1. EDGE901
EMERGING ISSUES IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
ASSESSMENT 2
ONLINE PRESENTATION
By CIBLE DAVIS (student no.4590107)
Lecturer: Sarah Howard
Submitted: 12/10/2014

2. DIGITAL DIVIDE

3. Summary
• In this presentation it explains the concept digital divide, difference
between digital immigrants and digital natives. This also explains the
reasons of digital divide in various groups.

4. Introduction
• Development of technology and science has transformed life and the
vision of society. Today’s students are born in digital age and
technology is an important part in their lives. They spend a lot of
time watching television, playing video games, using mobile phones
and so on. At the same time learning approaches are also changed.
But the educators are not aware of this and continue the traditional
teaching method. This essay will analyse the important issue that the
Indian educational system is facing today. One of the main issues is
that the digital immigrant teachers teach traditional method and find
difficult to teach the digital native students. Lack of training in
technology makes them digital immigrants.

5. Digital Natives
Children are born as digital natives
so they are more familiar and
depend on technology. Their lives
are always related to technology
like playing video games, using
mobile phones surfing internet and
so on (Bennet, Maton & Kervin,
2008).

6. Digital immigrant
Educational researchers
describe that many teachers
are digitally disadvantaged
compared to digital native
students. Teachers use
traditional method of
teaching, lack of interest in
using technology and
incompetent to use
technology in their
classrooms (Perrotta, 2013).

7. Digital divide between
teachers and students
Prensky (2001 a) points out
that a distinction between
learners and teachers is a strong
issue because learners life has
changed with the development
of technology but teachers do
not like to change their practices
and their teaching becomes
ineffective (Cited in Bennett,
Maton & Kervin, 2008).

8. continuation
• Lack of resources and less training in computer feel less confidence in
using the technology in teaching. In India the following factors have
to be considered barrier to digital divide.
• Low literacy rate: 2001 population survey shows that literacy rate of
India was 65.3%. The male literacy was 75.69% and female literacy
was 54.28%. As the rate of literacy is increasing, there is a difference
in urban and rural area.
• Education system: The main challenge in the educational system is
the number of drop-outs from school. In order to overcome this issue
government has to implement information technology and
infrastructure facilities.

9. Con’t
• Language: Lack of English language is a great barrier to use computer
and internet
• Though India’s literacy rate is increasing but most people are e-illiterate.
E-illiteracy includes lack of knowledge in computer skills
and technological skills. Our former president has implemented
many educational programs to transform India to a developed
country by 2020. In 2005 EDUSAT (Education Satellite) was launched
in various states in India. In 2001 IT @ school project set up in all
states. However, schools cannot use these facilities because of lack
of resources and lack of training for teachers.

10. Schools suffer poor learning environment, lack of effective teachers and
limited access to technology. The public libraries and school libraries
have old and obsolete books.

11. Meaning of digital divide
• Digital divide shows the difference of people who have knowledge on
technology and easy access to internet and people who do not have
computer literacy and less access to internet. OECD (2001) explains
that digital divide means the difference between households,
individuals, business and areas at different socio economic levels
regarding the opportunity to use internet and acquire information
and communication technology for a wide range of activities (Ayanso,
Cho & Lertwachara, 2010).

12. Various groups are included in the digital
divide
• Gender differences: In India there is a wide gap between internet users and
non-users. Males are using more internet than females because of lack of
awareness, socio-economic status and low literacy (Loan, 2011).
Researchers argue that during 1990’s women were the late comers to the
digital age because of male domain and socio-economic differences. In
2000, many developed countries, women use the internet and mobile
phones. 2007 statistical data shows in Canada 79% of men and 75% of
women were using online. The statistical results of some of the developed
countries are Australia 74% to 71%, New Zealand 78% to77%, UK 68% to
65% and Sweden 71% to 78% (Hilbert, 2011). However Sharma (2003)
highlights that in developing countries women have less internet access
because of time control, financial problems, lack of education and other
commitments (Hilbert, 2011).

13. Digital divide among older people and young
people
• Recent survey shows that older people are less likely to use internet. For
Example, in Spain, out of the total population 67% people use internet but
only 12% older people use internet and 4% in China. Because of the three
reasons the older people are not using internet.
1. difficulty in using the appropriate instrument.
2. lack of skills.
3. lack of motivation.
(Olphert & Damodaran, 2013).
This evidence shows that financial problems, lack of technological education
and lack of interest give pressure to reduce the use of internet.

