Unfair Access to Information

Imagine having to turn off all electronics and not being able to use it for a week. Technologies, such as the Internet, have provoked questions about the effects it has to students overtime. Although Internet users have become dependent to the internet, schools should not participate in national “Shut Down Your Screen Week” because the Internet is an exceptional source of information, the Internet is used for instant communication, and Internet users have shown increased signs of social interactions.

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

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

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

Thus, the problem in concern is not simply having access or not. People who suffer from this gap in the use of digital technologies are believed to lose certain social and financial benefits (McFadden, 2017), and this is not unique in Australia. In a 2014 Dutch survey, van Deursen and van Dijk (2014, p.520) identified that the lower educated people, though surprisingly used the Internet more than their more educated counterparts, were less likely to utilise the Internet for information and personal development. This means that possessing suitable skills and attitude may be more important than having access to digital technologies when it comes to benefitting the

The article presents information on conducting timely research that may significantly influence education policy and practice. A report has been recently released from the Children's Partnership--Measuring Digital Opportunity for America's Children: Where We Stand and Where We Go From Here. On the basis of 40 indicators, the report's Digital Opportunity Measuring Stick shows how U.S. children and young adults use information and communications technology in ways that relate to their achievement, health, economic opportunity, and civic participation. U.S. children are benefiting from technology-enabled opportunities. The potential of information and communications technology to improve student achievement.

As society changes and moves towards a more technological era, media is heavily relied upon. When a person is insecure or vulnerable, media can be a way for people to feel connected with the world and people around them. Children are exposed to media and technology from a very early age, particularly with its use in schools and households. For example, a toddler watching Sesame Street can be taught valuable lessons about racial harmony, cooperation, simple arithmetic and the use and application of literacy, through an educational television format. The use of media continues throughout a person’s life, as society depends more and more on it for relaying information and educating (PMC, 2003).

The benefits of the new technology of today, computers and the internet, are particularly ambiguous. They have made work ever more efficient and knit the world together in a web of information and phone lines. Some visionaries speak of a world in which Erg need not check in to his office; he can just dial in from home. He won't need to go to a bar to pick up women because

An article written by New York Times in 1996 was the most outstanding definition of the digital divide. It was a research on the use of computers and internets in high, middle and low-class schools around California. It was evident that a lot of children in high- end schools could afford the digital devices, with an average number of the middle-class student while low-class students could not afford the laptops as well as the internet. While the prestigious schools around California could afford exclusive digital devices, the public schools attended by the poorest in the community could not afford any platform for the technological devices (Poole, 1996).

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

Children are exposed to all different kinds of media from birth. Many children might first be exposed to television. As they get a little bit older they could get their first video game system. Then as a teenager many will get a cellphone. With their first smartphone comes access to social media. While these are all mediums of entertainment, many modern schools also rely on web-based services to help educate their students. Each different medium can have a different effect, and it is important to understand how these effects will shape our future generations.

The Internet, like all great innovations, implies a new culture and a new language (Murelli, 2002,page 1). Over the last few decades, the internet has been developing unexpectedly from Transatlantic communications cable to Fiber optical telecommunication. Murelli (2002) states that the Digital divide is recognised to be gap between those people who have access to the new information and communications technologies and those who cannot. This essay will argue that age should be the primary cause of the digital divide in the UK; however, lack of IT skills, affordability, motivation and not user-friendly to elders are all the problem generated from the root of elderly people.

In the United States the ability to get internet access is usually limited to where you live. There are many homes in the US where there is not reliable internet access. There are elementary schools that require papers, homework and research to be done on computers. The students that do not have easy access to a computer will have a strong disadvantage over those that do. Schools are getting better and more advanced computer labs but not all students can stay after school to complete their homework, if they are required to take the bus. In 1995 the Commerce Department published its findings on the digital divide. They found geographic, economic and racial gaps between

Whilst there currently is lacking evidence to indicate a decline in other forms of social disparity due to computer and Internet access, these members at the adverse end of social classes are not benefiting through this digital emergence. Thus their position is remaining the same. On the other end of the spectrum however, there are indicators suggesting this emergence is helping to secure or even increase the favorable social position of these in higher social classes. Thus the digital divide is arguable contributing towards further divisions among social classes, enhancing not only economic division, but social hierarchy on a national and international scale.

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the use of new digital systems and how it affects vulnerable young people who may not know the financial constraint involved.