Accessible for All - Hong Kong Symposium

Professor Nancy Law is the Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Education at The University of Hong Kong. She served as the Founding Director for the Centre for Information Technology in Education (CITE) for 15 years from 1998 and is currently the Deputy Director for CITE. Nancy is an elected Fellow of the International Society of the Learning Sciences. She received a Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme Award by the HKSAR Research Grants Council in 2014 in recognition of her research in scalability of technology-enhanced learning innovations.

Nancy’s research centres around the scalable integration of digital technology for transformative changes in learning and teaching that empowers learners, teachers, and communities. She has developed a multi-level, multi-scale model of connected learning for educational leadership for scalable technology-enhanced learning innovations. Since 2016, she has been leading a major interdisciplinary study on learning and assessment for digital citizenship. She is currently leading a project to develop an integrated design-aware learning analytics system, building on her earlier work on the Learning Design Studio™ that includes a learning design language, methodological approach, and technology tools to support pedagogically sound and agile multimodal learning design.

Presentation title:

What is digital divide? How does it affect the wellbeing of children, youth and families?

Presentation summary:

We now need to use digital technology in all aspects of our life: learning, work, socialisation, entertainment, etc. In fact, it is difficult to even make payments, book services, receive benefits or exercise our rights as citizens without making use of some form of digital technology. Digitally mediated fraud and crimes have also increased exponentially. The threats to social equity and inclusivity posed by digital divides are thus also increasing. In the past, digital divides were often equated with inequities due to digital access. Our research at The University of Hong Kong reveals nuanced findings related to access, as well as the importance of digital literacy. We further find that differences in digital literacy is another form of digital divide that is even more challenging to reduce. Studies conducted before and during the COVID-19 pandemic have shown that in addition to enhancing online learning self-efficacy, digital literacy serves as a protective factor against cyber-risks, such as internet addiction, game addiction, and cyberbullying. Implications for policy and practice will be discussed.