The Digital Divide in Society: Overcoming the Gap

1. Team 13 Kevin Butler Sebastian Vaughn Kaitlin Barr Alex McCollough Brent Johnson James Dunn

2. The Digital Divide in Society Kevin Butler

3. Technology • Can be viewed as a democratic resource • Seen as a means for facilitating problem solving, rather than just something to consume • Biggest challenge of the current century is extending digital technology to the “next ten percent” of citizens and to the governments that serve them

4. The Digital Divide • The gap between those with regular, effective access to digital technologies and those without • Refers to those who benefit from technology, and those who don’t, as opposed to just talking about who has direct access to technology and those who don’t

5. The Digital Divide • Passive view of technology where it exists for the masses to consume , but for an elite to produce • Not a clear single gap that divides a society into two groups • Reports claim that disadvantages can take the such forms as lower-performance computers, lower-quality or high-priced connections

6. Today • Discussion is moving from the technologies themselves to skills and literacy • Jobs and education directly related to the internet • Where internet and other technologies are not accessible education is suffering, and uneducated people cannot compete in our global economy

7. Global Digital Divide • Reflects existing economic divisions in the world • Widens the gap in economic divisions around the world

8. Typical Questions • Do people have access to computers? • Do they have the infrastructure needed to support the use of computers That’s just physical access. What about: • Do they have internet connections? • What is the speed and how reliable are the connections?

9. Barriers • Knowledge of how use the technology effectively • Language

10. National Interest and Social Benefit • Economic quality: some think that access to the internet is a basic component of civil life that some developed countries aim to guarantee for their citizens • Social mobility: computers and computer networks play an increasingly important role in continued learning and career advancement, so education should integrate technology in a meaningful way to better prepare students

11. National Interest and Social Benefit • Social equality: As education integrate technology, Societies such as in the developing world should also integrate technology to improve life and reduce gender inequalities • Democracy: simple abilities to search and access government information to more ambitious visions of increased public participation in elections and decision making processes • Economic competitiveness and growth: The development of information infrastructure and active use of it is inextricably linked to economic growth

12. Overcoming the Digital Divide • Open content: any kind of creative work that is published in a format that explicitly allows the copying and the modifying of the information by anyone • Free software: software which can be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed with little or no restriction • Open access: free online access to digital scholarly material

13. Closing the Digital Divide • Trigger a second digital revolution • Pour trillions of dollars into the global economy • Empower the disempowered

14. Sources • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/digital_divide • http://www.digitaldivide.org/dd/index.html