Computational Fluency and the Digital Divide in Japanese Higher Education

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a widening digital divide within the Japanese educational system. Most research on the digital divide focuses on K-12 education, whereas our research explores the situation more specifically in a Japanese higher education context. In higher education, we have identified a knowledge gap which can affect the career path of these students. We conducted a survey in 6 universities in the Kansai and Chugoku areas in Japan to map out the digital divide with different types of universities. This poster is intended to encourage stakeholder discussion in Japan to create a new curriculum for all higher education students and encourage all educators to pursue lifelong learning to improve their ICT and computational literacy skills.