Divided & Conquered: The Rich Get Richer

THE GREAT DIGITAL DIVIDE

Many opportunities for access to information and communication technologies, or ICTs, have been brought about through the digital revolution, but there is concern as ICTs are also found to contribute to the digital divide. Simply put, the digital divide is a term describing the technological gap between regions, the rich and poor, ethnicities, genders, and the educated and less educated.

As an educator employed at a school mostly populated by students from low income families, I have seen first hand evidence of the digital divide. Our school has tried to combat the technology gap by providing each student with a Chromebook and hotspot, which certainly helps students gain access to the digital realm of education, however, there are many other critical areas that factor into digital learning now that we are in an educational revolution with the emergence of technology integration. I would like to discuss the following areas of concern as it pertains to educational technologies and the digital divide:

1. Access

2. Skill

3. Usage

ACCESS

As I previously mentioned that my school provides technology to the students for access to resources, there are still what I will call “sub-levels” that create access issues. I have students that come from low income families struggling to pay for electricity, let alone be able to afford the internet. For some of these families, they rely on their child to bring home a provided hotspot so that everyone can have internet capability, which slows internet speeds, causing each user to struggle with the quality of usage.

SKILL

For those lower income families that can afford the access, chrome books do not have the necessary capabilities to use some of the software's needed. For example, the courses I teach all use Adobe software. Our provided chrome books are not capable of handling the Adobe Creative Suite, causing some students to fall behind by only being able to use the software during class time, causing them to fall behind in their skillset. Meanwhile, other students who can afford the expense of the software are able to continually build their skillset, which can then provide more opportunities later in life, ultimately widening the gap.

USAGE

Students that build their skill set through their access to technologies inherently have the ability to use the technologies in the correct way. Their usage is influenced by positive engagement, whereas students struggling to gain access have a lower skill set that ultimately causes a negative engagement, creating ineffective usage.

Resources

https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/digital-divide

https://open.library.okstate.edu/learninginthedigitalage/chapter/the-digital-divide/

https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/internet-technology/technology-policy-issues/digital-divide/

References:

Seong-Jae Min (2010) From the Digital Divide to the Democratic Divide:

Internet Skills, Political Interest, and the Second-Level Digital Divide in Political Internet Use, Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 7:1, 22-35, DOI:10.1080/19331680903109402