Study on the Regional Disparities of ICT in Education: Based on the Data Analysis of ICT in Education from Hubei Province, China

摘要

The dramatic growth in the availability and capability of ICT has not only revolutionised the speed and the nature of global education, but also contributed to the regional differences in education informatization. This article makes a study, which sought to establish the existence or otherwise of digital divide with respect to the five dimensions of ICT in education in terms of development index and difference contribution rate. A total of 5287 schools in Hubei province were surveyed, which are scattered in 14 prefecture-level cities. The results show that both the ICT infrastructure and guarantee mechanism had higher-level development but lower-level difference in the five dimensions. Similarly, the digital resource and application service have a higher regional differences but the development of application efficiency is of low-level development. The results provide a good reference for practitioners, especially the policy planners and makers, to deploy ICT policies in narrowing the regional disparities of ICT in education.