Page 39 - International Perspectives on Effective Teaching and Learning in Digital Education

The Panorama of Digital Education in the XXI Century

Despite this, significant digital material access gaps still result in unequal
learning possibilities. According to Kivunja (14), the community recognises
the requirement for more action to guarantee equitable access to digital re-
sources for all learners. Educational researchers and the broader educational
community also see digital education as a rich field for exploration. They are
interested in understanding how digital tools can enhance learning and how
they can be best integrated into teaching practices. They are also concerned
with issues of access and equity and understanding how digital education
impacts different groups of students. However, they caution that digital ed-
ucation is not a panacea and must be thoughtfully implemented to be effec-
tive (Selwyn, 16). The year , due to the pandemic, was a milestone in
the history of digital technology in the education sector, allowing us to try to
promote a sustainable education using ICT. The world was facing a pandemic
crisis without precedents that forced, in a few days, a global transformation
from traditional classroom teaching to online teaching, consequently forcing
the use of Digital Education (Sousa et al., ). The same authors showed
that the significant predictors of maintaining the online format were the
characteristics of online classes, support from the school and professors, on-
line classes vs. face-to-face classes, and gender. The probability of choosing
to keep online classes increases exponentially with these factors (Sousa et al.,
).
We could conclude that the educational community sees and compre-
hends the full potential of digital education but also acknowledges its chal-
lenges in an unbalanced world. On one corner are the top countries that can
provide the ultimate solutions and tools, and unfortunately, on the other, the
poor countries that strive to grow in every possible aspect – digital education
is only one of them. Unfortunately, most of the time, this is not of the utmost
importance for governments.

From Past to Emerging Trends – The AI
Several authors (Akour & Alenezi, ; Yang et al., ) studied the different
stages that have occurred in the last years. It is important to take a close look
at their findings. Starting with a timeline split:
Budding stage (–6) – During this period, digital technology start-
ed to become a part of the lives of children from the moment they were
born. The research of educational technology advances in HE began to be
discussed and debated, with various laws, projects, and strategies offered.
However, many digital divisions still exist, affecting the younger generation
and their digital futures. Universities and teaching had to undergo significant

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