What is the digital divide?
Summary: The state of education following the COVID pandemic helped illustrate why we can’t bridge the digital divide simply by giving every student a laptop or tablet. To bridge the digital divide, we’ll require serious social investments as well. For instance, we’ll need to invest in infrastructure for local communities, technology training and resources for teachers and schools, financial assistance for middle-class and low-income families, and computer literacy for students.
You may have heard about the digital divide, a topic that has received more attention after the coronavirus pandemic. But what does that phrase actually mean?
The digital divide typically refers to the gap between those who have access to basic digital technologies (such as a computer and Internet connection) and those who don’t. Sounds pretty straightforward, right? However, it can quickly become a complex topic, because the reasons for that gap may vary.
For example, it may involve geographic factors (rural vs. urban) or socioeconomic factors (rich vs. poor). In particular, city and suburban homes are more likely to have a computer, compared to homes in the country. And families with higher household incomes are more likely to have Internet at home, compared to households with lower incomes.
OK, now that we know what it is, why care about the digital divide? Because, over time, it can exacerbate social inequities that affect us all, including younger generations. For instance, consider how this divide has affected education and literacy (including computer literacy—an essential form of functional literacy). To illustrate, let’s take a moment to see what effect the digital divide had on student populations following the COVID pandemic.
The digital divide following the COVID pandemic
The digital divide became more apparent to more people when, following the COVID pandemic, students found themselves having to learn remotely.
Immediately, many social inequities became noticeable, because not every student lived in a home with a computer and Internet access. (As mentioned, students in rural areas, and students from lower-income households, were less far likely to live in homes with computers and Internet.)
In response, some schools began to purchase and distribute free laptops or tablets to their students. The underlying assumption seemed to be that we can bridge the digital divide simply by providing more kids with more digital technology.
Why free laptops didn’t bridge the digital divide
Unfortunately, that assumption take for granted several other assumptions, which may or may not be the case, such as …
- All students must know how to use laptops, from having sufficient typing skills to understanding basic computer maintenance.
- All students must have an Internet connection at home—preferably, high-speed Internet.
- All students must live in safe and secure communities with well-developed infrastructures that make connecting to the Internet viable.
- All students must have stable home environments that allow them to effectively focus on their studies.
- All students must have a parent, guardian, or caretaker at home who can supervise, give regular support, and prepare meals.
- All students must have teachers who have been fully trained in the latest eLearning methods and distance learning platforms (for example, Canvas, Moodle, Google Classrooms, etc.).
- All students must also have a parent, guardian, or caretaker at home who has likewise been trained in the latest eLearning methods and distance learning platforms (in case the teacher isn’t available to help a student troubleshoot technical issues).
Of course, these are all unjustified assumptions. Consequently, a number of parents found themselves in impossible situations: juggling their work lives (whether unemployed and looking for new work, or employed but having to work remotely at home), their home lives (making meals and comfortable environments for learning), and their kids’ learning progress (trying to help the kids stay on track with schoolwork)—all at the same time!
No wonder so many students fell behind during and after COVID!
How can we bridge the digital divide?
In fact, the idea of enhancing education by giving free laptops to students had been tried multiple times before COVID. And it often fell short for the same reasons: besides technology, there are various social factors that make learning possible.
Hence, bridging the digital divide isn’t a simple task. Namely, it can’t be addressed simply by giving everyone a laptop. To address the digital divide, we’ll require serious social investments as well. For example, we’ll also need to invest in infrastructure for local communities, technology training and resources for teachers and schools, financial assistance for middle-class and low-income families, and computer literacy for students.
Technology alone won’t save us!
In the book Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, Neil Postman strongly criticizes the notion that cutting-edge technology alone will solve all our problems. To be fair, it’s true that technological innovation may be an important part of the solution. But using technology, Postman reminds us, always takes place within a specific social context. And that context may end up amplifying certain advantages to some, while exacerbating unfair disadvantages for others.
In sum, if we don’t take time to understand how our social context affects the way we can and can’t use technology, then just throwing more technology at a situation probably won’t solve much.
Related posts
- What is functional literacy, and why does our high-tech society need it?
- Why the medium is the message: laptops and learning
- Neil Postman and media ecology: Are we amusing ourselves to death?