Digital Education: The Negative Effects Of Digital Learning

Digital divide: this term refers to the division that exists between those students who have access to technological tools and those who do not. This lack of access makes some students disadvantaged in relation to their mates. (Pedro, 2007, p 27) states that the socio economic background of students can have a negative impact on their learning when they do not have the material necessary to make progress in a digital oriented world; whereas, Students from a high social class, have access to various technological devices (laptop, mobile, tablette, etc.) which facilitate their digital learning.

Low self-efficacy: This negative belief about one’s own academic achievement can hinder students’ digital learning and their ability to make the necessary

These students over estimate their own digital competence and knowledge to the extent that they cannot develop digitally. Students’ digital over confidence inhibits their ability to gauge the quality of information (Manuel, 2002; Brown et al., 2003; Jenson, 2004; Bundy, 2004; Kohut et al., 2010), a basic requirement in higher education.

Anxiety: There is strong evidence that anxiety has a harmful effect on learning in general. Tobias (1985) argued that students’ focus on their fears instead of their cognitive ability influences their learning performance. Bozionelos (2004) proved that anxiety towards the use of computers can be regarded as an obstacle to the use of computers to learn. Both Saade and Kira (2009) and Rosenthal (2010) found out that anxiety, self-efficacy and low use of technological tools are interrelated.

All the obstacles mentioned above can be overcome once students become aware of the importance of digital literacy not only for their education but also for their survival in the work place. This way they may get interested in learning its skills and competences. Besides, students should get an effective training in the manipulation of new technologies under the guidance of a teacher and/ or an expert, aware of the students’ needs and high education

There are, however, obstacles that inhibit the adoption of digital literacy in higher education as a coherent strategy to promote these skills. Some obstacles are related to the student such as digital divide, low self-efficacy, anxiety and overconfidence. Other obstacles are attributed to the teachers’ digital literacy; they include lack of confidence, lack of effective training and resistance to change, which may be interrelated. The last category of obstacles refers to the institutions’ failure to provide an adequate development of digital literacy due to lack of accessibility and technical