View
103
Download
0
Category
Preview:
DESCRIPTION
Citation preview
Pondering the Digital Divide
Hiller A. Spires, Ph.D.Professor & Senior Research Fellow
North Carolina State University
November 20, 2013
World View Global Education Symposium
What are the implications of not having access to the Internet in 2013?
• Personally?• Professionally?
A Question for You
• Overview of Internet Usage• What is the Digital Divide?• How Are NC Students & Teachers Affected?
Checking the Facts
Which country has the highest internet usage?
a) Chinab) U.S.c) Iceland d) Finland
Checking the Facts
Which country has the highest internet usage?
a) Chinab) U.S.c) UK
Checking the Facts
Which age group in the U.S has the highest internet usage?
a) 12 - 17b) 18 - 29c) 30 - 49 d) 50 – 64e) 65 +
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htmhttp://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
Top 15 Countries
The World Bank :http://data.worldbank.org
Country Name 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011Iceland 88.90 89.07 92.14 95.63 96.62Norway 87.17 90.77 92.18 93.27 93.45Netherlands 86.14 87.73 89.79 90.71 92.13Sweden 82.13 90.17 91.12 90.01 90.88Luxembourg 78.22 81.92 87.28 90.71 90.70Denmark 85.15 85.08 86.87 88.76 89.98Finland 80.81 83.72 82.53 86.91 89.33Bermuda 74.93 82.89 83.77 85.13 88.85Qatar 37.00 44.30 53.10 81.60 86.20New Zealand 69.83 72.18 79.83 83.01 86.18Liechtenstein 65.08 70.00 75.00 80.00 85.00Germany 75.39 78.35 79.49 82.53 83.44Switzerland 76.90 78.43 80.01 82.17 82.99Canada 73.31 76.72 80.17 80.04 82.68Antigua and Barbuda 70.06 75.03 74.20 80.00 82.00World 20.58 23.19 25.74 29.52 32.77
U.S., China, & the UK2011 Internet users (per 100
people)
• 38 out of 100 people in China were internet users
• 78 out of 100 people in the U.S. were internet users
• 81 out of 100 people in the UK were internet users
Internet Adoption by Age in the US
Non-Internet Users in the US
Rural America
Rural America lags behind the rest of the country in Internet usage, making rural schools an important center of connectivity in the communities. In 2010, 57 percent of rural households had broadband Internet access, compared to 72 percent in urban areas.
U.S. Department of Commerce, 2011
How Does NC Rank?
• According to the US Department of Commerce, NC ranked 36 out of 50 for Computer and Internet Use in 2010. • 64% in urban NC use
broadband internet• 58% in rural NC use
broadband internet
What is the Digital Divide?
A Summary of DividesAccording to the Economic Intelligence Unit (2012), the following is the summary of divides found around the world• Ability • Access • Age• Broadban
d• Content • Culture
• Education • Gender • Income• Language • Location • Measurem
ent• Mobile • Skills • Usage
Digital Divides
• Access and Connectivity• Competencies and Skills
Why is it important to bridge the gap?
• According to the Information Communications Technologies (ICT) and the 50x15 Initiative, there are 4 important elements:
• Economic equality• Social Mobility • Democracy• Economic Growth (Internet World
Stats, 2012)
Russia
China
Germany
Brazil
Second Digital Divide• “The digital divide in education goes
beyond the issue of access to technology. A second digital divide separates those with the competencies and skills to benefit from computer use from those without” (Trucano, 2010).
• Second digital divide lies at the core of the educational challenge faced by many countries today (Trucano, 2010).
Second Digital Divide“Policy decisions must take into consideration the necessary investment in training and support as well. Like education in general, it is not enough to give people a book, we also have to teach them how to read for them to gain any use from it.”“It is not enough to wire all communities and declare that everyone now has equal access to the Internet. They may still continue to lack effective access in that they may not know how to extract information for their needs from the material available on the Web.”“Although providing Internet access may help alleviate some problems of the digital divide, a second-level digital divide remains when it comes to people’s ability to effectively use the medium.” (Hargittai, n.d.).
