Module 6 - Addressing the Digital Divide

Differences in technological access exist across cultures, gender, and socioeconomic groups. Thornburg also challenges you to think about ways to create a climate of acceptance in which people not only have dreams but can actually experience these dreams as a reality in their lifetimes.

As a leader in educational technology, I can do several things to help make emerging technologies valuable to others while maintaining gender, cultural, and socioeconomic sensitivity. For some, technology is not the main focus of their daily lives or there’s no personal access to the Internet. As a result, there are actually some people who don’t realize the technology that is available to them. I know lots of people who only try things when they hear good comments about it by word of mouth. As humans, once we learn something we normally became fixated with that particular thing. For instance, when I learned about PowerPoint, I used it for a long time. I continued to use PowerPoint when I was introduced to Notebook Software a couple of years ago. To me, PowerPoint was and still is what I know well. Oftentimes, I am afraid to try new technologies for fear that I will not figure it out or it won’t have the same outcomes as other technologies that I am accustomed to.

Basing all of this information on the group of teachers I’ve worked with over the years, to make emerging technologies valuable to others, I can let others know about the new technologies that are out. I can also share my experience with the technologies to others while encouraging them to try it for themselves. It is also important to make sure that others realize that the new technology is not necessarily something that they have to learn. Rather, it is something that if learned, may be of benefit to them.

Dr. Soloway (n.d.) made a very interesting statement when he stated: to address the leveling of the playing field is to eliminate the digital divide by putting Internet access on cell phones. I couldn’t agree more. Today, just about everyone of age has a cell phone. Due to the advance in technology, cell phones are basically mini-computers. Anything that we can do on the computer can also be done on the cell phone today. Therefore, if a new technology were implemented in the cell phone, then lots of people would probably learn about it and also be willing to try it.

References:

Soloway, E. (n.d.). The digital divide: Leveling the playing field [vodcast] Retrieved from: http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com

Thornburg, D. (2008a). An amazingly incomplete emerging technologies bibliography. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.

Thornburg, D. (2008). Evolutionary technologies. [vodcast] Retrieved from: http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com