Dates: 4 - 22 February 2002
Hosted by: Distance Education Association of New Zealand (DEANZ)
Moderator: Dr. Andrew Higgins, Head, Flexible Learning Section, Higher Education Development Centre, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand (and Immediate Past President, DEANZ)
Background
The Commonwealth of Learning established the virtual conferences as a lead in to the Second Pan Commonwealth forum on Open Learning: Transforming Education for Development. These virtual conferences provided a forum, among other things, to raise issues that might be of interest to participants and to provide an opportunity for those who might not be able to attend to express views about issues affecting the conference.
Aim
This virtual conference on "Bridging the Digital Divide" considered some of the issues surrounding the growing difference between the various elements comprising the "divide". The moderator's opening statements hoped to stimulate comment and achieve some of the following objectives. All but the last received comment.
Objectives
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identify the main issues comprising the "digital divide",
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consider policy frameworks for addressing the issues,
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propose strategies for bridging the divide,
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identify infrastructural issues, and
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suggest performance indicators or quality assurance factors related to bridging the digital divide.
Activity
The conference resulted in about 300 email postings and involved at least 125 participants.
Main themes
The conference moderator identified a framework in which the discussion could occur. He sought to allow for as wide a discussion as possible, knowing that subsequent conferences would be dealing with more specific issues. The introduction to the conference and the ongoing updates alluded to factors and issues defining the divide. They were: factors comprising the divide; ways of bridging the divide, conditions affecting those across the divide and; incentives for crossing the divide. It is however, not the factors and issues alone that were relevant, but more the relationships between these factors that might be more important in illuminating our understanding of what the divide means. For example, one respondent commented:
"There are many ways to slice and dice the digital divide space. I have attempted to understand it via 3 main categories: (1) access (2) knowledge (3) culture." (Aseem Prakash, 3/02/02).
Factors and issues
While the term "divide" suggests geography, the participants quickly expanded this to mean the isolated, the remote, the indigenous and others who live on the economic and social sides of the divide. Participants mentioned language, especially that of minorities, culture, which was not of the mainstream. Urban geography played a role in identifying those who live in the midst of plenty but had no access to the means of bridging the divide. In the rural areas, there are those who have the means to access and to cross the divide, but could not connect to the technology. Within all of these groups there were individuals of exceptionality, some with characteristics of age, giftedness or disability, both intellectual and physical, whose needs could be better met if the divide were bridged. Respondents commented in the following ways;
"Since it may not be possible for everyone to have access to digital technology, merging of modern and traditional methods can be of potential use here. Such merging of modern and traditional ways is also useful for young people. Those privileged old people who become the voice of the old people, can indeed become a part of the voice of the old people if they can take print outs and send the educative/informative material to less privileged ones keeping the gerontological problems of the people at the receiving end in mind. Those receiving such material in "non-digital" form can give their feedback and thus can also contribute their share of old people's voice and can thus make an constructive attempt to be in the mainstream." (Pankaj Bhatnagar, 20/02/02)
"It is passing the torch between chronological generations and between digital generations. The point is starting with what people recognize, offer appropriate aids, keep the effort community and people oriented, and create means for self-help and growth." (W.J.Karle, 21/02/02).
"In our experience thus far, we have found that it is necessary for people, particularly women, to begin to experience for themselves the utility and the value of using technology to access information that would be of use to them." (Anita Dighe, 8/02/02).
Ways of bridging the divide
Participants indicated that communication, as opposed to connectivity, is a feature of overcoming the divide. Communication implies that those communicating with each other have a common understanding, if not a common language. Part of the communication process involves making the parties aware of each others' needs and expectations. Creating the conditions for mutual respect and understanding may be a precursor to developing understanding.
Sometimes those on the sides of the divide comprise only small numbers. Bringing these people together, even if virtually, creates the critical mass required to foster the likelihood of developing understanding and the possibility of stimulating action. As with other innovations and change, the probability of its being accepted is related to the amount of support accessible by the users. It should go without comment that such support needs to be appropriate in terms of culture, language, ethical considerations and practicability. Service, cost, accessibility and sustainability become relevant factors in helping bridge the divide.
Creating a climate for change
As the Russian educator Vygotsky might have said, we learn in society. Creating a social climate for bridging the divide sometimes depends on the young and the adolescent whose willingness to use the latest technologies is astounding. For example, schools, universities and various tertiary institutions are full of students using text messaging and who access learning management systems with ease and alacrity. This raised the question of pedagogical issues that brought forth the following responses;
"One of the greatest disappointments that I have with ICT usage in education at the moment, is that so many people try to re-create the classroom or lecture hall or university or school as the virtual, Surely we can do better that that?" (Allan Herrmann, 7/02/02).
"Let's not fall into the trap of assuming that a group learning, classroom based model is the 'normal' or appropriate way to learn. What the technologies could be serving up is a way of individualising learning, where students can initiate contact with peers and co-learners at their desire, and where the 'teacher' assumes a truly facilitative, rather than instructor role." (Don Squires, 7/02/02).
National, local and institutional politics set agendas for what in many countries is the expenditure of very scarce resources. It is answers to the political questions that may determine where countries lie on the digital divide spectrum. Among the political questions is one of resource allocation to education, especially for the young. A European respondent wrote;
"I do believe that information literacy - the ability to recognize when information is needed and to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information - not IT, is the key educational issue of the digital information age. In a world overflowing with easily available digital information, we all need the skills to judge the relevance, veracity, and recency of any particular piece of information. Unless all citizens are able to learn and apply a wide set of literacy skills, mere access to technology will mean very little to them. Literacy must also be tackled at the most basic level in order to afford more people the opportunity to use technology effectively." (Sirje Virkus, 8/02/02).
Incentives
Within national and international economic frameworks, it seems probable that it is the information literate who will be adding value to the way in which knowledge is created and applied. E-learning, by using modern technologies, brings knowledge about the world to anyone, anywhere and at any time. As participants have pointed out, individual people make the difference across the divide, whether working alone or collectively. Perhaps it is the personal, emotional, social and economic incentives for the betterment of the human condition that makes e-learning a viable strategy if it can cross the digital divide. A North American respondent wrote;
"At its best, internationalizing education is about establishing an environment that recognizes, respects and responds to human diversity. The selection of learning activities, the design of support and the choice of support all need to work towards achieving this. The design should foster a critical awareness of how all of us construct our understanding and how our ways of thinking are culturally bound. This awareness of how our attitudes reflect how we view the world will become more and more important in an increasingly diverse, complex and globalized world." (Sheila Buchanan, 23/02/02).
Conclusion
Functionally, this first virtual meeting began with a number of interesting postings, slowed in the middle and picked up at the end. In terms of meeting the objectives, and as the various extracts from participant's demonstrate, the major issues surrounding the idea of the "digital divide" are complex and diverse. Later virtual conferences resulted in many ideas that will help bridge the divide.
One participant summarised her experience thus;
"So to bridge this digital divide, we must have a three-pronged plan: we must first have the digital infrastructure; secondly, we must learn to use it to communicate; thirdly, we must use it to acquire knowledge and participate in self-paced interactive life long learning. This is the clarity that this virtual conference has brought to me. Because I have the infrastructure, I have been able to communicate and learn from you all and it has set the stage for us to plan long-term on how to produce a learning society. Many thanks." (Lorna Callender, 24/02/02.)
--Andrew Higgins
