During the Covid Crisis of 2020, I remember chatting with one of my co-workers when there were whispers of shutting down the school. Questions like how are the students going to complete their work? Will they be able to complete the assignments? Is there going to be someone there to help them with their work? A million questions were raised between us, even as the country and the schools shut down for months. The Digital Divide is an issue for those who cannot access the internet because rural areas are sometimes miles away from the nearest "hotspot" for the internet, as schools have gone online for students to keep up with schoolwork.
Our education system soon started to look at "the Digital Divide." The issue was investigated during the 90s when the internet was booming. Wilmon Brown states in his article that the first significant step in moving the United States to the digital age was the" passing of the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991. This bill, created and introduced by then-Senator Al Gore, led to the National Information Infrastructure's development and the National Research and Education Network (NREN) funding. The purpose of NREN was to provide internet access to all K-12 students." (Brown) Only a few families could access a computer and the internet during this time. Many were going to local libraries, coffee shops, and fast-food parking lots to fill the internet access gap, yet the digital divide can shrink with resource areas like libraries to help fill the gap.
Libraries Libraries have been the overlooked heroes for those who do not have internet access, as the internet is always assessable to the public. Naidoo and Raju praise libraries as they "play a pivotal role in assisting students in gaining lifelong learning skills, for example, sourcing information." (Naidoo and Raju) However, even with the help of libraries, literacy levels continue to fall as the internet advances. Rural areas are miles away from the nearest "hotspot" for the internet as schools have gone online for students to keep up with schoolwork. Urban areas are more equipped to get high-speed internet. Literacy had taken a hit even before the pandemic as eBooks became more popular with the introduction of e-readers. Readers could now download all the books they could get their hands on if they had access to the wireless internet and an e-reader, yet those who did not own both were left behind as the teachers were trying to make the transition from physical books to eBooks. In their article, Julio Meneses and Josep Maria Momino write that "the acquisition and development of literacy are not simply the achievement of a neutral and decontextualized cognitive ability to read and write. on the contrary, it is the development of the history-, culture-, and context-dependent abilities to master the informational and communicational processes in social practice." (Meneses and Mominó) Although libraries gave students some cushion to keep up with their assignments. The question is, if the digital divide and students do not know how to use computers and the internet continues to widen, how can children and adults keep up with the changing landscape of technology? The digital divide may not seem like a bad deal for those who can immediately access the internet. They do not see the issue, but students, young and high school, who have virtual assignment difficulties comprehending the instruction given. In 2021 congress looked at the issue closely with the pandemic.
CONGRESS
US Congress did in-depth research on this issue and with students that do not have internet access. The researchers called it the “Homework Gap.” The author, Colby Rachfal, explains that the “divide between students that have access to adequate broadband at home and those that do not are known as the Homework Gap. As many schools shifted classes to online instruction at home, some have experienced challenges due in part to the varying levels of broadband access. For instance, as instruction moved online in the Saranac Central, NY, school district, some teachers and students did not have adequate internet access at home in the mountainous Adirondack region. As a result, some teachers and students accessed wireless networks from public library parking lots.” (Rachfal) As before, in the 90s, the internet is still foreign to people in the country, especially those living in the mountains or forest areas. Getting a signal can be extremely hard to find and expensive to keep up with monthly. How can the digital divide be bridged for rural areas? Polyxeni Vassilakopoulou & Eli Hustad gave a clear idea of how to close this gap in their article, Bridging Digital Divides: a Literature Review and Research Agenda for Information Systems Research, by stating that there can be a “three-step process" that includes:
planning the review, where a detailed protocol containing specific search terms and inclusion/exclusion criteria is developed.
conducting the review, where the identification, selection, quality appraisal, examination, and synthesis of prior published research is performed.
reporting the review, where the write-up is prepared. (Vassilakopoulou and Hustad)
If we used these steps as "our methodological framework," as Vassilakopoulou and Hustad but we can create a clear plan to close the close, However, Vassilakopoulou and Hustad gave an excellent option for starting to get good data by looking at lacking parts of the internet, what are the signs in everyday life for ordinary people?
WHAT ARE THE SIGNS?
A professor name Jan van Dijk gives four indicators for how to spot the digital divide:
Lack of any digital experience caused by lack of interest, computer fear, and unattractiveness of the new technology (‘psychological access’)
No possession of computers and network connections (‘material access’)
Lack of digital skills caused by insufficient user-friendliness and inadequate education or social support (‘skills access’)
Lack of significant usage opportunities (‘usage access’).” (van Dijk and Hacker)
For those who did not grow up with a computer in their household, it could be daunting to see a computer with its black screen, qwerty key broad, and mouse. Some have heard negative things about the internet and how the world wide web can get many people in trouble, but a computer is a tool for anything when taught early. The best course of action for those who are conscience of using a computer is to start with the basics, then work on their confidence with the computer.
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
Those who depend on a computer have said that the internet is expensive, yet the need for online work and school has grown in recent years. Broadband has been the new avenue for internet carriers. In 2004, Cable was a bundle with the internet so people could get their 150 channels along with their Internet. Nevertheless, the price for this was high. Mark Cooper found that “This does not lower the price and make the service more affordable. In addition, cable operators are aggressively bundling high-speed Internet with video services to gain competitive leverage. Their market power over high-speed Internet access gives them an important anti-competitive tool.” (Cooper) During this time, people were cutting off their cable service and the Internet as the bill rose too high. In 2022, internet services are now single parties or through cellphone bills. Many would argue that this is not any better because their cell phones are expensive to keep on as the need for them has increased. The plan that has been swirling since 2018 after collecting and analyzing the research, the website digital divide council gives five solutions that can be done to close the gap:
Increase affordability
Empowering users
Improve the relevance of online content
Internet infrastructure development
Address the gender gap in internet access.
With these solutions addressed, Steele believes that the digital divide is just a “symptom that points to a much deeper problem in our economic development, and once these issues are resolved, the digital divide will be eliminated.” (Steele) I agree with Steele's statements about living among trees as the internet speed is spotting and slow even to watch Hulu. The digital divide will continue to be an issue if people fall through the crack in our economy until we take the time to resolve the present issue. I have attached a YouTube video that overviews the Digital Divide. I hope you enjoy this post; thank you for reading and comment below if you want to continue the conversation.
Works Cited