Digital Divide and Learning Outcomes (Bloom’s Taxonomy): Post-Pandemic Evidence from Uttarakhand

The gap in technology access brought on by one or more factors is known as the “digital divide.” India has an internet penetration rate of only 40.40% as of March 2020, while Asia was rated second-to-last in internet usage. The key international elements contributing to the digital gap are gender, physical handicap, physical access, and a lack of ICT (Internet Communication Technology). In the case of India, the language barrier, low literacy rate, and a few demographic factors are the leading causes of the digital divide. Our study uses Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, a pyramid-based analysis of six cognitive learning stages, to examine how the digital divide affects secondary students’ educational outcomes. The pyramid’s levels are conceptually distinct from one another. As a result, it is possible to test students on it and measure the degree of their cognitive learning outcomes. Thus, test questions are created, and using econometric tools, the answers to those questions and their scores are utilised to determine the extent of the digital divide. Students’ answers are marked with a 1 or a 0, and the score is then multiplied by the weights, which are assigned to each level of the pyramid in increasing order from top to bottom in order to address potential bias. And the overall score gained is utilised in the equation to determine whether it depends on any other characteristics, such as gender, caste, locality, or the highest level of education of the guardians, besides digital access or knowledge. We could find a significant difference between the performance of male and female student. Having access to digital has a positive impact on remembering, evaluating and overall Bloomscore.