Digital Divide In The United States And In The World

In this new age of technology, information is becoming more readily available to practically everyone. This revolution has raised one major concern for the students of our generation: that we will not be able to think at all. That this generation will rely so heavily on the ability to access information immediately that we subsequently lose the ability to think for ourselves. This will not happen, however. Although many believe the internet is spoiling our generation, the fact of the matter is that the internet actually enriches our education and aids us in coming up with more educated solutions.

Cathy N. Davidson suggests an innovative education system, providing an emphasis in today’s digital era, and claiming that the existing education system needs to be renewed according to the new expectations of the digital era. Davidson states that,” In the last half century, many changes have occurred in the technology field, however, classrooms and educational methods have remained fairly steady for the past years as well in consequence students are not being prepared for the future advances of society.” That being said, it is important to improve and to give a change to the current educational methods, adjusting them to the existing demands of the era that we are living and taking advantage of the resources that it provides. “What if we continued to the lesson of internet itself,

For some of us, it is difficult to comprehend why our education systems have not yet made the transition to technology-based forms of teaching especially when we are in the era of technology. To others, the reasoning is clear and they support the original, dated usage of textbooks in a “traditional classroom” setting. The changes in our society are undeniable with the innovation of technology and social media. Although some authors, such as Neil Howe and Jean Twenge, argue that technology is deteriorating the minds of Millennials, technology is also providing Millennials with a way to create connections across communities.

Nowadays, in dealing with the rising of the technologies, students need to be encouraged to be ready to obtain lifelong knowledge and skill in the learning environment. The understanding of the concept of digital literacy has to go through long-term development and its current appearance is characterized by complexity and technology skills but also cognitive and attitudinal components of behavior. (Reynolds, 2008 ; Reynolds, 2016) notes that definitions of digital literacy are often skills, and practically in uses of related technologies, thus tethering them to a given historical moment in time. The definition frequently used is a confident and important use of ICT for work, leisure, learning and communication (European Commission, quoted in JISC InfoNet, 2012; Hall, Nix & Baker,

Since its introduction on a public scale in the 1990s, the internet has been associated with many changes in social experience. Many aspects of social life such as education, work, commerce and even personal relationships have changed through the internet. However, researchers have found that, at least in the early years, access to the internet is shaped according to gender, class, ethnicity and education. During the 1990s the typical information technology user was a white, male, professional with a background in IT. This bias in internet access was named the ‘digital divide’ to point out the implied social inequalities. It was said that the internet was

However, when asked their thoughts about the balance between digital consumption (reading, watching, listening) and digital production (making videos, building web pages) in their institutions’ digital literacy efforts, more than 66% answered that their unit leaned partly or entirely towards consumption. This may be due to the inherited pre-digital literacies noted above, designed for a time when students were considered to be consumers, or it may be driven by institutional leaders’ backgrounds in the mid- and late 20th century — the heyday of the consumer, before what Alvin Toffler dubbed “the prosumer” age.24 The United States’ multi-agency digital literacy portal reveals a similar consumption-oriented stance.25 However, as the third decade of the 21st century approaches, it is clear that digital tools have democratized creation, as well as made accessible many platforms for sharing one’s products.

In the article titled “The Digital Identity Divide: How Technology Knowledge Impacts College Students” written by Joanne Goode , it is important for users to understand the use of “technology identity”as an accurate way to measure the digital divide amongst college level students. Goode argues that “ knowing how to utilize the technological ecosystem of university life is certainly critical for academic success”(Goode, 498). Therefore, students that possesess more technological knowledge succeed within these academics climates due to experience , thus levels of increased mastery. Where as students that posseses no prior technical knowledge consequently struggle with not only the pace of the course workload , but also are extremely disadvantaged

MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is very evident in today’s world that an expert in the role of education to limit the digital divide that exists, expand on the idea stating digital inequality which encompasses five main variables: the technical

