The integration of technological and digital resources in multi-grade classrooms in rural schools has made it possible to reinvent educational practices despite the digital divide that persecutes rural schools compared to urban schools. It has allowed not only access to global information from the local territory but also the generation of opportunities and the reduction of isolation in terms of equity in rural territories (Abós Olivares et al., 2021). Open education through blending environments and the use of open educational resources (OER) based on the new UNESCO recommendations have enabled access to education and non-discrimination of children by area of residence (UNESCO, 2019). This aspect becomes even more relevant given the current pandemic situation resulting from Covid-19, which had made educational practices seek ways to optimise available resources (Álvarez-Álvarez & García-Prieto, 2021; Gayawali; 2020; Jerry & Yunus, 2021). Thus, the implementation of new technologies must be accompanied by a transformation of educational practices, in terms of methodologies and resources, as well as the role played by teachers to enable their development (Ibarra et al., 2017). Moreover, the challenge is even greater in multigrade classrooms where the use of technical resources must be linked to the development of multigrade didactics and in line with didactic-participatory strategies, allowing students of different ages and interests to work together in the same classroom (Abós et al., 2020; Bustos, 2007). Therefore, digital resources and materials must also consider multi-grade levels and allow for this diversity (Lymperis, 2021; Tomlinson, 2014). The aim of this paper is to learn, from an international perspective, about the state of the art and the use of technological and digital resources in rural schools, with special emphasis on blended learning environments and OER. To this end, a systematic review of the literature was conducted internationally using all recent articles published in the Scopus, Web of Science (WOS) and ERIC databases from 2012 to 2021, selecting the resulting articles for the review based on rigorous selection criteria, categorising the results based on the central research question with the objective to: (1) to describe and analyse the technological resources used in the rural school, specifically OERs, and the practices in blended learning environments; (2) to review and analyse the aspects related to the role of teachers in their implementation; (3) to identify the main challenges in the implementation of ICTs in rural multi-grade school classrooms. 

Our conclusions highlight the need for: the development of open resources, to adapt the available ones to the unique requirements of rural schools and multi-grade classrooms, to promote a positive attitude in teachers towards the integration and use of technologies in the multigrade classroom and the need to develop the digital competence as well as the challenges to be faced in moving towards technology integration and digital transformation in rural schools. 

A systematic literature review was carried out of all scientific publications belonging to SCOPUS, WOS and ERIC databases from 2012 to 2021. Once the research question, the research objectives and the databases had been defined, the search and selection strategies for the research publications were specified, as well as the criteria for inclusion and exclusion of articles and the criteria for evaluating the quality of the resulting publications. Briefly, it consisted of excluding the articles that are not written in Spanish or English languages, that were not in the field of social sciences, and specifically rural education, that were systematic reviews or other secondary articles y that were not accessible with open access. To create the search string, the main terms related to the object of study and their possible variations were identified using Boolean operators. The publications resulting from the initial search were recorded in calculation matrices for processing during the review process. The article filtering process followed the identification, review, eligibility and inclusion phases of the PRISMA statement flow chart (Moher et al., 2009). In addition, to avoid subjectivity in the process, checklists were developed to verify the quality of the content of the articles based on Kitchenham and Charters (2017). Finally, from a total of 3372 initially reported documents, after the process of eliminating duplicates and filtering them, a total of 16 final articles were selected for the systematic review. From here, the process of extraction and synthesis of the information was conducted through descriptive tables and the use of the Atlas Ti tool for descriptive analysis through codes and categories. Finally, a detailed analysis of the information is performed, providing information in percentages on the process of selecting the literature as well as on its qualitative content.

The main findings of this systematic review highlight the importance of the correct management and approach to blended learning, the use of OER for open and accessible education and how their correct implementation allows for an improvement in learning, in terms of equity, in schools from rural areas. The available resources allow for customisation to adapt to the requirements of the multigrade classroom (Lymperis, 2021). Therefore, it is the teacher’s responsibility to adapt them and select the relevant ones, but this will be undeniably conditioned by individual attitudes towards and against them and their level of digital competence. There is a need for greater awareness and dissemination of open resources among teachers in rural schools internationally in order to make them available and facilitate work in multi-grade classrooms, as well as to improve teaching skills and continuous training (Jerry & Yunus, 2021). Finally, this review also emphasizes, as a conclusion, the need for more research about the research topic for the primary education stage in rural settings, due the scarcity of publications. The work stresses the importance of the correct implementation of ICT in the classroom, as well as the effective and appropriate use of resources in relation to the active strategies employed with contemplation of the territorial dimension of practices and multigrade. Their optimal use is necessary to reduce inequalities between rural and urban areas by generating open learning opportunities. The review also intrinsically touches on the adaptive capacity of the rural school in the face of new situations, such as the one arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, through a strategic use of technologies and its ability to innovate, thus helping to de-stigmatise the rural school and overcome the vision of deficit.

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