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Weekly News Digest
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April 23, 2020 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today.
CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.
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COVID-19 NEWS: 'Startling Digital Divides in Distance Learning Emerge'
UNESCO published an article stating the following:Half of the total number of learners—some 826 million students—kept out of the classroom by the COVID-19 pandemic, do not have access to a household computer and 43% (706 million) have no internet at home, at a time when digitally-based distance learning is used to ensure educational continuity in the vast majority of countries. These figures were compiled by the Teacher Task Force, an international alliance coordinated by UNESCO, on the basis of data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and the International Telecommunication Union. Disparities are particularly acute in low-income countries: in sub-Saharan Africa, 89[%] of learners do not have access to household computers and 82% lack internet access. Furthermore, while mobile phones can enable learners [to access] information [and] connect with their teachers and with one another, about 56 million learners live in locations not served by mobile networks, almost half in sub-Saharan Africa. … Globally, at least 1.5 billion students and 63 million primary and secondary teachers are affected by the unprecedented disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, with school closures in 191 countries. (see also our global monitoring interactive map on school closures) For more information, read the article.
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Brandi Scardilli
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