TITLE:
Digital Divide in Times of Pandemic among Teacher Education Students
AUTHORS:
Alfredo M. Esteban Jr., Mary Joy P. Cruz
KEYWORDS:
Digital Divide, COVID-19 Pandemic, Internet Access, ICT Usage
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.8 No.4,
April
15,
2021
ABSTRACT:
This study aimed to investigate the context of digital divide in teacher education institution (TEI) students during the COVID-19 pandemic setup. An online questionnaire was administered to 264 students from a state university in Nueva Ecija, Philippines. Spearman Rho Correlation was used as statistical tool with 5% level of significance. The central finding of this study has confirmed the existence of digital divide as predicted by demographic factors such as residence, annual family income and parents’ highest educational attainment. Significant differences were found to exist not only in access to the internet but also in mobile internet expenses and hours spent on the internet. This study provides a better understanding for further research to generate a more conclusive and generalizable result based on the strong starting points on digital divide found among higher education institution students.