BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE IN THE CLASSROOM: DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGICAL SKILL WITH STEAM MEHODOLOGY IN RURAL EDUCATION

Abstract

    The digital divide is evident as one of the main barriers to ensuring equitable education in different contexts where access to technology is limited. Therefore, this study proposes the effective use of STEAM methodology as a strategy to improve technological competencies among rural students, who are exposed to difficult socioeconomic conditions and limited availability of mobile devices.     Faced with this problem, the aim is to develop an innovative and transformative alternative where the STEAM methodology is necessary to envision an interdisciplinary approach that fosters technological skills, where students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Therefore, the aim is to analyze how STEAM methodology can achieve favorable results in bridging the digital divide in rural educational contexts. By adopting an interpretive paradigm with its qualitative approach and taking a broader view through the phenomenological method, which allows us to address different variables, including the social context, competency development, curricular transformations, and cultural mediation in learning, along with the analysis of teacher training policies and the different technological resources, the study of all these aspects will contribute to bridging the digital divide in rural communities. National policies provide a specific framework that focuses on the implementation of STEAM methodologies to overcome digital divides in rural communities, seeking to strengthen collaborative, critical, and creative learning. With this, we aim to provide an approach to curricular redefinition in the applicability of the STEAM methodology in rural school classrooms, thus establishing continuous and ongoing improvement that will allow us to bridge digital divides in relation to the development of technological competencies and the implementation of innovative methodology.