Dr Aarón Alzola-Romero used evidence collected in a study of students on the World Archaeology (A251) module for his article 'One Laptop per College Student? Exploring the Links between Access to IT Hardware and Academic Performance in Higher Education e-Learning Programs', which has won the 2012 Journal of Distance Education Editor's Award.
The study finds that simply providing students with ICT hardware (laptops and/or internet access) for one course leads to no consistent improvement in their academic performance.
But students who have adequate long-term access to ICT do perform better, consistently achieving higher final marks.
The conclusion is that bcoming familiar with ICT and developing efficient study skills in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) is a long-term process.
The study also reflects that fact that there is still a considerable 'digital divide' in the UK, between those who have adequate ICT access and those who do not.
"Uncritical blanket policies in the provision of ICT hardware, motivated by market pressures and promises of quick-fix solutions, are unlikely to solve the digital divide problem in education," concludes Dr Alzola-Romero.
"In contrast, by selectively investing in physical access to ICT equipment and approaching digital integration as a long-term strategy, higher education institutions will help to bridge, not only the digital divide itself, but also the broader socio-economic divides that lie at the root of the achievement gap."
Dr Alzola-Romero is a tutor on World Archaeology and on Myth in the Greek and Roman worlds (A330).
He was the academic behind the Ancient Olympics: Bridging Past and Present which won an Award for OpenCourseWare Excellence at the OpenCourseWare Consortium’s OER12 Conference.
You can read the award-winning article 'One Laptop per College Student?' in full here.
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