Digital technologies and educational emancipation: re-signifying and conditioning factors of virtual learning among out-of-school adolescents in Colombia and the Dominican Republic

• Autores: Santana, Rafael, Moreno-Aguirre, Josefina, Cortés Daza, Johanna, Feliz Ramírez, Wilyn
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2026
• Institución: Instituto Universitario de Innovación Ciencia y Tecnología Inudi Perú
• Repositorio: Revista Innova Educación
• Lenguaje: español
• OAI Identifier: oai:ojs2.revistainnovaeducacion.com:article/1158
• Enlace del recurso: https://revistainnovaeducacion.com/index.php/rie/article/view/1158
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: adolescent; educational autonomy; educational technology; out-of-school youth; virtual learning; adolescente; aprendizaje virtual; autonomía educativa; joven sin escolarizar; Tecnología Educacional; aprendizagem virtual; autonomia educacional; jovem não escolarizado; tecnologia educacional

Educational exclusion in Colombia and the Dominican Republic, especially in vulnerable contexts, reveals gaps that the school system is unable to address. Therefore, it is necessary to provide empirical evidence on how digital learning is configured as a formative alternative for out-of-school youth. The objective was to analyze how digital technologies enable and condition educational emancipation through the re-signification of virtual learning among out-of-school Colombian and Dominican adolescents and young people. Under a critical paradigm and a digital ethnographic method, a qualitative methodology was employed with a sample of 6 participants from Colombia and 6 from the Dominican Republic, for a total of 12 participants. Data collection was conducted using interview guides, focus group guides, and observation records. The findings reveal that young people construct virtual learning as a legitimate and autonomous form of education that breaks with the traditional model, highlighting meanings associated with practical usefulness in rural and urban contexts (agriculture, technology, and entrepreneurship). A high level of personal agency was identified in the autonomy subcategory, where participants decide what to learn, when to learn, and at what pace, transforming curiosity into productive capacity and personal confidence. It is concluded that digital learning operates as a situated emancipatory process that restores a relative level of control over young people’s life trajectories, even though it develops under structural constraints such as limited connectivity, the high cost of mobile data, and insufficient access to technological devices, configuring a possible but tensioned form of emancipation.