Exploring digital divide issue among urban and rural k-12 schools in economically developed regions

The purpose of the study was to investigate digital divide issue among urban and rural k-12 schools in Chinese economically developed regions. The researchers selected three representative primary schools (one from urban area, one from rural area and one is located in urban area but all of its students are from rural area) to explore the issue. The study is quantitative by nature and random sampling method was adopted to collect data. The survey instrument mainly covered seven aspects of students\´ Internet usage status: Internet Accessibility at Home, Internet Accessibility at School and so on. 461 students from the target schools were randomly selected to participate into the study. The study found that: (1) overall, students\´ Internet Accessibility at Home is better than that at School; moreover, teachers have more positive impact on students\´ behavior of internet use than parents. The performance of students\´ internet self-efficacy was at an acceptable level, but students\´ Internet exploratory behavior is unsatisfactory. (2) Students from urban area are obviously better in their Internet usage status than students from rural area or from mobile school. (3) Gender had no significant impact on students\´ general Internet usage status; however, male students\´ internet self efficacy is better than their female classmates. (4) Students\´ academic performance had significant impact on their Internet self-efficacy. Based on these findings, researchers proposed some suggestions to eliminate the "digital divide" between urban and rural k-12 schools.