I just read the article: “Redefining the Digital Divide: Beyond Access to Computers and the Internet” by Valadez abd Duran (2007). This article attempted to broaden the definition of “digital divide” to include more than simple access to technology. The authors explained that they believe the digital divide is multidimensional and includes four distinct dimensions: physical access, C&I (computer & internet) use in the classroom, availability of support for C&I, and social consequences of use of IT. This is because simple access to technology does not mean it is being engaged in a analytical and critical manner. Often times low income school districts are given the technology but use it to drill basic skill rather than allowing students to be creative and implement it into the curriculum. This is because of many of the dimensions listed above. For example teachers may not have access to the professional development necessary to become fully digitally literate. Their research supported their multidimensional view of the “digital divide”. Lower income schools seemed to have slightly less access to technology but they also had a tendency to engaged with it less often and in less meaningful ways then the higher income school. I agree very much with what was stated in this article. As a substitute teacher in the Rochester City School District I am very familiar with the skill drill programs students engage with during their scheduled computer lab time. In addition I have seen children engage with the computer in more interactive ways, such as, completing research for a project. Yet, this research is often limited to the daily or weekly hour that their classroom is able to get a lab top cart. Technology is certainly being installed in low income schools but skill and drill will not develop critically literate children. We must continually work to close the “knowledge divide” being furthered by the expansion of digital technology.
Digital Divide
I have seen another layer to the "digital divide" too, in my substitute teaching in RCSD. I can't even count the number of times that I have watched teachers who are SO excited to get a Smartboard, because the school was lucky enough to receive money for them through a grant, and instead of using all of the great features Smartboard is capable of, the teacher uses it as another projector screen or blackboard, and all it's ever used for is taking notes. At first I assumed the worst of these teachers, but then I found out that although there was money to provide the actual technology, there wasn't enough money for teachers to get any training, so they were just doing the basics, which is all they knew how to do without getting training. These other layers to the "digital divide" definitely count just as much as access.
ReplyDeleteYes, the "digital divide" exists in many places. This is another reason why it technology has to be implemented in a 1-1 environment. Increasingly, that appears to be the cell phone. Even in the poorest districts and places in the world, the cell phone seems the fast becoming the ubiquitous technology tool.
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