Digital Inclusion Studies & Publications:
Digital Literacy Training & Employment
Title: New Technology and Digital Worlds: Analyzing Evidence of Equity in Access, Use, and Outcomes
Author: Mark Warschauer and Tina Matuchniak
Publisher: Review of Research in Education
Year: 2010
Link: http://rre.sagepub.com/content/34/1/179.full
Relevant Pages: 201-206 shows the correlation between computer use at home and in school with education levels
Abstract:
“There is broad consensus among educators, communication scholars, sociologists, and economists that the development and diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICT) are having a profound effect on modern life. This is due to the affordances of new digital media, which bridge the interactive features of speech and the archival characteristics of writing; allow many-to-many communication among people without regard to time and space, including mass collaborative editing of texts; facilitate the creation of a global hyper-indexed multimodal information structure; and enable content production and distribution in both writing and multimedia on a scale previously unimaginable (Jewitt, 2008; Warschauer, 199). For all these reasons, computer mediated communication can be considered a new mode of information (Poster, 1990), or a “fourth revolution in the means of production of knowledge” (Harnad, 1991, p. 39), following the three prior revolutions of language, writing, and print.”
Title: Connect Your Community Employment Impact Survey
Author: Bill Callahan and Samantha Cycyk
Publisher: Connect Your Community
Year: 2012
Note: Easy representation of data
Link: http://connectyourcommunity.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/CYC-Project-Cleveland-SBA-employment-impact-survey.pdf
Relevant Pages: All
Abstract:
“Connect Your Community, a OneCommunity-led program that provides computer and broadband training and access to underserved populations, is helping participants improve their job prospects and their ability to research health and education information online, according to a telephone survey of program graduates in Cleveland. A total of 624 CYC participants completed the survey. 91.3% of all respondents now regularly access the internet –a vital important fact considering that most jobs are now advertised only online. Among those who said they undertook the training mainly for employment reasons, 43% have since found new or better jobs, received a promotion….”
Title: Does having digital skills really pay off
Author: Ji Eun Chung
Publisher: OECD
Year: 2015
Link: http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/does-having-digital-skills-really-pay-off_5js023r0wj9v-en
Relevant Pages: All
Abstract:
“With the widespread diffusion of ICT, it is often claimed that “digital skills” – the capacity to use ICT devices and applications to access and manage information and solve problems – have become essential skills. Is this really true? Do people who are highly proficient in these skills have better chances of participating in the labor force and earn higher wages than those who are less proficient?
The Survey of Adult Skills (a product of the OECD Programmed for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, PIAAC) provides some answers by testing the ability of adults to solve problems that require the use of common computer applications, such as e-mail, web browsers and spreadsheets.”
Title: Employer Perceptions of Critical Information Literacy Skills and Digital Badges
Author: Victoria Raish and Emily Rimland
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University
Year: 2016
Link: http://crl.acrl.org/content/77/1/87.short
Relevant Pages:
Page 94 – shows logistics of companies who responded
Page 95 – beginning of survey results
Page 97 – hiring importance table
Abstract:
“Digital badges are an educational innovation used to measure learning of specific skills, such as information literacy. However, few studies have quantitatively surveyed employers for their perceptions about information literacy skills or digital badges. An online survey was developed and sent to employers to gauge perceptions of information literacy skills of college graduates and the use of the innovation of digital badges to represent competencies that students have accumulated. Here are the results of the survey: information literacy and metaliteracy skills are valued in the workplace; employers would like more detailed representations of student skills; and digital badges are a possible way to showcase student achievement.”
Title: Making Money Surfing the Web: The Impact of Internet Use on the Earnings of U.S. Workers
Author: Paul DiMaggio and Bart Bonikowski
Publisher: American Sociological Review
Year: 2008
Note: Uses data from 2003 and before
Link: http://scholar.harvard.edu/bonikowski/files/dimaggio-bonikowski-make-money-surfing-the-web.pdf
Relevant Pages:
Page 8: Infograph on usage
Page 11-12: Demographic internet usage data
Abstract:
“Much research on the “digital divide” presumes that adults who do not use the Internet are economically disadvantaged, yet little research has tested this premise. After discussing several mechanisms that might produce differences in earnings growth between workers who do and do not use the Internet, we use data from the Current Population Survey to examine the impact of Internet use on changes in earnings over 13-month intervals at the end of the “Internet boom.” Our analyses reveal robustly significant positive associations between Web use and earnings growth, indicating that some skills and behaviors associated with Internet use were rewarded by the labor market. Consistent with human-capital theory, current use at work had the strongest effect on earnings. In contrast to economic theory (which has led economists to focus exclusively on effects of contemporaneous workplace technology use), workers who used the Internet only at home also did better, suggesting that users may have benefited from superior access to job information or from signaling effects of using a fashionable technology. The positive association between computer use and earnings appears to reflect the effect of Internet use, rather than use of computers for offline tasks. These results suggest that inequality in access to and mastery of technology is a valid concern for students of social stratification.”
