Effects Of The Digital Divide On Children

Today, we are so accustomed and dependent on technology to communicate and inform our world (Bentley, 2014). According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (2017) Australia has a population of 24.7 million people, only 14.2 million of those people have access to the internet. That means that over ten million people in Australia, a young but well-developed country don’t have access to the internet. Nicholas Negroponte created a non for profit initiative called one laptop per child, in hope to continue to minimise the digital divide, this initiative has now rolled out in Ethiopia, Mongolia, Peru, Mexico, Rwanda and more. Technology is such a big part of our education system so what happens when some of our students don’t have access to basic

According to Mary H, digital divide is not only the gap between people who have access to technology and those who do not, it is also the inequality in the kind of access. Though most Americans access the technology, the difference in the quality of access remains. Yet the Constitution guarantees the equality of opportunity, the digital divide subsists in the USA because there is economic disparity among people. Therefore, some social class does not earn the advantages of technology and the gap between upper class and lower class will grow up.

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,

The use of computers in the classroom has been a major component in the development training for students to get ready for a more technologically advanced workplace. Sheldon defines the problem of untrained administrators, teachers, and other public school officials that did not know how to use the computers provided for educating the students. IN one example at the “Rancho Bizarro” school, Sheldon defines the inability of educators to be trained in computer technology: “Teachers endured countless mind-numbing sermons on the power of technology, but failed to develop the necessary computer skills” (Rossett 210). In this manner, the problem of performance analysis for public school officials was a major barrier to properly educating the students. Turtle Middle School is another example of a computer technology expert, Tiffany Banana, that was brought in to order computers, and other technologies to educate the students.

This concept is Loewy’s “‘interdisciplinary curriculum for the digital age,’” and from this, education should change for the better. By highlighting important aspects of the program, Wong shows opposers and concerned parents the solutions to their worries. Danger on the internet will always be present, and it’s all a matter of understanding of how to interact with the internet. If students don’t know how to properly interact on the internet, of course, parents are going to have their concerns. This leads to the “fearmongering and massive information campaigns” over avoiding such issues, which wouldn’t be an issue if covered in school more in-depth. In addition, according to Wong, Loewy’s concept is not the first either, “University of Pennsylvania English Professor Kenneth Goldsmith launched a course [in 2015] called ‘Wasting Time on the Internet,’” where it teaches students how to use technology appropriately, and use it to their advantage of gaining knowledge, rather than wilting it away with societal norms. Therefore, digital citizenship becomes vital if technology is to be a part of education, which Wong thrives in informing her

As the years progress, our society as a whole, is advancing in technology at a rapid rate. Nowadays, according to the article of the week paper, The next civil rights frontier is digital by Juan Andrade, states that access to home internet connection is a prerequisite for academic success, and for the most part it is true. Teachers now have access to new websites such as Google Classroom where they are able to post homework assignments and is expected by the teacher for the student to get the homework done. Unfortunately, many families cannot afford Internet access, and are limited to public library visits and to mobile data plans, these people find themselves at a disadvantage compared to their peers. In this essay I will elaborate on the subject matter of, digital access and if it is a “fundamental civil rights issue”, how Internet access can “radically change lives”, and if I make wise use of my Internet time.

Ever since the early 80’s, there has been a rise in technology. From the first Macintosh, to the latest iPhone, technology has evolved to fit nearly any environment. However, not everyone agrees with this rise in the techno age. Psychologist Susan Pinker claims that technology is stripping down student education. She addresses her reasoning in The New York Times editorial entitled: “Can Students Have Too Much Tech?” She argues that, “...mounting evidence shows that showering students, especially those from struggling families,will not shrink the class divide in education. If anything, it will widen it.” Pinker informs parents and educators that having too much technology in and out of the classroom will ruin a child’s education, especially

The tools used for mainstream education in America are, at an ever increasing rate, shifting from physical to digital. Schools across the nation have spent the last decade integrating technology into education in an attempt to make learning more engaging for students. As schools join the charge for digital instruction they must heavily evaluate their motives, the realistic applications of new technology, and the consequences it may have on their students.

Although books are great means of learning, the process of looking up everything in them was both tedious and time consuming. In present days, students possess the power to hold all information at the press of a button. This convenience saves time and allows students to learn specifically what they need. Today, children would be at a disadvantage if they did not have Internet access at home. One article stated that children at their school are given laptops to aid in their learning; however, nine percent of the children do not have Internet access at home. With a converted curriculum shifted towards research and project based learning, it is impossible for these children to do what is expected of them in class (Monahan, 2014). Eighty five percent of America has Internet access, so it is no surprise that most curriculums in schools are primarily based on computers nowadays. Children are no longer confined to the walls of their classrooms as technology improves and provides new and efficient ways of learning and collaborating with

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

In the United States and in the world, there is a digital divide related to knowledge and access to electronic resources. The personal pursuit of knowledge, career advancement, and the inequalities that some people encounter as it relates to electronic resources is what has been labeled the digital divide. To better understand the digital divide, a person must first understand the correlation between lifelong learners, adult education, and the digital divide. In the United States the thirst for knowledge is at an all-time high and many people may ask the question why?

Professor Cathleen A. Norris and Professor Elliot Soloway write positive information about the benefits of the Internet in education. They say that, wealthy or not, the internet provides our youth with an unequivocal access to knowledge and unmatched ability to communicate. Specifically, Norris and Soloway argue that, “ For a youth living below the poverty line in Detroit, an Internet-connected smartphone is arguably the most empowering opportunity in that child's life” (qtd. in Greenblatt). While they point out the positive benefit of connectivity and access to information, they also touch on the need for a guiding hand. Norris and Soloway go on to say how education will only improve with this tool, “ Within five years every child in every

Laptops, smartphones, smartwatches and the Internet are all good examples that show how much human life has been relying on digital technologies in the past two decades. Nevertheless, digital divide, the phenomenon that not all people have access to digital technologies, still prevails in Australia. The recent Australia Digital Inclusion Index (ADII) report states that the increase in Internet coverage in the country has been little in the last three years, especially in South Australia and Tasmania, and the lower income group uses the Internet significantly less than the richer (Thomas, 2017). This certainly has much to do with the affordability of hardware and Internet services for people with low socioeconomic status, but such a divergence may also be explained by the absence of infrastructure, such as the broadband network service, in the remote regions (Park et al., 2015, p.3633).

Bossert, P. J. (1999). Growing up digital: The rise of the net generation. National Association of Secondary School Principals.NASSP Bulletin, 83(607), 86-88. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/216032026?accountid=32521

Being proficient in using technology will be a prerequisite for almost any employment for younger students. It is the school’s job to prepare many of these kids for employment, and that is especially true for the lower socioeconomic areas where students with computers at home are rare. Eisenberg and Johnson describe this basic skills education as the “laundry list” approach to computer education. By ‘list” they mean isolated skills, such as word processing, or searching the Internet. “Students need to be able to use computers and other technology flexibly, creatively and purposefully. All learners should be able to recognize what they need to accomplish, determine whether a computer will help them to do so, and then be able to use the computer as part of the process of accomplishing their task.”1