HE DIGITAL DIVIDE AND CULTURAL CAPITAL IN ACADEMIC SUCCESS IN RURAL AREAS OF COLOMBIA

Abstract

This essay examines the relationship between the digital divide and cultural capital in the academic performance of students in rural areas of Colombia, with an emphasis on standardized tests administered by the government. Following a review of the literature, it is argued that educational inequality in rural contexts does not stem primarily from a lack of digital tools and infrastructure,

but rather from a shortage of critical skills needed to produce and generate knowledge min digital contexts; therefore, a transition is proposed from a model that moves from functional literacy toward a critical digital literacy, where the rural student becomes a prosumer with the ability to integrate their culture and identity with the demands of current knowledge; finding that the digital

and cultural divide as such originates in the rural student’s ability to decode digital language from their own reality, without urbanizing their environment, and that they have the same technical and academic conditions as urban students. It is concluded that academic success with national equity in access to universities depends on a pedagogical shift that transforms the  technology that bridges the gap in educational opportunities and empowers students through technology, enabling rural students to compete on equal footing without being at a disadvantage, while preserving their cultural heritage—which means breaking the dominance of urban-centric content so that they can use technology as a platform to express their own reality.