Learning to be a part of the knowledge economy: digital divides and media literacy"
Lyndsay Grant
In the above article, Lyndsay Grant explores the digital divide and how the concept is an oversimplification of reality. Grant rightly points out that the "divide" is in fact a spectrum of ICT accessibility and use. For example, a person with computer access in their workplace may have access for only work-related purposes; similarly, a family with three or four laptops in the one household may only use their ICT for entertainment purposes, not for intellectual or educational support.
Grant also explores what is meant by the "knowledge economy". According to Grant, the importance of bridging the digital divide is to allow the disadvantaged 'disconnected' people on the wrong side of the divide to take part in the "knowledge economy". Grant quotes British ex-PM Tony Blair who argued that “Universal internet access is vital if we are not only to avoid social divisions over the new economy but to create a knowledge economy of the future which is for everyone” (p. 4)
What is a knowledge economy? Grant defines it as a facet of "informational capitalism", which is an economic system in which value is ascribed to producing knowledge and processing information rather than producing goods. (p. 5)
I would contend that the "knowledge economy", which people are excluded from if they are on the wrong side of the "digital divide", is not a true representation of the real world, which I would argue is still very much a world of consumer capitalism rather than informational capitalism. I think there is a danger for intellectuals and academics to assume that everyone wants to take part in the same ceaseless exchange of information and "knowledge" as they do. Many individuals, on both sides of the "digital divide", are uninterested in taking part in an "informational capitalist" world. Many individuals who do access to ICTs, will nonetheless not take part in the "knowledge economy".
I think the salient point in Grant's article is that the term "digital divide" is an oversimplification of an issue that should perhaps more accurately termed a "digital spectrum".
Showing posts with label Digital Divide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Digital Divide. Show all posts
Friday, March 5, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Research Journal 3: The Digital Divide
I was listening to a podcast by "The Virtual Staffroom" this morning on the way to university. The topic was a fairly general discussion about integrating ICT into the classroom and some of the implications concerning curriculum and so on.
A couple of the speakers discussed the Rudd Government's election promise to provide laptops for every student in years 9, 10, 11 and 12 in public schools in Australia, and in particular detailed the implementation of this promise as it is taking place in New South Wales. According to Ben Jones, who is involved with the laptop rollout in the NSW Department of Education, all year 9 students in New South Wales would be provided with a laptop in 2010, with subsequent year 9 students being provided with the computers in 2011, 2012 and 2013, by which time the election promise would be fulfilled in New South Wales.
According to Ben Jones on "The Virtual Staffroom", the implementation is not as simple as unloading a truck full of laptops at each school. Serious consideration has been made for factors such as wireless networks and the amount of traffic they will need to support. For example, according to Mr Jones' discussion of the rollout, every wireless router in a school will be required to support up to thirty students connected at any one time. Considerations like this will ensure that the new technologies are not hampered by substandard "background" details.
Once again I find my conception of the "digital divide" shifting: if the government provides a laptop and software worth $5,500 to every student (source: http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/gotoschool/highschool/dernsw/transforming.php), surely there should be very little concern about a "divide" at all?
If implementation of the laptop scheme runs as smoothly as the New South Wales Department of Education purports, the "digital divide", at least in schools, should be practically nonexistent. So, is the "digital divide" a mountain made out of a molehill? Is it just another buzzword used by conservative educators and commentators to create an obstacle for educational engagement with technology?
At this point, I am inclined to think so... But we'll see what the next source says!
A couple of the speakers discussed the Rudd Government's election promise to provide laptops for every student in years 9, 10, 11 and 12 in public schools in Australia, and in particular detailed the implementation of this promise as it is taking place in New South Wales. According to Ben Jones, who is involved with the laptop rollout in the NSW Department of Education, all year 9 students in New South Wales would be provided with a laptop in 2010, with subsequent year 9 students being provided with the computers in 2011, 2012 and 2013, by which time the election promise would be fulfilled in New South Wales.
