Digital Divide and Digital Equity
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Our world is becoming more digital day by day. With this, we can see how it affects everyone in different ways depending on the accessibility to proper digital education and devices. Digital divide refers to the accessibility that each person or group of people have to technology but also technological education. There are many factors that play a role to this lack of accessibility. In the article, Digital Divide (Pazurek & Feyissa, 2015), mention how digital divide is like a gap between people and their accessibility to technology. The article describes this gap by stating, “The concept has developed from a construct that highlights the distinction between information rich and information poor members of society …” (p. 3). The gap mentioned in this digital divide has a lot to do with the socio-economic stance of the individuals. Not only does it affect us socially, but it has a great impact in our education system. These impacts lead to the need of digital equity. Digital equity is making sure that we not only have digital access but also making sure that we are equipped to fully participate digitally. Digitalinclusion.org defines digital equity as, “…a condition in which all individuals and communities have the information technology capacity needed for full participation in our society, democracy and economy… is necessary for civic and cultural participation, employment, lifelong learning, and access to essential services.” Digital divide and digital equity are very important and are prime factors in education.
Digital divide and digital equity have many similarities. They both have contributing factors that contribute to the gap made due to lack of technological accessibility for certain people. Again, the access goes far more than just accessing devices, but proper digital education along with more factors for full digital participation. These issues are important because we see how, in terms of education, lacking digital equity affects students with their education. Students with low socio-economic stance along with lack of proper technological accessibility, creates a sort of disadvantage which affects their overall GPA. In the article, Technology Problems and Student Achievement Gaps: A Validation and Extension of the Technology Maintenance Construct, Gonzales et, al (2018) mentions different factors that affect digital equity. One factor the article mentioned is maintenance. They define maintenance as the way the students in different socio-economic stance are able to repair and get new technology when the technology, they have access to breaks or needs repairs. The article explained how, “… maintenance can vary by SES, and that some aspects of technology maintenance may be associated with GPA after accounting for other demographic factors.” (p. 14). Education is impacted by digital divide and digital equity. The article provided great evidence that proved how there is a need for fuller of digital participation that impact students and their digital performance.
There are many different factors that contribute to the limited participation one has with technology. As I mentioned above, socio-economic stance has a big role in this limited participation. People who have more money or are part of a higher social-economic group, not only have more accessibility to all kinds of technology but also have more accessibility to more technological advancements and all its participation. In the article, Policy Group: Bridge The Digital Divide Before Pushing Digital Learning, Stokes (2011) mentions how, “… Americans in lower-income and rural areas have access to internet connections: however those connections are slower… while wealthier neighborhoods have faster connections.” This data mentioned in the article was from the U.S Department of Commerce. Something as simple as internet connections is a vital contributing factor that makes up this limited participation that is a reflection of the socio-economic stance of the individual. Not only does the article provide great supporting data, it also includes this digital divide infographic that further explains the digital divide present in our community. The infographic is composed of a pie chart that splits into different factors with each factor having a percentage to emphasize its importance. Not only does the infographic gives more explanation to what digital divide is, but it does so through the lens of the impact on education.
References
Definitions. (2020, September 24). Retrieved December 15, 2020, from https://www.digitalinclusion.org/definitions/
Gonzales, A. L., McCrory Calarco, J., & Lynch, T. (2018). Technology Problems and Student Achievement Gaps: A Validation and Extension of the Technology Maintenance Construct. Communication Research, 1–21. doi:o0r.g1/107.171/0770/903096356052012818779966366
Pazurek, A., & Feyissa, S. (2015). Digital Divide. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Technology, 205–207. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483346397.n91
Stokes, K. (2011). Policy Group: Bridge The Digital Divide Before Pushing Digital Learning. Retrieved December 15, 2020, from https://indianapublicmedia.org/stateimpact/2011/10/04/policy-group-bridge-the-digital-divide-before-pushing-digital-learning/