The digital gender divide and acquisition of digital literacy for women are demanding global attention in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (UN, 2019). The digital gender divide is the gap between women and men in both the opportunity to access ICT and the ability to use it (West et al., 2019). Since September 2020, I have collected data remotely at a digital skills school for women in Germany to understand the perceptions and experience of women either learning or teaching digital skills of the digital gender divide. However, just as my engagement with this school is remote and online, so is the experience of students learning digital skills there (Anonymous, personal communication, October 2020). This online learning has caused the school to grapple with ethical dilemmas. For example, is it ethical to encourage vulnerable women to study online when they have little understanding of cybersecurity? Is their right to access education during the Covid-19 pandemic more important than concerns about their online safety? I intend to share my preliminary research findings, including some lingering concerns about cybersecurity in the context of the alleged “digital transformation” in education (Fraser, 2020). Attendees of this discussion will learn about online learning delivered to students with low digital skills and the ethical concerns this raises, supporting their awareness and future practice in online learning.
Lorraine Hayman