FREE ESSAY ON DIGITAL DIVIDE

DIGITAL DIVIDE

The "Digital Define" is the distance between the people who have adequate access to
technology and those who do not. As teachers, we have numerous avenues through which we
can assist in narrowing the gap of the Digital Divide. Some suggestions are the
following:
1. Gather teaching materials through sources such as:
www.pbs.org/digitaldivide/about.html
www.pbs.org/digitaldivide/learning.html
www.siliconvallydigitaldivide.net
www.ed.gov/free
www.fcs.gov/resources.html
1-800-257-5126
2. Donate a computer, obtain a donated computer, or upgrade an obsolete one. Many
organizations have been developed to assist in this task; a few are as follows:
Share the Technology - www.sharetechnology.org
Computers for Learning - www.computers.fed.gov
NewDeal - www.newdealine.com
Heaven - www.heavens.org
3. Keep informed about the most recent government initiatives, as well as what
politicians and government officials have to say. A variety of Web sites can aid you in
this undertaking; some are listed here:
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology - www.ed.gov/Technology
Federal Communications Commission - www.fcc.gov.major.html
Closing the Digital Divide - www.digitaldivide.gov
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration -
www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fttn99/contents.html
The Digital Divide Network - www.digitaldividenetwork.org
4. Investigate the community access centers (CACs) in your area and spread the word about
their availability. CACs include places such as libraries, community centers, schools,
and other public-access locations.
5. Learn about model initiatives - successful models. A few projects include:
The Digital Divide Project - www.washington.edu/wto/digital/resources/html
NetDay - www.netday.org
Alliance for Community Technology - www.communitytechnology.org
The Foundry - www.thefoundry.org
The Village Foundation -
www.villagefoundation.org/PROGRAMS/pathways/technology/index.html
PowerUP: Bridging the Digital Divide - www.powerup.org
The Maine Laptop Program
Lightspan, Inc. - www.lightspan.com
Plugged In - www.pluggedin.org
Neighborhood Network - www.hud.gov/nnwnnwindex.html
6. Explore opportunities for corporate support. A good place to start is
www.wested.org/tie/grant.html#corporate. This site has a list of corporate and foundation
funding sources and other grant related resources.
The model initiative I chose to investigate is NetDay. NetDay is a project connecting
students and their teachers in under-served communities with the necessary resources to
facilitate learning through education technology. From this site, NetDay Compass is
accessible. NetDay Compass is a teachers guide to educational technology resources. There
are sections on developing technology plans, technology infrastructure, grant and
funding, classroom support, and model high tech schools. Here teachers will find the
information they need to include technology in education and narrow the gap of the
digital divide. 
In the three years I have been teaching in Louisiana, I have seen numerous incidents of
digital divide. However, one particular incident stands out in my mind the most. Last
year, I had a Financial Math class made up of mostly juniors and seniors. I had never
really though about students not having access to the Internet or much less a computer.
We had just finished a unit on hiring expenses, when I decide to have the students
complete a mock job search. I gave them a list of web sites and asked them to go home and
find a job add and bring it back the next day. To my surprise, most of the student
brought adds from the newspaper, which was perfectly fine, but it peaked my curiosity. I
started inquiring why they had "clipped" the articles instead of "clicking" for them.
Come to find out, only about ? of the 26 student class had access to the Internet away
from school. I was astonished. In addition, the students that had used the Internet to
"job hunt" tended to bring in more professional type job interest as compared to the
students who used the newspaper. Was this just a coincidence or are the students without
Internet access limited in their employment opportunities? The conclusion I have reached
scares me!