Title: Measuring Relationship Between Digital Skills and Employability
Author: Kashan Pirzada and Fouzia Naeem Khan
Publisher: European Journal of Business and Management
Year: 2013
Link: http://pbdd.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Measuring_Relationship_between_Digital_Skills-and-employability.pdf
Relevant Pages: All
Abstract:
“In the growing economies like Pakistan and other countries, digital skills such as computer, communication, internet and advance digital skills are predictable to offer possible employees a major rim in securing their jobs and also protecting relatively high-paying jobs. Digital skills are not dual it has ranges and stages. There are number of International organizations that are making efforts on improving the people’s employability. I need more data in order to know the relationship between digital skills and employability in terms of which level of digital skills are enough for civilizing employability. In this study I observe the digital skills association with the employability using the Paf-Kiet University and National Foods Limited as a comparative study. Findings highlighted that digital skills can be an interpreter of employment, the level of digital skills necessary to achieve these jobs is very high as one might imagine. In the rising economies perspective, digital skills are linked with high status jobs mainly combine with other reasons such as higher education. Implementation strategy on the basis of the finding of this study in order to improve employability, advising that revise the education policy and training efforts should focus on digital skills. “
Title: Prospects for Poor Neighborhoods in the Broadband Era Neighborhood Level Influences on Technology Use at Work
Author: David Kaplan and Karen Mossberger
Publisher: Economic Development Quarterly
Year: 2013
Note: This is a very nice group of data, but confusing unless you know how to read the datasets
Link: http://edq.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/12/16/0891242411431450
Relevant Pages:
Page 99: Use of internet at work and location
Page 100: Demographics of internet usage
Page 102: Logistic Model of Internet Use at Work
Abstract:
“This research explores the role of place in Internet use at work, investigating the role that neighborhood context may play in opportunities to gain technology skills and access to relatively better paying jobs. Examining both individual and neighborhood attributes, the authors carry out a comprehensive survey of individuals within three distinct cities in Northeast Ohio combined with a methodology that allows generation of location-specific contextual information. Together, these data are modeled in a series of logistic regressions that compare the importance of both individual and contextual attributes. The findings demonstrate that individual characteristics, especially job type, education, and income, are strongly related to workplace Internet use and that neighborhood unemployment is associated with lower probabilities of technology use at work.”
Title: Searching for Work in the Digital Era
Author: Aaron Smith
Publisher: Pew Research Center
Note: Pew uses data from people who are both employed and unemployed which gives a good overall feel to the data.
Link: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/11/19/searching-for-work-in-the-digital-era/
Relevant Pages: See infographs
Job Seeking Infograph: “The internet is a top resource for many of today’s job hunters: Among Americans who have looked for work in the last two years, 79% utilized online resources in their most recent job search and 34% say these online resources were the most important tool available to them”
Resume Infograph: Most Americans are relatively confident in their digital job-seeking skills, but a minority would find it challenging to accomplish tasks such as building a professional resume
Social Media/Job Seeking infograph: Social media users from a range of age groups use these platforms for employment-related purposes
Research/online application: It seems universal that most people who look for jobs apply online and do research online. On the same page there is a nice demographical breakdown.
Online resources infograph: Roughly 1/3 of people who job search says the internet is their most important resource
Digital Skills confidence infograph: This shows the comfort of unemployed people, in relation do doing simple tasks such as email, do an online job application, etc.
Abstract:
“The internet is an essential employment resource for many of today’s job seekers, according to a new survey by Pew Research Center. A majority of U.S. adults (54%) have gone online to look for job information, 45% have applied for a job online, and job-seeking Americans are just as likely to have turned to the internet during their most recent employment search as to their personal or professional networks.
Yet even as the internet has taken on a central role in how people find and apply for work, a minority of Americans would find it difficult to engage in many digital job seeking behaviors – such as creating a professional resume, searching job listings online, or following up via email with potential employers. And while many of today’s job seekers are enlisting their smartphones to browse jobs or communicate with potential employers, others are using their mobile devices for far more complex and challenging tasks, from writing a resume to filling out an online job application.”