1.6+The+digital+divide+and+equality+of+access


 * The Digital Divide**

The growth of the use of IT systems has led to disparities in the use of, and access to, information technologies. Disparities exist not only internationally between countries, but also within countries between different socio-economic groups as well as within what may appear to be relatively homogenous groups. This may lead to groups or individuals without access to IT being disadvantaged. For example, while telelearning may bring previously unavailable opportunities to everyone's doorstep, factors such as the cost and availability of hardware, software or access to the internet may create a "digital divide".

This section will be researched and news based. In this section you will learn about "The Digital Divide" and expand upon the definition in the ITGS syllabus (above).

Start by reading "A Gift of Fire" p. 372 - 375.


 * Assignment - Paper on the digital divide**
 * Research Question: many initiatives have been proposed on how the Digital Divide can be bridged. Research one of these ideas. Is the idea feasible? Justify your answer through a 750 word paper.
 * Site at least 5 references in your essay that demonstrate support for your thesis statement (use the sample APA style paper to format your paper. You do not need an abstract). Use 3 academic resources and at least 2 current news articles.
 * For this essay, try to use sources found through **Google Scholar** and your textbooks to ensure you are reading accurate information.
 * **You can copy and paste your final essay into this wiki and send a copy to me.**


 * Final Essay**

Digital divide has been a problem in many countries and even within a country itself across the world ever since the innovations of technology from telegraph and telephone in the nineteenth century to recent advanced technology such as computer and Internet. Many developing countries such as India, Brazil and China are facing the problem of huge gaps between the rich and the poor in the population, resulting a limited population having access to the technology (Warschauer 8-9). The idea about giving more people the access to information and communication technology (ICT) that will help to increase their social inclusion is suggested in this Information Age for bridging the gaps. However, it is not feasible to make all the population in the world to have access to ICT.

Firstly, the unbalance of social classes has made the accessibility to technology more difficult for the poor people. The incomes and educations level of the poor population has distinguish who is more likely to own a computer and who is not. It will also determine who is more likely to have access to Internet more than the others (Keniston 3). The income and education that are provided within every nation that is industrialized or developing are contributing more digital divide between the populations. Even though the costs of new technology devices are decreasing such as cheaper tablets (Gahran), there are still huge populations of people who are still considered as in the stage of “poverty”, they will not able to afford the devices even at low costs. More importantly, in India, many people are suffering from lack of food everyday, some is forced to sleep in hunger and therefore spending money on their daily food supplies would be more necessary than spending on any technology devices (12).

Furthermore, the investment in providing technology devices and improving people’s standard of living from rural area is difficult. In order to have everyone learning how to use the technology devices properly, it will need a lot of money to invest in the cost of purchasing and providing the supplies for the organization to distribute to the people who is needed. When organizations are providing new technology to these rural area people, it is not simply just investment in the products itself, these technology devices also needed to be well repaired and taken care due to different weather condition in different countries, such as the humidity, dusty or rainy environments (Baase 375). Most importantly, when organization provide low-cost devices such as computer to the people in the rural area, it helps them to learn about the outside world such as learning about better farming techniques or pricing for selling their products, but they have zero background information about any of the technology devices and lack of ICT skills, they will have more difficult time in solving the problem of the devices (Bansode 59). Therefore, countries might not interested in this idea as more investment will be needed to provide IT support workers and computer experts to be the problem solver and consultant in the rural area (Baase 375).

Additionally, the linguistic accessibility to ICT is another problem that will need to be concerned in many countries. Literacy is important in the world of technology; it has been an issue to many countries and within countries as literacy determines who is able to connect to the Internet technologies (Keniston 12-13). Many of the countries might not be interested in investing more low-cost devices to provide access of ICT for their people because most of the devices systems are mainly applied in English, therefore, this will only divides the society into English speakers having more access to technology and non-English speakers are more isolated from the world (12). The estimation of 60% to 80% of all the Web sites in the world are mainly in English, as a result, there are only 20% of the world’s populations having access and connected to Internet and technology according to the ITU (“United Nations sets global broadband targets”).

Moreover, the physical access of the technologies is also an issue for many rural areas in different countries as they are lack of telecommunication infrastructure with better bandwidth for people to use and connect to Internet. Their personal incomes will not able to purchase the cost for Internet service (“United Nations sets global broadband targets”), and more impossible to be able to afford or rent the necessary equipment for the technology such as hardware or software (Bansode 59). Thus, many countries might prefer to focus their expenses on other necessity such as the food supplies, health care, housing, business needs and building more school rather than improving the use of technologies in rural areas, because they might need more teachers and educations in school rather than just giving them a load of technology devices that they do not know how to use.

In conclusion, social inclusion for all the population in the world is not feasible, as they will need a lot of investments to provide and build. Many developing countries might be more interested in focusing their basic needs in other aspects first as they will be more necessary than giving the people a load of technology devices that might not be readable by illiterate people.

Works Cited Baase, Sara. "7.3.2 The Global Divide and The Next Billion Users." //A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computing and the Internet//. Third ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008. 375. Print.

Bansode, Dr. Sadanand Y., and Dr. Suresh Krishna Patil, eds. //Bridging Digital Divide in India: Some Initiatives//. Vol. 1. Asia Pacific Journal of Library and Information Science, 2011. PDF.

"BBC News - United Nations Sets Global Broadband Targets." //BBC - Homepage//. 25 Oct. 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2011. .

Gahran, Amy. "Smaller, Cheaper Tablets Could Become a Big Deal - CNN.com." //CNN.com International - Breaking, World, Business, Sports, Entertainment and Video News//. 26 Oct. 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2011. .

Keniston, Kenneth, and Deepak Kumar, eds. //The Four Digital Divides//. Delhi: Sage, 2003. PDF.

Warschauer, Mark. "Social Inclusion." Introduction. //Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide//. MIT, 2004. 8-9. Print.