11. Outcomes of Educational ICT ICT based education Labour Market (Supply/Demand) Education outcomes Education (quality, achievement, costs, spillovers, time allocation...) e-skills (shortage, gaps and mismatch) INPUTSOUTPUTS

12. Micro-economic approach Achievement and Computers : A puzzle  Three conclusions provided by econometric estimations  No impact  Dinardo and Pischke, (1997)  Positive impact (but weak)  Fuchs and Woessman (2006)  Negative impact  Kirkpatrick and Cuban (1998)

13. Returns on the job market  Solid Arguments but few empirical evidence :  ICT-skills  Collaborative Skills  Information handling skills  Autonomous  (Knowledge Worker) for the Knowledge based Economy

14. Macroeconomic Perspective  Accumulation of Knowledge and Human Capital  Flexible learning (better time allocation)  Innovation  Growth of a New Economic Sector

16 : First Approach of digital Divides (Benchmarking)  The DIDIX (Digital Divide Index) by ITU ( International Telecommunication Union) NRI - Network readiness index (Dutta & Jain, 2004),  DAI (Digital access index)  Gini Coefficient (Riccardini & Fazio, 2002).  The SIBIS (Statistical Indicators Benchmarking the Information Society) project of the European Commission (SIBIS, 2003).

16. Second Approach : From Digital divide to Digital trajectories New approach for the diffusion of Educational ICTs and more generally ICT -Technologies are enabling different types of access to contents -Uses varying from a context to another -Different models of efficient usages -Different ways to reach the same outcome -No need for benchmarking

17. Basic dimensions of Digital Trajectories  Initial Equipment and access to educational ICT  E-Learning supply  E-Learning Demand  Public policies, governance and Institutions

18. First Debate : Policies for Bridging the Divides  Three channels for bridging the divides (mainly first level of educational digital divide)  - Market Dynamics: price, competition  - Technological Evolutions  - Public Policies

19. Public Policies in order to Bridge the divides  Where and how to invest?  (Infrastructure? Content development? Encouraging uses? What kind of usages?)  Rapid evolution of technologies  Fixed costs are high, Needs for scale economies  Diffusion lag or Divide?

20. Second Debate (Web 2.0) - New Divides or New Perspectives for Digital Divides  Web 2.0 (Social Software) (Wiki, Blogs, Tagging...)  Participative Web  No need for complex technologies  (Word and Internet connexion)  What are the main impacts?

21. Qualitative changes  The process of Learning is changing  Social constructivism as a new model of learning  Model 1 : from "Lessons" (resources) to the web resources  Model 2 : From Web resources to the construction of the "lessons"  The Learning is more focused on the process

22. Quantitative changes  Availability of the Resources on the Web  Cooperative production is about "uses" of Learning objects  The resources need to be adapted to the local context  Example of bridging the divide: resources for Teacher Training (eLene-TT project :

Summary  Four types of digital divides  Benchmarking is not the only way to approach digital divides – a better way is to look at the differences  From digital divides to digital trajectories (New approach)  "Usages" and the needs for adapt the resources to the local contexts are the key dimensions for the digital dividend  Public Policies : refocusing more on uses and less about equipment

 Thanks for listening  More information on :     