What is this Digital Divide Stuff?

    The Digital Divide, and all things technology, have been in and out of the classroom.  We all know, as teachers and pre-service teachers, that no classroom is created equal.  There is diversity, among things like access and privilege, and technological tools were not exempt to these diversities among students.  The divide, as I understand it, is beginning to change.  Back when the divide was beginning to occur, with the new technology of calculators in the classroom, it was primarily about access, or so we thought.  Now, as access to technology and internet becomes more available and accessible, is access really the problem? Based on the previous definition of the digital divide, it should be closing right? The problem of access is narrowing so why isn't the digital divide? Through doing some research, I created my own digital divide infographic that will help clear the confusion of the term and provide some possible solutions to closing the gap.

   While this Infographic is way smaller than I would like it to be, you can still get the idea of what I was trying to create.  Basically, my infographic focused on some statistics that were broken down by three different categories (race/ethnicity-black, white, hispanic, household income- <30,000, 30,000-49,999, 50,000-74,999, 75,000+, and education attainment- no high school diploma, high school grad, some college, and college+). These categories were then compared to what several thousand people report using the internet for, these options were email, buying a product, using a social networking site, banking online, and searching.  I choose to focus on these statistics because I feel this is a prime example of how our digital divide gap is so wide.  The majority of people who use internet for social networking are of a minority group, lower income group, or lower education attainment group, whereas things like banking or searching are primarily dominated by white, higher income groups, and higher educational attainment groups.  If the minority groups, lower income groups, and lower educational attainment groups have access to internet but aren't being productive, they aren't closing the gap.  

   This is the prime example that just providing the poor with the same technologies as the rich will solve all problems.  We need to make sure minority, etc. families not only have reliable, productive internet access, but that they are trained in how to use it.  Simple programs, such as Microsoft Word, some families don't know how to use.  We need to match not only the quantity of technology in all families but also the quality.  Some solutions that I provide to help combat this divide include keeping public libraries and school computer labs open for longer periods of time.  I feel by doing this students and families have more access to better computers and software.  My other solution is to write/lobby to local school boards and government officials to try and revamp the system.  Other solutions that I've read about include providing cheaper Broadband internet to families with students on free/reduced lunch.  I believe it is steps like these that will close the gap in the digital divide, not just pouring/dumping more technology onto the hands that don't know what to do with it.