The Digital Divide
In 1966, the world was introduced to a television series titled “Star Trek”, created by Gene Roddenberry, portraying fantasy technology that all members of planet Earth had knowledge of. The characters on the TV show used innovative tools such as Telepresense, Communicators, Phasers, and Universal Translators. In modern society these tools are used worldwide but they are called video conferencing, cell phones, taser guns, and voice recognition software, respectively. Another thing that was implanted in the show was that the people of planet Earth all shared the knowledge of this technology. Today, however, this is not the case. The technology of computer and Internet usage today is only taught in some parts of the
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Therefore if a student is absent or misses a certain lesson, he/she can be able to know what was taught through the teacher’s blog on today’s assignments/lessons and if they have a question or problem they can ask through the same forum” (“Resources for Students”). The Internet and computer technology should be available worldwide to help with education as it is important to a country’s future success.
Another detrimental factor to owning a personal computer at home is the cost. The cost of computer technology and Internet access is far too great for the average household of third world countries to afford. When a population is worried about nutrition, health care, and sanitary water to drink, computer technology starts to seem less important. Kimberley Heitman addressed this in her article titled “Internet Freedom: Controversy” by saying “At present, access to the Internet requires a stable telecommunications system and an expensive set of hardware.” By having to buy a computer system and sustain a monthly payment of Internet access it is hard for populations who live in poverty to obtain both things. “Telecommunication facilities are more readily available for wealthier communities and are more attractive for developing companies to establish themselves. As a result, poverty in less fortunate neighborhoods make it less appealing for investments by outside companies, further aggravating the divide” (Roberts). If
The term “digital divide” was coined to define this growing gap between the people who do not have access to modern technology (more specifically the poor, rural, elderly, and handicapped) and the people who do (wealthy, middle class, and those living in urban/suburban areas). In urban areas especially, a common assumption made is that everyone has access to this modern technology. People see technology all around them and assume it is integrated into everyone’s life. Because of the simplicity technology offers, it has become the engine behind economics, politics, and communication. In rural areas, most people know the potential of modern technology, but don’t have the resources to achieve it. “It has been observed that households earning incomes over $75,000 are 20 times more likely to have home internet access than those at lowest income levels and 10 times more likely to have a
Firstly, advancing of internet lead to convenient for students to receive informations which are able to influence students’ idea or view more directly. By giving lecture to impart knowledge, teachers’ forms of teaching are always monotonous for students to receive, although they can use projectors or hold some activities in class. By contrast, on the internet, informations appear as not only the forms of documents or articles, but also forms of audio, movies, cartons, computer games, pictures and motion graph. With multitude types of forms, students tend to choose the best way for themselves to understand and remember. Nowadays, it is impossible for us to live without internet, which means internet has already been full of the world, so that it is now affecting every people
Income inequality is the unspoken truth of American life. Millions of Americans live in poverty while the minority holds the majority of the wealth. This problem has become more severe in recent years, with the wealth gap increasing exponentially. While innovation drives economics in the free market, recent innovations have caused the wealth gap to become skewed. Broadband Internet is one particular innovation that has spurred economic growth but has hurt the lower class. Broadband Internet can be defined as “768 Kbps download and 200 Kbps upload” (Dunbar). Although there are many varying classification of broadband Internet, this definition will be utilized for the purposes of this paper. The non-adoption of broadband Internet by those living
Society is now immersed in the era of the digital age. Gone are the days of searching for hours in the library for the answers to a particular question, writing letters that can take days if not weeks to reach its recipient or simply visiting friends to reconnect. The Internet has provided a way to obtain and share a vast amount of information instantaneously on devices such as laptops and mobile phones. As a result, the number of users is increasing at an exponential rate as more people go online and embrace the convenience of the world-wide web. Social media sites allow the user to share personal information, photographs and videos at their own discretion as well as view the information shared by others, such sites have become an integrated part of everyday life especially amongst adolescents. Although, this modern way of social interaction and information sharing has its advantages it can likewise have a negative impact on the lives of some individuals. This essay will suggest that while the Internet has advanced communication and is growing in popularity, the issue of bullying has similarly evolved. Consequently, cyberbullying is now a recognised problem faced in most societies and educational institutions. To deal with this new phenomenon, countries such as New Zealand is proposing changes to existing laws and legislations.
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?
