The Web: New views on the 'digital divide'

By Gene Koprowski
UPI Technology News

Published 9/22/2004 11:18 AM
CHICAGO, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Four years ago, the Internet cognoscenti were talking constantly about the "digital divide." The theory was access to the Internet was determined largely by class and income, and poor children were being effectively excluded from online activities. True once or not, that no longer appears to be the case. New research indicates the digital divide has disappeared. Nearly every child -- 96 percent of all youngsters, according to research released last week by the Kaiser Family Foundation -- has been online.Now a new problem has emerged, experts told United Press International: The quality of online access is not the same for everyone in America.Most poor children can go online at their local public library or at school. However, some schools in urban areas simply do not have the resources to pay for high-speed, broadband access, and may not have enough computers for all the students, along with other, crucial educational projects. Also, teachers at schools in poorer districts may not be up to speed on the latest Internet skills. That problem persists, even though spending on education is growing overall."The digital divide is just one symptom of a greater educational issue in this country," said Raul Fernandez, a member of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology, a White House advisory group appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001."You can't just look at PCs and broadband connections," he told UPI. "I wish it were that simple, but it is not."A number of organizations are working to solve the problem posed by the new digital divide."It's no longer a digital divide, but a digital chasm," Brian Olson, director of marketing communications at Video Professor Inc., a software-training firm in Lakewood, Colo., told UPI.Research by the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for the Digital Future, being released this week, indicates Internet access has risen to its highest level ever, and about 75 percent of Americans go online regularly. The number of hours spent online continues to grow, and is now at about 12.5 hours per week, the highest level ever, per the forthcoming USC study, an advance summary of which was provided to UPI. Access does not necessarily equate to proper usage, however, experts said. Even if computers are available in poorer schools, the staff there may not be trained to teach the latest skills. "The divide in technology skills is even greater than that of access to hardware," a spokeswoman for the American Library Association, located in Chicago, told UPI. Concern over that issue is galvanizing the resolve many non-profit organizations to address the digital divide. "That gap between rich and poor is most troubling when it deals with access to the tools needed to succeed in today's workplace," Rev. James Demus, co-director of the Ministerial Alliance Against the Digital Divide, a coalition of religious activists in Chicago, told UPI. Goodwill Industries International, headquartered in Rockville, Md., is seeking a solution to this issue. Goodwill has helped establish what are called community computer centers, outfitted with up-to-date computer software and hardware, which low-income users can utilize for free, a spokeswoman told UPI."Users may conduct job searches online, access online learning resources, get resume help, or simply surf the Internet," she said. "Many of these centers are designed as family learning centers, meeting the needs of the whole family."Many technology companies also are trying to alleviate the problem. They are providing grants to local schools and producing outreach programs for ethnic communities."Two of our biggest events -- nationally -- of the year are Black Family Technology Awareness Week and La Familia," a spokeswoman for IBM Corp. in Austin, Texas, told UPI. "Both of these events have been going on nationally for five to six years and are solely dedicated to bridging the digital divide that exists in the United States."Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. recently donated $120,000 in computer equipment and cash to fund an after-school computer program. It is intended to prepare middle school students for an industry-recognized validation of computer skills, called the Computing Core Certification, a spokeswoman for the Charles River Public Internet Center in suburban Boston, which is coordinating the program, told UPI.An adult education program is also under way there, teaching unemployed individuals computer and Internet skills, the spokeswoman said. Another project, run by a non-profit, Computers for Families, has been working with the local community in Santa Barbara County, Calif., to provide a computer, with Internet access, for every child who cannot afford one there, a spokeswoman told UPI. Fernandez, who also is chief executive officer of ObjectVideo, a technology company in Reston, Va., said fundamental educational reform of local schools may provide the momentum that will end the new digital divide. "What we have is an educational problem that has been built up over the last two decades plus, and will take a decade plus to fix," Fernandez told UPI. "We have to take a holistic approach to fixing this problem, and that includes supporting vouchers for school districts, making sure parents are empowered with choice, and creating alternative teacher certification. I'm a computer industry CEO, but if I wanted to teach during my time off, I could not, because of the type of certification that is required. The educational system puts up roadblocks to learning skills. When you've got a lot of unions that are more concerned about protecting their own jobs than educating kids, you've got problems."Fernandez said the White House science advisory council has recently completed a report for President Bush detailing the harmful effect that poor education -- including technology, math and science education -- is having on the workforce."We've sent it up to the president," he said. "When he formally accepts it, it becomes public domain."The council has reckoned that problems with elementary education in the sciences have resulted in fewer American doctoral graduates from U.S. universities. "We're losing brainpower and innovation," Fernandez said. "That will definitely show in the next generation. Companies won't get formed here. They will be formed overseas, where foreign-born scientists, who train here, move when their training is done."Another expert -- Dan Appelman, a technology lawyer and partner in the Silicon Valley office of Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe -- said the new digital divide is having quite an impact on both American society and global society."The digital divide is perpetuating, and perhaps increasingly solidifying, two Americas -- the privileged and the underprivileged," Appelman said. "Worldwide, the same thing is happening."--The Web is a weekly series examining the global telecommunications phenomenon known as the World Wide Web. Gene Koprowski covers telecommunications for UPI Science News. E-mail sciencemail [at] upi.com