According to Ben Jones on "The Virtual Staffroom", the implementation is not as simple as unloading a truck full of laptops at each school. Serious consideration has been made for factors such as wireless networks and the amount of traffic they will need to support. For example, according to Mr Jones' discussion of the rollout, every wireless router in a school will be required to support up to thirty students connected at any one time. Considerations like this will ensure that the new technologies are not hampered by substandard "background" details.
Once again I find my conception of the "digital divide" shifting: if the government provides a laptop and software worth $5,500 to every student (source: http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/gotoschool/highschool/dernsw/transforming.php), surely there should be very little concern about a "divide" at all?
If implementation of the laptop scheme runs as smoothly as the New South Wales Department of Education purports, the "digital divide", at least in schools, should be practically nonexistent. So, is the "digital divide" a mountain made out of a molehill? Is it just another buzzword used by conservative educators and commentators to create an obstacle for educational engagement with technology?
At this point, I am inclined to think so... But we'll see what the next source says!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Research Journal 2: The Digital Divide
Thoughts:
I'm reading CISCO's White Paper "Equipping Every Learner for the 21st Century" and it's just struck me that I've been thinking about the "digital divide" in terms of intra-national, primarily socio-economic inequality.
But of course the digital era is also adding an extra barrier to equality between the developed and developing world - further disadvantaging people in countries that are already disadvantaged. The "divide" between what used to be called the "first world" and "third world" countries, which used to be a primarily geopolitical, economic divide, is now encompassing the divide in digital literacy which comes about from lack of access to technology.
According to www.internetworldstats.com, only 25.6% of the world's population uses the internet. Twenty-five percent!! North America boasts the largest proportion of internet uses, at roughly 74%. Australia is grouped with Oceania, at 60.4%. By contrast, only 6.8% of Africa's population uses the internet.
All this time I've been thinking about how the digital divide will affect my classroom practice: how can I make assignments fair to students who don't have unlimited access to the internet at home. I realise that the international digital divide is a "big picture" problem, and that my approach to the digital divide in the classroom is very much a "small picture" approach, so the two problems, although related, are in very different spheres.
I'm reading CISCO's White Paper "Equipping Every Learner for the 21st Century" and it's just struck me that I've been thinking about the "digital divide" in terms of intra-national, primarily socio-economic inequality.
But of course the digital era is also adding an extra barrier to equality between the developed and developing world - further disadvantaging people in countries that are already disadvantaged. The "divide" between what used to be called the "first world" and "third world" countries, which used to be a primarily geopolitical, economic divide, is now encompassing the divide in digital literacy which comes about from lack of access to technology.
According to www.internetworldstats.com, only 25.6% of the world's population uses the internet. Twenty-five percent!! North America boasts the largest proportion of internet uses, at roughly 74%. Australia is grouped with Oceania, at 60.4%. By contrast, only 6.8% of Africa's population uses the internet.
All this time I've been thinking about how the digital divide will affect my classroom practice: how can I make assignments fair to students who don't have unlimited access to the internet at home. I realise that the international digital divide is a "big picture" problem, and that my approach to the digital divide in the classroom is very much a "small picture" approach, so the two problems, although related, are in very different spheres.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Research Journal 1: The Digital Divide
I've just started researching the "Digital Divide" and only 15 minutes in I'm already learning things... My conception of the digital divide was rather simplified I'm afraid. I thought it referred primarily to the disparity in ICT access between socio-economic groups, whereas the document I'm reading at the moment (Blanchard, Metcalfe and Burns)* seems to conceptualise the divide as relating to disenfranchised groups as diverse as homosexual and bisexual youths, Indigenous and youths from ethnic minorities, youths who are carers, youths with disabilities and so on.
Looks like I'll have to broaden my scope on reflecting on this issue - it obviously spans a much greater proportion of the young population than I thought. But I'm concerned that this document, coming from a youth organisation whose aim is reducing youth suicide rates, may be more concerned with using ICT to 'reach out' to depressed young people, than using it in a more education-minded sense, which is what I'm more interested in.
Sources:
* Blanchard, Metcalf and Burns. 2007. Bridging the Digital Divide: Creating opportunities for marginalised young people to get connected. Available at http://www.inspire.org.au/what-we-do-actnow-bridging-the-digital-divide-youth-action-project.html. Accessed 28th February 2010.
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