Rethinking the Digital Divide: impacts on student‐tutor relationships

Abstract

This article emerged from a series of debates and workshops on the impact of the Digital Divide on educational practice at the ‘Futures of Learning: New Learning Paradigms Conference’ in Paris. The conceptualisation of the Digital Divide into the ‘haves’ and the ‘have‐nots’, with a perception of the economically developed world as ‘high tech’ and the developing and underdeveloped worlds as ‘low tech’, is no longer tenable. Building on the recognition based on mounting evidence that old perceptions of the Digital Divide are simplistic and that the Divide encompasses not one but many discontinuities, the nature of such a discontinuity between student and tutor becomes the focus of the argument presented here. Many have argued that increased use and availability of digital technologies in schools bring important benefits and opportunities for learning and teaching strategies but are staff and students able work together to ensure positive outcomes? If not, why might this be the case? In examining the implications of the student/teacher Digital Divide some questions concerning the future direction of education emerge.

Student access to and skills in using technology in an open and distance learning context

“…Clearly, both groups of students have access and do not have access to the Internet, debunking the assumption that all online students have regular access to the Internet and that all paper-based respondents are likely not to have regular access. This confirms research by, amongst others, Brown and Czerniewicz (2010), Czerniewicz (2004), Underwood (2007), and Warschauer (2002), supporting the idea that access to computers and the Internet is a multidimensional phenomenon and that the strict binary of "haves" and "have-nots" is not a usable construct.…”

“…Underwood (2007, p. 214) further states that the notion of the digital divide "is a simplistic model even at an economic level and that it is better to think of information-based economic nodes, within and across regions and within and across countries." A more nuanced understanding of the digital divide must also take into account the "second-level digital divide," capturing the skills dimension of access to technology (Underwood, 2007, p. 214), the different levels of digital literacy, and the divides resulting from the use of English as the language of communication in many online educational platforms (Underwood 2007, p. 215). Warschauer (2002 states that the "notion of the binary divide between the haves and the have-nots is thus inaccurate and can even be patronising as it fails to value the social resources that diverse groups bring to the table.…”

Usability and Digital Inclusion: Standards and Guidelines

“…In fact, it has been widely suggested that the traditional socio-economic differences that have dictated access to technology are not the fundamental factor in digital inclusion. Authors such as Prensky (2001), Madden et al (2007) and Underwood (2007) have proposed that the digital divide is a complex of interacting physical, digital, human, and social resources that is based instead on generationally related differences in technology use and skills (e.g. "digital natives" vs "digital immigrants").…”

Technology, education and Arab youth in the 21st century: A study of the UAE

“…Many researchers have highlighted the need for consideration of variation of both access to and use made of the Internet within populations, to avoid acceptance of ambit claims made about the role of the Internet as if it was similarly used by whole generations of people (Brown & Czerniewicz, 2010;Ferro, Dwivedi, Gil-Garcia, & Williams, 2010;Fourie & Bothma, 2006;Hargittai, 2010;Hargittai & Hinnant, 2008;Helsper, 2008;Helsper & Eynon, 2010;Kennedy et al, 2010;Mertens & d'Haenens, 2010;Rideout et al, 2010;Selwyn, 2008b;Thinyane, 2010;Underwood, 2007;Vaidhyanathan, 2008;Warschauer & Matuchniak, 2010).…”