We live in the era of 21st century, and it is the time to take the step in whole world with technological advances. Nowadays, most of the children love to use the internet for many purposes, but still they carry heavy backpacks with lots of textbooks. There are many reason for why textbooks should be replaced by today’s latest technological tools. Textbooks have become a burden for all students across the world. As technology advances, leaning styles have become more technology dependent which makes the students more accustomed to technological devices. Some schools have traditional thinking that textbooks are the only way to go perfectly, but on the other hand online resources are more sensible alternative. School districts should replace textbooks with online resources in order to reduce stress for the students, save the district resources, and endure a longer period of time than textbooks.
As Freedom House notes in it’s discourse on “Obstacles to Access” when examining the status of American Internet, “access, cost, and usability remain barriers… particular [for] senior citizens, people… in rural areas, and low-income households” (Freedom House). Therefore, not only is cost a barrier to even having Internet access, and thus the “empowerment” that entails, but both the Internet speed and availability, both hallmark disadvantageous of living far away from central cities, severely damper this ability to empower. In fact, I would say this dampens all three facets of Internet empowerment. However, as Freedom House concurrently notes 80% of American households subscribe to a broadband connection. Thus, I would not say that the Internet is only empowering an elite group just based on resources, but it is definitely exclusionary to people with lesser monetary and location-ary means.
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).
Technology is the crucial factor for education sector to maintain all the data and information more effectively and efficiently. Increasing dependence on the technology is adjusting student-teacher cooperation with the progression of time (Candace, 2004). Nowadays, people use computers and internet for learning different programs. Internet helps students to find their own answers without the help of the teachers. Information technology like internet is increasing the opportunities to learn new things more easily and quickly. There are various online libraries that help the students and teachers with reading materials. Students can also post their work online for the teachers to read and grade. For instances: Westcliff university is using GAP (online system) where the student can see the question and post their answer online and the teachers can check the students work online as well. Information system has brought advancement in learning process with the help of audio-visual education. Nowadays, most of the students are taught with projectors and speakers with the help of power point presentation. In today’s technological world, most of the education sector utilizes the latest technology and software so as to enhance the overall learning experience of the students (Pandey,
According to the video by Aleph Molinari, the Internet should be a right, not a luxury. There is a huge gap between the people who has access to an internet connection and people who don´t. Only 30% of the world population has access to a computer and they are mostly located in the United States and Europe. The Internet not only connects people from all over the world but also empowers them and they have more social participation. Individuals, who are technologically excluded, will not compete in the job market of the future because they are not informed. To give a computer to a poor child is not the answer because, in addition, it brings other expenses such as internet service, electricity, software, updates and maintenance, plus it doesn´t
Learning in this generation is so facile that we can acquire it easily by using the internet or other devices which are capable of giving information. These devices are so common in which children nowadays can easily use these devices. Seeing this, I can tell that information for us today can be accessed freely and it made as progress highly in our learning.
When using the internet, students can read something and then forget it, knowing they can find it later. With the changing of technology,
In the 21st century, technology has changed the way that we communicate teaching and learning process. In the past decade Digital technology has taken the world and impact our daily lives. In the past, students had to meet at the library to work together but now students can work together without having to meet at the library after school. Online learning made a hugs different in student’s life and help them with gathering information’s much more quickly. Students also can access lessons at home while they couldn’t attend the class. Most teachers use mobile applications and website for classroom activities and lessons for students, so that they can access anywhere in the world and to get ready for future lessons.
The United States of America faces many trials and tribulations ranging from social issues to economic ones. One problem that the U.S faces today and has been struggling to decrease is the Digital Divide. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Developments, “Digital Divide refers to the gap in access to information and communication technology”. Since the invention of technology many humans, especially, teenagers and young adults depends on it more than the phone directory or physical resources. The digital divide in the U.S causes many problems ranging from economic issues to educational issues. These issues are not new, but have been hard to resolve due to the prices of the internet. The United States can change the
Computer technology changes the way people with the advent of internet, that has significant effects on communicating, teaching and learning. Students learning English as a foreign language uses the Internet as an instructional aid because of the integration of various tool and application in the educational and instructional process (Al- Ghoza , 2008) , Meanwhile , it also serves a tool to the teachers to make the lesson suitable for all learning style and facilitates cooperative learning. (Hollenback & Hollenbeck , 2004) . There has been so much to explore in this area and so this paper will highlight the advantage and disadvantage of using the Internet in teaching and learning Teaching English as a Foreign Language .