The Digital Divide

Relevant Links (Please add your own or remove dead links)

• Digital Divide Network
• Digital Divide.org
• Computer and Internet Use by Students; National Center for Educations Statistics, September 2006

Some questions to consider: (Any more questions?...)

• How could you identify the "digital divisions" in your classroom?
• How do you assign "Internet homework" to your entire class if some students don't have access?
• Is Internet access in schools the answer to the digital divide?
• Can schools help mitigate some digital divisions?

In some ways, information technology is the classic two-edged sword--it presents us with enormous possibilities in terms of personal or professional research, communication, and entertainment but it also disenfranchises those without adequate access to it. If this were a matter of personal choice, it would not be an issue. But digital divides happen because of poverty, culture, ethnicity, socio-economic status, politics, and other issues that typically force citizens into divisions not of their choosing. It happens on a macro level (for example, net censorship in China or Saudi Arabia, or lack of telecommunications infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa) or on micro levels--your classroom, for instance, or members of an extended family.

It's difficult to imagine that, in 2006, the World Wide Web as most of us know it is barely ten years old. Imagine not being able to do a Google search for a topic of interest, or to consult WebMB for needed medical advice. How many times have you heard a broadcaster add the tagline "for more infomation on this topic, go to our web site?" However, individuals without Internet access are prevented from accessing services that typically save time (travel planning, checking on store opening hours, registering a vehicle) or money (web specials, product price comparisons). Folks on the wrong side of the digital divide are not able to access current knowledge for personal needs, participate in mailing lists, check on their child's progress at school, or perform many of the other daily chores that most of us take for granted.

The good news is that some of the earlier digital divisons in the US, those based largely on ethnicity and SES, have been narrowing significantly as Internet access becomes a more common phenomenon. This chart shows the increase in Internet access in the US for Black, Hispanic, and White households from 1998 to 2006 (data from The National Center for Education Statistics):

Of course, this chart also shows that more than 20% of each household group still does not have access to the Internet. The digital divide is narrowing, but but it has not closed--and, the implications for not having access are much greater now than they were in 1998.