Digital Divide

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Digital Divide

• Or Is It Digital Inclusion?

Bonnie Bracey, GLEF Fellow
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Your Definition of Digital Divide?
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Digital Divide? What is it?

• Many people ignore the digital divide.. they say
  it is black, vs. white, and or rural vs. distant.
  
• Some say it is minority vs rich, or the US vs the
  rest of the world and that it will gradually
  filter down to those who are have and have not.

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Digital Divide? What is it?

• Some see the technology as male with some
  involvement of women.
• Some define who is involved by age.

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Data on Inclusion?

• For example, the August 2000 data show that
  noticeable divides still exist between those with
  different levels of income and education,
  different racial and ethnic groups, old and
  young, single and dual-parent families, and those
  with and without disabilities.

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Data on Inclusion?

• Persons with a disability are only half as likely
  to have access to the Internet as those without a
  disability 21.6 compared to 42.1. And while
  just under 25 of those without a disability have
  never used a personal computer, close to 60 of
  those with a disability fall into that category.

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Data on Inclusion?

• Large gaps also remain regarding Internet
  penetration rates among households of different
  races and ethnic origins. Asian Americans and
  Pacific Islanders have maintained the highest
  level of home Internet access at 56.8. Blacks
  and Hispanics, at the other end of the spectrum,
  continue to experience the lowest household
  Internet penetration rates at 23.5 and 23.6,
  respectively.

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Now to think about it?
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Definitions!

• We use the term "digital divide" to refer to this
  gap between those who caneffectively use new
  information and communication tools, such as
  theInternet, and those who cannot.
• While a consensus does not exist on theextent
  of the divide (and whether the divide is growing
  or narrowing),researchers are nearly unanimous in
  acknowledging that some sort of divide exists at
  this point in time.

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Computers used more to learn than teach! BY
HEATHER NEWMANFREE PRESS COLUMNIST

• Michigan's teachers are confident they can use
  technology to learn. But most aren't sure they
  can use technology to pass on that learning to
  their students.
• So says a survey of 90 percent of the state's
  teachers, the largest poll of its type to be
  conducted in the United States.

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Computers used more to learn than teach!

• The survey, taken by Michigan Virtual University
  as part of a program to give every Michigan
  teacher a laptop computer, strikes at the heart
  of the debate surrounding technology in schools.
• Now that billions of dollars have been spent to
  put computers in classrooms, the question becomes
  whether teachers are prepared to use them.

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Computers used more to learn than teach!

• Most teachers in the survey said they could get
  information from the Web, send e-mail and
  participate in discussion groups with other
  educators. But far fewer teachers -- sometimes
  only 1 in 9 -- said they could use technology
  such as spreadsheets, presentation software,
  digital imaging or other high-tech tools to
  enhance their lessons.

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Computers used more to learn than teach!

• "It all boils down to training and techniques,"
  said Jeffery Robinson, an instructor at Malcolm X
  Academy in Detroit and a 2001 winner of the
  Milken Educator Award, given annually by the
  Milken Family Foundation.
• "The districts aren't making enough effort to
  make the bridges" between traditional learning
  materials and technology for the teacher, he
  said. "For those teachers, it takes more than
  giving them a book and a laptop and telling them,
  'Go for it.' "

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EXTEND THE REACH

• FOR THOSE WHO TEACH

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Resources!

• are available free of charge on the Internet.
• www.digital-equity.org
• www.glef.org
• www.benton.org
• www.exploratorium.org

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Contact info

• Bonnie Bracey
• Lucas Fellow
• 230 G Street Southwest
• Washington, DC 20024
• Bbracey_at_aol.com