14. Use of internet and population status

16. World Bank data shows that in 2011 35% population are using internet in developed countries. But
only a small proportion of population are using internet in India

17. Con’t
• National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA,
2004) survey reports that in 2003 86.7% people of age group18-24
use internet in America. In 2004 77% people (18-29) used internet
and in 2006 it became 88%. Young adults are using more internet
access compared to older people(Hargittai, Hinnan, 2008).

18. Socio-economic difference in digital divide
• DiMaggio et al. (2004) argue that people with high economic status
use internet and are more productive (Cited in Van Deursen & Van
Dijk, 2014). Van Dijk (2005) claims that people with low level of
socio-economic status use internet in a superficial way (cited in Van
Deursen & Van Dijk, 2014). A net survey report in America shows that
96.2% urban households have telephone access whereas only 4.5%
rural households have telephone access (Modarres, 2011). US
Department of Commerce 2000 reports that 29.3% African-
Americans and 23.7% Latinos use the internet. 50.3% White people
and Non Latinos use internet because Africans and Latinos are less
likely to have home computer and internet access compared to other
group of people (Fairlie, 2004).

19. Percent of persons with access to a home
computer by race and ethnicity (Fairlie, 2004)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002
latinos black white & other race

20. Internet usage in
Africa and on the
Globe 2006 Region Percentage of
population
Internet use Percentage of
world use
Africa 14.1% 2.6% 2.3%
Rest of the
world
85.9% 17.9% 97.7%
The population in Africa in 2006 was
14.1% of world population. Only 2.6%
people in Africa have internet access.
The report shows that least developed
countries like Africa have very low
internet access and uses because of
poverty, income and lack of facilities
(Fuchs & Horak, 2008).

21. Digital Divide in Education (video)

22. Role of teachers
Teachers should apply
technological innovations in
their teaching method and
learning process for preparing
students to improve their 21st
century skills. Special focus
should be given for teacher
training to integrate technology
in their classroom to promote
students higher-order thinking
skills (Reinhart, Thomas &
Toriskie, 2011).

23. Conclusion
In conclusion, digital divide among teachers and students are very
crucial in India. Lack of resources, technological unawareness and low
literacy are some of the important factors that India is facing today. By
comparing digital divide in gender, between age groups, geographical
area and socio-economic status, some groups are dominant than
others because of some barriers like language, financial problems, lack
of education and so on. Schools have to overcome this situation by
implementing technological education, infrastructure facilities and
providing training to teachers. These will help students to improve
their technological skills and benefit in their future studies.

24. References
• Ayanso, A, Cho, DI & Lertwachara, K 2010, ‘The Digital Divide: global and regional ICT leaders and followers’, information technology for development, vol. 16, no. 4,
pp. 304-319.
• Bennet, S, Maton, K & Kervin, L 2008, ‘The ‘digital natives’ debate: A critical review of the evidence’, British journal of educational technology, vol. 39, no. 5, pp.
775-786.
• Fairlie, RW 2004, ‘Race and the digital divide’, Contributions to economic analysis and policy, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1-38.
• Fuchs, C & Horak, E 2008, ‘Africa and the digital divide’, Telematics and informatics, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 99-116.
• Hargittai, E & Hinnant, A 2008, ‘Digital inequality differences in young adults’, Use of the internet, vol. 35, no. 5, pp. 602-621.
• Hilbert, M 2011, ‘Digital gender divide or technologically empowered women in developing countries? A typical case of lies, damned lies and statistics’, Women’s
studies international forum, vol. 34, no. 6, pp. 479-489.
• http://youtu.be/x1YLPLOKOWE
• Loan, FA 2011, ‘The digital divide among the college students of Kashmir, India’, IFLA Journal, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 211-217.
• Modarres, A 2011, ‘Beyond the digital divide’, National civic review, vol. 100, no. 3, pp. 4-7.
• Olphert, W & Damodaran, L 2013, ‘Older people and digital disengagement: a fourth digital divide’, Gerontology, vol. 59, no. 6, pp. 564-570.
• Perrotta, C 2013, ‘Do school-level factors influence the educational benefits of digital technology? A critical analysis of teachers’ perceptions’, British journal of
educational technology, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 314-327.
• Reinhart, JM, Thomas, E & Toriskie, JM 2011, ‘K-12 Teachers: Technology use and the second level digital divide’, Journal of instructional psychology, vol. 38, no. 3-4,
pp. 181-193.
• Van Deursen, AJAM & Van Dijk, JAGM 2014, ‘The digital divide shifts to differences in usage’, New media and society, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 507-526.