Information communication technologies (ICTs) to support teaching and learning in marginalized communities is a major drawback that alienates developing countries from the digital space. This chapter proffers digital inclusion in education for marginalized communities by using and merging cloud computing, augmented, and virtual reality (AVR) technologies. A systematic review of the literature was conducted. Diana Laurilliard's six learning types in the conversational framework was used to establish how digital technology is utilized and widely adopted in education in the context of marginalized communities. AVR technology embedded in the cloud supports all the six learning types and promote digital inclusion in education. A model that marginalized communities can utilize was developed. Future research can develop a model that captures the university-wide curriculum needs of higher institutions of learning in marginalized communities and the training of the educators to use ICTs to reduce the digital divide and improve digital literacy.
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Teaching and learning are evolving with advancements in technology and the inclusion of digital technologies, especially throughout the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic era. Digital technologies influence the what, how, where, and why students are learning, and who they are learning from worldwide. Digital technology brings about an arsenal of benefits in the educational sector. Classes and programs are now available online, and physical textbooks are gradually being substituted by various digital devices connected to online media and offer personalized online teaching and learning. The virtual lectures, lessons, projects, and instructions offer each student access to diverse facilitators, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creativity, and an increase in data-driven instruction and results (Cabero-Almenara, 2019; Pranoto & Panggabean, 2019; Valverde-Berrocoso, 2020). Many educational institutions are using digital technologies to easily, quickly, and cost-effectively connect students with a huge range of resources and digital services during teaching and learning. However, the many benefits of learning with Cloud Computing and AVR technologies are not being realized by marginalized communities because of lack of access.
Marginalized communities allude to areas that are excluded from the prevalent profitable, academic, cultural, and social life. Instances of marginalized communities include excluded areas due to their immigration status, sexual preference, race, personal identity, dialect, age group, and physical aptitude. Marginalization, therefore, transpires as a result of an unequal balance of power among sects (Sevelius et al., 2020). Indicators that categorize marginalized groups include education, housing, and occupancy. Often marginalized communities suffer from severe material deprivation, which leads to harder living conditions because of accentuated migration, school abandonment, disabilities, very few workplaces, subsistence agriculture, low life expectancy, and absence of consumer goods, among other factors (Niţă & Pârvu, 2020). Marginalization is positioned by classism and institutional racism and the magnitude to which the communities are deep-rooted into an array of oppression (Calabrese Barton & Tan, 2018). Poverty is considered among the major causes of vulnerabilities that result in marginalization (Michael et al., 2016). Technology, therefore, promotes the digital inclusion of marginalized communities by introducing accessibility and inclusion (Kempin Reuter, 2019). Marginalized areas are defined by economic distress, environmental debasement, and social decay, which leads to unsustainability (Adams et al., 2020). The research study contends that the twin technologies will promote digital inclusion in education.
In the 21st century, transformations regarding how students are assessed and evaluated on their performances inside and outside the classroom are witnessed. Technological advancement is not only enhancing or advancing education, but it is also altering the way educators assess their students and how fast formative and summative assessments and evaluations can be completed fairly. Students can now be assessed by creating and displaying their work on online platforms like Moodle and Google Classroom learning management systems or through social media and other digital platforms. AVR technology is becoming a critical part of university learning as well as student performance enhancement and should be incorporated into teaching and learning (Matsika & Zhou, 2021). In addition, AVR allows online teaching and learning to continue even during educational disruptions (Bao, 2020; Bloom et al., 2020). Online platforms encourage students to continue dialogues outside standard face to face classrooms. Lecturers can observe chat boards so that they understand the concepts that need to be reviewed or refined.
Teaching and learning can be greatly enhanced by introducing digital technologies across all the learning styles (Laurillard, 2007b). There is need to adopt Cloud Computing and AVR technologies to alleviate the resource constraints encountered by the education sector in developing communities. The illusion that digital transformation belongs to developed countries should be re-oriented. Against this backdrop, the Conversational Framework is used to establish how digital learning provides an improved, enhanced, integrated, and motivating learning environment and how AVR and Cloud Computing technologies can be merged to achieve digital inclusiveness in education throughout the marginalized communities.