View from the Podium: Surveying the Digital Divide

If the wonderful opiate of the Winter Olympic sports doesn’t inspire you, then perhaps you are like me, entranced by Rick Hanson’s “feel good” stories of individuals overcoming adversity. The Olympics have all the plot essentials of classic literature...man vs man, man vs. society, man vs himself. But it is against the global backdrop that makes these conflicts so compelling.

For example, Marjan Kalhor, who is the first Iranian woman to take part in the winter Olympics, is racing in the giant slalom. Her participation frames one of the many divides we have witnessed during the Olympics.

While many Westerns see Marjan as a role model for women in her country, many of her fellow Iranians see her as a woman who is breaking from the traditional role she should be occupying. Most people in Iran, especially women, will neither be watching her compete on television, nor celebrating what she has accomplished.

As the coverage of the Olympic Games has revealed many more divides, we also have explored the many Digital Divides that have been become apparent as our collective research and discussions dug beneath obvious assumptions to clarify the more nuanced divides. Like so many issues around ICT, the concept of the Digital Divide is evolving as both the tools and the users’ manipulations of the tools are in constant flux.

In the past two decades even as access gaps have been rapidly narrowing, the digital divides have become more subtle and often localized to peculiar settings. These smaller “scarps” include race, gender, language, geography, socio economic status, age, and education.

Hawkins, Rudy & Nicolich (2005) also identify a second-level digital divide: machine vintage, connectivity, online skills, autonomy and freedom of access, and computer-use support. Additionally, Ishaq (2001) sees a creativity divide Dana Boyd (2009) is concerned about how technology users’ racist and classist attitudes reinforce inequality, while Cathy Nelson (2009) worries about filtering as yet another divide.

There is even a military divide when almost every (American) soldier in Afghanistan right now is carrying around a Palm Pilot to do his or her job.

But even as these "scarps" are identified, corresponding global interventions are emerging. See examples:

Cell phones fight poverty in Bangladesh

STORYBANK Project

Implications for Learning and Teaching

Mardis (2009) reminds us that a deficiency on any one strategy to overcome the digital divide, will compromise the entire effort. From that caveat, let’s consider the digital divide of infrastructure within Alberta schools. In Alberta the SuperNet a government-funded high-speed broadband to public service institutions throughout the province alleviates the problem of access. Here are examples of the shared roles that governments, educators and businesses can play.

The second local digital divide is one created by a lack of updated ICT. While many schools have ever-greening upgrade plans supported by enveloped funding, with the current claw back of board surpluses and the freeze in education spending, funding will decline. Some schools have jumped into Alberta Education pilot projects such as the Emerge One-to-One Wireless Learning Initiative in order to get upgrades. It should be noted that schools that are doing well in ICT are those with a strong administrative commitment and staff with proficiency derived from better personal tools, training, and motivation to implement standards.

But collaborative infrastructure initiatives and tools are only two strategies toward diminishing the divide. Adequate, continuous, and spiraling training is needed to ensure that educators feel competent to provide human support to students. Annual half-day PD sessions are insufficient to maintain motivation or methodology. Identifying a school ICT goal and using peer support for teacher learning however, may ensure sustainable motivation and a maturing methodology. There is also a role for students-as-teachers in providing teacher tech support, particularly in advanced secondary Career and Technology Studies courses.

Selwyn (2010) has expanded the notion of training with more nuanced considerations when he argues that digital inclusion is predicated on the ability to make an informed ‘digital choice’ when and when not to make use of ICT.

Ongoing training can also be accessed through centralized initiatives such as the Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium. This strategy precludes that there are sufficient PD funds in the school budget and that teachers have time at school or home to hone their newly acquired skills.

However, all three digital divide busters are predicated upon… policy decisions that aim to reduce inequalities in access to and use of information technologies and take into consideration the necessary investment in training and support Hawkins & Oblinger (2006).

Directions to Vancouver?

Finally, in responding to our local needs, educators could consider these strategic questions:

1. Do we know whether students have a computer and their skill level? Are there different needs based on academic disciplines?
2. What online skills, support, and freedom of use define an appropriate threshold for digital access and use on campus?
3. How do we need to define our own school metrics to determine the extent of our underserved, digital divide population?
4. How limiting will inadequate online skills be to students?

Terry T. Kidd (2009) has a more comprehensive list of recommendations that includes School Leadership, Leadership and Organization Support, Training and Development, Resources.

Just as there are many resources and factors that culminate in an athlete’s successful bid to reach the Olympic podium, so are there many resources and factors that must combine to help educators overcome their local digital divides.

But the key factor in both environs is that efforts must be collaborative. The evolving Digital Divide cannot be bridged on strength or determination alone. Just like our Olympians, we need top gear, ongoing training, strong intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and a prize that is considered worthy of the striving.

But until we live in that collaborative and stakeholder-invested environment, perhaps we educators feel a little bit like Marjan Kalhor- making a valiant effort and breaking barriers in our respective communities, but not confident that anyone is cheering.

Golden Resources

www.infosci-journals.com/downloadPDF/pdf/ITJ4644_7N4FWIfbP1.pdf
http://www.educause.edu/apps/coredata/reports/2004/
http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume41/TheMythabouttheDigitalDivide/158073
http://rusc.uoc.edu/ojs/index.php/rusc/article/viewPDFInterstitial/v7n1_selwyn/v7n1_selwyn
http://blog.ted.com/2006/10/iqbal_quadir_on.php
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2001/09/ishaq.htm#author