Week 12

Affected by numerous factors such as gender, age, race and ethnicity, income, and educational attainment, of which educational attainment and socioeconomic level seems to outweigh the others, digital divide refers to the inequality between individuals, households, business, and geographic areas in accessibility of ICT and internet connectivity and in knowledge to use the information, and that results in a big gap in economic gains and social and cultural capital.

As explained in the article, digital divide can be leveled due to various factors. Nonetheless, the determinants of the division are primarily associated with education levels as well as socioeconomic status. For example, genders by which people traditionally believe that male has a higher tendency of affiliation with technology have been proven to be insignificant in determining the digital divide. Partially, it is because women now have the equal access to educational opportunities as men do. It also could be the result of their increasing socioeconomic status that women, especially those who are highly educated and financially independent, can afford to buy the equipment which is necessary for connectivity such as personal computer, laptops, Ipad, internet installation fee, and so forth.

Among all the “bridges” aimed at addressing the digital divide, the programs of IMARA targeting at long-term, sustainable solutions has caught my eyes. For it tries to address the two key factors which are primarily responsible for digital divide- economic consideration and knowledge to effectively use the technology. On one hand, the program attempts to give donated computers to the underserved community. On the other hand, there are volunteers who provide services like training to help people use the technology provided by the program. Thus, by providing the community with the access to the digital world as well as training on how to function the technology, the program seems to be the most promising solution to lessen the digital divide.

I believe my lesson plans did challenge the Digital Divide in two aspects. First, I usually like to divide students into small groups in which each person plays different roles. With that in hand, students who are good at certain aspects such as technology could be the person who navigates on the computer while others take other responsibilities such as note taking or giving ideas. Doing so, those who are not familiar with function of technology can also be engaged in the class and learn how to use them by observing the navigator in the group. Secondly, I usually model for students before having them use any technology so i make sure they have had enough scaffolds for given activity. However, one aspect that I need to improve my lesson plan is to reflect on the purpose of using technology- does it actually improve the comprehension of the lesson.

As much as the list have addressed many challenges in digital divide, one thing that I would like to add the list is to encourage students to explore more technologies which they think could be beneficial to their study rather than just passively received what teachers have assigned them to, so that technology is not merely an instructional tool, but also a learning tool by which students can empower their learning experience in multimedia environment.