The Digital Gap and New Academic Forms in Rural Schools of Spain During Lockdown

The digital divide constitutes a barrier to achieving equal opportunities for the population. In this article, we examine how the lockdown and online teaching affected rural schools. Although connectivity is poor and resources may be scarce in these schools, communication with families is fluid and the teacher-student ratio is lower. We designed a questionnaire that was administered to 157 rural schools during the lockdown process. The results show a digital gap for 30% of the student body, notable efforts by teachers to adapt to the needs of students, weekly changes in the way teaching is organized, related didactic proposals, and concern for curricular assessment. The rural schools participating in the study have tried to respond to the multiple demands arising from this new situation and narrow the digital gap by adapting to the communication needs of their students.