Andy Carver in his article:, Mind the Gap claims that accessing knowledge using the internet is a matter of civil rights and in these last days of the 2008 Presidential elections I couldn't agree with him more. Candidates that upload commercials on YouTube and are able to send text messages or robocall cells and blackberries definitely have the upper advantage when trying to reach Generations X & Y who are first time voters. No other time in global history has there been such an aggressive attempt to reach out and touch someone using digital technologies. Coming to work this morning, over the radio, I heard ABC's Journalist David Richards say that if the Democrats sweep the elections it will be due in part to digital technologies that have reached and ignited the younger voting base.
Being on-line is more than promoting a personal agenda; however, it is the future of communication and gaining information crucial to our understanding of the world. It is the means of finding out what is happening now and in the future and knowing how to prepare for that future. Knowledge is power. Yet, even for those who have the technologies and access, digital technologies, argues Carver can not be fully realized without the proper education and training. School curricula around the world must incorporate computer training and internet navigation as part of the future educational goals for students to grasp the internet.
Mark Warschauer specifically asks, "what role can access to technology play in promoting social inclusion"? He writes about social communities on the internet and without developing such communities, people will merely use the technology as a reference tool when it is potentially so much more. In other words, if the internet is nothing more than an electronic book (and I know how to read a book but do not know how to use a computer), why bother using the internet? What's all the hype about?
It's one thing to have access to the technologies and even the resources, but without training and knowing how to navigate, search, reach out and connect with an on-line community the technology is redundant. Both Carver and Warschauer explain that we must resolve the Digital Divide by addressing at least the following five issues: Access; Content; Literacy; Pedogogy or (training and education) ; and Community. They say that poor and rich alike given access and technology resources still will not utilize the internet or other digital technologies until the Human resource is a component. Humans provide training, education, social interaction and reason to connect on line.
Digital hardware and software companies along with corporate industry will provide the technology and access resources, users will provide the content resources, but who will provide the human resource; the training, the education, the social community? The answer is all of us -we are all responsible for closing the Digital Divide so that no one is excluded.
2 comments:
Jennifer, great point about the upcoming elections and how candidates have more ways of reaching out to people because of technology. I never thought about that before and it really got me thinking after reading your post. I also liked how you mentioned that all of us are responsible for closing the digital divide. Good job
Jennifer,
I love your the point of view you have and the intelligence you have to back it up. At the beginning of your post you were noting how the Democratic party is using the internet more, and the internet provides an adundance of information that can be used for education.
I believe you even used the age old adage, "Knowledge is Power" to go along the lines of gaining knowledge through education which can be acquired from the internet. We have to keep in mind that there is also a lot of garbage on the internet, probably more garbage than "proper" educational information. It would be naive to assume young minds wouldn't stumble across the garbage on the internet, and I don't have much confidence that any kind of "training" will keep the mass of America, or youths for that matter, to falling into the susceptibility that the creators of garbage can manifest.
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