Home⇛Journal of Education, Management, and Development Studies⇛vol. 3 no. 1 (2023)

ALPAS (ALleviating PAndemic Severity) Through Foresight: Capping the Digital Divide

Romeo B. Sotto Jr. | April Z. Luzon | Seth B. Barandon | Jocelyn O. Jintalan | Maria Joy I. Idian | Estelito R. Clemente | Marlon S. Pontillas | Harold Jan R. Terano | Juvy Bustamante | Filmor J. Murillo

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

Everyone has lost their footing due to the pandemic. The academic community needed to be prepared, leaving professors and students without direction. The goal at the time was to overcome the calamity of educational discontinuity. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 – The education goal aims “to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” relative to this SDG. With the surge of the pandemic, the digital divide has become prominent, altering the educational landscape across public and private institutions at all levels. In the Bicol region, education was delivered in various forms and variability; predicting the future through strategic foresight could propel the region to a transformed future. This paper discusses in detail the status of education in the region and the possible scenarios using Jim Dator’s Future Scenario Archetypes, Causal Layered Analysis, and Scenario Planning Plus. Four plausible scenarios have surfaced in this paper: STUG-nation of Education, Unstable and Disarray of Educational elements, Flowing-restrained Education, and ORAGON Education. It requires multiple drivers, as examined through the PESTEL, including political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal aspects. This study proved useful in crafting and anticipating the future scenarios of Bicol Region’s education. Preliminary as it may, this study highlighted important building blocks of plans through foresight methods. Dator’s framework proved very useful in developing the four scenarios; using other future study tools will further amplify plausible scenarios for the education of the Bicol region and beyond.



References:

  1. Asher, S. (2021). COVID-19, Distance Learning, and the Digital Divide: A Comparative Study of Higher Education Institutions in the US and Pakistan. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 23(3), 112–133.
  2. Azionya, C. M., & Nhedzi, A. (2021). The digital divide and higher education challenge with emergency online learning: Analysis of tweets in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 22(4), 164–182.
  3. Ballesta Pagán, F., Lozano Martínez, J., & Cerezo Máiquez, M. (2018). Internet use by secondary school students: A digital divide in sustainable societies? Sustainability, 10(10), 3703. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10103703
  4. Corresponding author, School of Languages and General Education, Walailak University, Thailand, nr.lailatur@gmail.com, Rofiah, N. L., Sha’ar, M. Y. M. A., Dr., Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nakhon Si Thammarat Rajabhat University, Thailand, mohammed_moh@nstru.ac.th, Waluyo, B., & Asst. Prof. Dr., School of Languages and General Education, Walailak University, Thailand, budi.business.waluyo@gmail.com. (2022). Digital divide and factors affecting English synchronous learning during Covid-19 in Thailand. International Journal of Instruction, 15(1), 633–652. https://doi.org/10.29333/iji.2022.15136a
  5. Dator, J., & Dator, J. (2019). Alternative futures at the Manoa School. In Jim Dator: A Noticer in Time: Selected Work, 1967-2018 (pp. 37–54).
  6. Educo. (n.d.). Factors in enabling rights to, in and through education: A child rights situation analysis (CRSA) of Bicol Region. Psychosocial Support and Children's Rights Resource Center (PST CRRC) and Fundación Educación y Cooperación (Educo), Member of ChildFund Alliance.
  7. Ercikan, K., Asil, M., & Grover, R. (2018). Digital divide: A critical context for digitally based assessments. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 26, 51–51.
  8. Sotto, R. Jr., Barandon, S., Bustamante, J., Luzon, A., Pontillas, M., & Terano, H. J. (2021). Possible scenarios on the future of Polytechnic State University of Bicol (PSUB) – Research culture by 2030 using Jim Dator’s archetypes of alternative futures. Journal of Education, Management and Development Studies, 1(2), 40–51. https://doi.org/10.52631/jemds.v1i2.26
  9. Sweidan, N. S., & Areiqat, A. (2020). The digital divide and its impact on quality of education at Jordanian private universities: Case study of Al-Ahliyya Amman University. International Journal of Higher Education, 10(3), 1. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v10n3p1
  10. Toquero, C. M. D. (2021). Academic silver linings in a Philippine State University amid the early stages of pandemic cases. Journal of Learning for Development, 8(2), 448–455.

Tools


Copyright © 2024  KITE Digital Educational Solutions |  Exclusively distributed by CE-Logic