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Friday, April 9, 2010

Education Research Report: Many College Students Lack Needed Tech Skills

Education Research Report: Many College Students Lack Needed Tech Skills

Many College Students Lack Needed Tech Skills

When students enter college, they either have it or they don't. And which side of the digital divide they fall on may well shape their identities and what route they take into careers, suggests a new study.

The research looked at the computer technology knowledge of 500 undergraduate students and how skills they brought from high school impacted their early college coursework. The findings, published online in advance of regular publication in the journal New Media and Society, should be on the radar screens of both high school and university educators, says Joanna Goode, a professor of education studies in the University of Oregon's College of Education. Institutions, she said, "are perpetuating rather than resisting inequalities associated with the digital divide."

"I found that high-school opportunities around technology really shape students' abilities to engage fully in university academic life," Goode said. "If students don't have experiences in high school, they show up for