Jul
23
Divided we fall
July 23, 2007 | | Leave a Comment
NOTE: I came upon Mark Glaser’s article, “Your Guide to the Digital Divide,” after perusing del.icio.us bookmarks shared by Cindy Blakely. After reading this article, I decided today was an excellent time to repost the following story. The post disappeared June 21st when Edublogs was going through a hardware upgrade. Fortunately, I saved the post as a document file on my home computer. I usually compose my posts directly to the site.
Sometimes, I get so caught up in all the excitement of Web 2.0 that I do not think about people who have limited access or no access to the Internet.
But I cannot forget.
I consider the access impediment to be an important concern. Where are the voices of others regarding this issue? Usually, I think of children as the only ones being impacted by this problem. A colleague of mine, however, reminded me some teachers also struggle with accessing Web technologies.
Carol O’Hara talks about her frustrations with listening to podcasts via a dial-up connection:
I found this public radio station in San Diego that enticed me with a podcast centering on blogging with an explanation for the neophyte. Seemed perfect. I pushed the play button, and it worked, almost. The good news is that my dial-up does not automatically freeze up and shut down for an audio file. Unfortunately, it took five minutes to hear forty seconds of the broadcast. Not a very entertaining or efficient way to listen to a podcast. It would seem that some technology is just not compatible with dial-up.
Carol lives in an area where neither ADSL nor cable high speed access is available. Her solution is to use the network at the university to gain access during the summer and the our school’s network during the school year.
We must find ways to make access available to all in an affordable package. Otherwise, the digital divide becomes the increasing economic divide that engulfs this country’s underserved and disenfranchised communities and their children.
