What is it about?

This article introduces Transition 2.0, a paradigm shift designed to study and support students with disabilities' transition to higher education. Transition 2.0 is the result of a qualitative study about how a group of young people with vision impairments used digital technologies for their transition to university. The findings draw from observations, a researcher diary, focus groups, individual interviews, and data from social media. The article discusses a conventional view of transition, referred to here as Transition 1.0, which has dominated disability-related research and service provision in higher education. It counters this view by further developing the conceptual framework for Transition 2.0. The findings expand current conceptual approaches to transition by incorporating in the analysis the role played by digital tools such as social media and mobile devices. They also provide a new lens through which to study and understand student engagement in higher education.

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Why is it important?

The paper is significant for researchers and tertiary institutions because it introduces Transition 2.0, as a new paradigm to study and support students with disabilities' transition to higher education. The framework of Transition 2.0 expands current theory as it incorporates in the analysis the role played by tools such as social media and mobile devices throughout its five overlapping stages.

Perspectives

I hope this paper will help to attract interest in the study of disability in higher education. The experiences of young students with disabilities in tertiary education are insuffiently understood. Also, the focus of resarch is still on assitive technologies but not so much on the role of social media and mobile devices. I believe this study will contribute to expand research and practice in regard to disability and help to improve support to young people with disabilities.

Dr Edgar Pacheco
Victoria University of Wellington

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Transition 2.0: Digital technologies, higher education, and vision impairment, The Internet and Higher Education, April 2018, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.iheduc.2017.11.001.
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