[Air-l] Request for key studies on disadvantaged young people and ICT use

[Brake,DR]

I am a researcher on a UK government (Becta) report on the potential  
of ICTs to raise the attainment and aspirations of disadvantaged  
young people. We are particularly interested in the research you  
consider to be the most important that has been conducted in the last  
five years, including any research you or colleagues may be  
undertaking at the moment but which is not yet published that you  
would be willing to share with us in draft form. We would also  
welcome your nominations of key earlier research that in your view  
remains relevant - particularly literature reviews.


While this research has been commissioned by the British Educational  
Communications and Technology Agency, the remit and potential  
audience for this literature review is broad, covering any benefits  
for underprivileged youth  (principally but not exclusively 14 to 19  
year-olds) that can be derived either from their use of ICTs directly  
or from greater availability and use of ICTs by those serving their  
needs - whether or not this takes place in an educational context. In  
particular we would be interested in evidence for the role of  
education in alleviating disadvantage and the role of ICTs in  
alleviating disadvantage - both current and potential.

The primary aim of the research is to help young people based in the  
UK but to that end we are interested in any international studies  
whose results are likely to be transferable. Relevant ICTs include  
(but are not limited to) computers and software of all kinds  
including games, mobile phones, in-class teaching aids and of course  
Internet access and particular sites.

The report has been commissioned with a short deadline so we would  
appreciate it if you could respond with your suggestions by Feb 14th.  
We would welcome any comments you wished to provide on the value and  
relevance of the studies you suggest but a list would be sufficient.

While the resulting combined references will probably be too long to  
share on this email list, I will be happy to provide it to anyone who  
requests it.

P.S. While of course you can respond to this request on this list, if  
you could also email your own choices directly to me in a form  
already formatted for bibliographic software (eg Endnote, RIS or  
BibTeX) that would be most helpful.

--

David Brake, Doctoral Student in Media and Communications, London  
School of Economics & Political Science

Also see http://davidbrake.org/ (home page)

callto://DavidBrake (Skype.com's Instant Messenger and net phone)