The digital divide is a term that is used vaguely throughout society. There is no definite meaning to the word. The digital divide normally occurs between those in cities or rural areas. The divide also exists between the more and less educated. One’s socioeconomic status also reflects whether one experiences the divide or not. On a global scale, the divide exists between the more and less technologically developed nations. The digital divide can be defined as: “the gap between demographics and regions that have access to modern information and communications technology, and those that don't or have restricted access” (Rouse, 2015). The digital divide can also be defined as: “a social issue referring to the differing amounts of information between those who have access to the Internet (especially broadband access) and those who do not have access” (ICT Information Communications Technology, 2015). However, the divide is not limited to Internet access. The divide can include access to telephones,

Being a lifelong learner proves that you are serious about your job. It also shows that you love your job and care about what kids are learning about. The way I will foster the disposition of a lifelong learner is by attending different professional developments. By attending professional developments, you will learn new things that you have never known or heard of before. The professional developments I will go to will be put on by the school district that I’m teaching at. If there is a professional development conference that I’m interested in that is not put on by the school district, I will figure out a way to attend the conference. Another way to foster the disposition of a lifelong learner is by always looking for something new to learn. The way you can learn something new is by reading articles, and keeping up with the newest technology. Keeping up with the newest technology is very important in today’s world.

The American Library Association defines digital literacy as the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills. This definition is important to the discussion of the digital divide, defined by Morse (2004) as “inequitable use of computer technology” (p. 268). We learned from our readings that the divide between lower SES students and their wealthier counterparts in terms of first, access to technology (hardware, software, broadband Internet) and second, what Banister and Fischer (2010) called the “opportunity for use” (p. 3). With increased government funding over the past two decades, schools have seen access to technology improve. Warschauer and Matuchniak (2011) explained the significance of the federal government 's e-Rate program, which has provided a whopping $2 billion per year for broadband and Internet access for schools (p. 188). Yet the softer costs, such as technical support staff, and which are not funded by the federal government mean that even when the infrastructure and actual hardware and software are present, teachers and students may be unable to access them. The interesting divide is also largely based on SocioEconomic Status: the opportunity for use of technology. The expectations for

Eshet-Alkalai, Y. (2004). Digital literacy: A conceptual framework for survival skills in the digital era. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 13(1), 93-106. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/205852670?accountid=32521

This research paper investigates the combined vision of term ‘digital divide’ and factors influencing digital divide drawing on data of various continents including Australia and Europe. Secondly, the positive and negative developments to the society that may develop from linking the gap. Finally, advantages and disadvantages to the people that aids in growing their lives at personal, business, employment and global level to profit countries.

A digital divide is made up of an economic and social inequality that relates to having access, the use of, or the impact of all digital information and different communication technologies. The divide within different countries like when you look at the digital divide in the United States refers to the inequalities between people and their households, the enterprise businesses, or geographic areas, usually at different socioeconomic levels or other demographic categories. The divide between all the countries or regions found all over the world is normally referred to as the global digital divide which checks the digital gap between developing and developed countries on a global scale.

The 21st century is a cultivated landscape of easily accessible information and rapid technological change requires a new kind of learning environment (Hase & Kenyon, 2000). Heutagogy easily fits into distance education systems as the self-directed, autonomous student has the potential to thrive in an online learning environment (Blaschke, 2012). As Ackoff and Greenberg (2008) noted, “humans are hijacked very early in life by an educational system that was designed in the industrial revolution to educate workers to make the industrial wheel go round” (as cited in Hase & Kenyon, 2015). The outdated view of education as a product that is created by scholars that can only be delivered by experts (Eberle, 2009) deters advancement of the learning process. The massive amount of information that is available to humans on a daily basis and throughout every area of their lives requires self-directed, motivated, organized, and strategic learners (Bacon & MacKinnon, 2014) who hold the capacity to parse for relevant information. As Swan (2010) puts it, “the growth of the [world wide web] provides educators with the opportunity [to] change their pedagogical focus from the transmission of knowledge to one enabling students both to make sense of an overabundance of information and to use it to generate knowledge themselves” (p. 111).