How Are NC Students & Teachers Affected?
How the demand for skills has changed
Economy-wide measures of routine and non-routine task input (US)
(Levy and Murnane, 2004)
Mean
task
in
pu
t as
perc
en
tile
s of
th
e 1
96
0 t
ask
dis
trib
uti
on
1960 1970 1980 1990 200240
45
50
55
60
65
Routine manual
Nonroutine manual
Routine cognitive
Nonroutine analytic
Nonroutine interactive
Expert thinking and problem solving involves effective pattern matching based on detailed knowledge. The set of skills used by the stumped expert to decide when to give up on one strategy and what to try next.
Complex communication requires the exchange of vast amounts of verbal and nonverbal information. The information flow is constantly adjusted as the communication evolves unpredictably.
Levy & Murnane, 2004
Valued Performances for Now & the Near Future
Having Our Say: Middle Grade Student Perceptions of School, Technologies,
and Academic Engagement
Results from a study conducted with 4,000 NC middle grade students
•Students demonstrate an increased passion for &reliance on technologies for entertainment & communication. •In many cases, out of school technology use had “lapped” in school technology use, even in rural and underserved schools.•Students demonstrated a sophisticated knowledge about what they want to do in school and what activities interested them.
Spires, Lee, Turner, & Johnson, 2008
Having Our Say: US & Chinese Teacher’s Perceptions
Spires, Morris & Zhang, 2012
What was happening? Critique?
Digital Literacies & Learning
Reading is becoming more complex!
Proposed definition of digital literacy practices
NC’s 7 Economic Regions
Participants
# of Teachers
Survey Total Participants 452
Gender MalesFemales
74378
% of Teachers
Ethnicity American Indian Asian
African AmericanCaucasianHispanic
Other
1%1%7%
88%1%2%
Education Bachelor’s DegreeMaster’s DegreeDoctoral Degree
62%37%1%
Years Teaching Less than 5 years5-9 years
10-20 yearsMore than 20 years
21%27%33%19%
Survey Results
LoTi Level Frequency (Percent)
0 Non-Use 13 (2.9%)
1 Awareness 41 (9.1%)
2 Exploration 131 (29.0%)
3 Infusion 146 (32.3%)
4a Integration (Mechanical) 69 (15.3%)
4b Integration (Routine) 37 (8.3%)
5 Expansion 15 (3.3%)
6 Refinement 0 (0%)
(1) Today’s students need 21st century skills (e.g., problem
solving, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity).“They don’t read it. They find a picture and read the
caption. If it is not quick or flashing they can’t find it. They need to know how to read, how to find it on the internet and know if it is valuable or not.”
(2) Teachers’ roles are changing.“Sometimes students learn better from their peers.
Todays’ teachers need to be willing to work outside of their comfort zone and to be open to learning from their students.”
Focus Group Session Results
(3) We need technology and professional development in order to be technology savvy.
“Once a school buys a program, we are required to learn the program on our own. It would be more helpful if the content was presented when the technology was introduced.”
(4) We have challenges implementing digital technology in the classroom.
“We have used students cell phones for Google searches, taking pictures and even as a stopwatch (we don’t even have stopwatches in school).”
Focus Group Session Results
Research Summary
• 12% of NC teachers fully integrated digital tools and resources in a learner-centered approach (levels 4b – 6), placing an emphasis on student action and higher-level thinking.
• There appears to be a disconnect between what teachers believe to be the most important school priority and the level of support they are receiving.
• Technology is evolving at a fast pace; school infrastructure and teacher capacity are lagging.
Scaling Digitalization
Took over 50 years for the electrification of America
How long will digitalization take?
What Can You Do To Affect the Digital Divide at your College?
New Literacies Collaborative
Join newlit.org
Thank you!Let me hear from you.hiller_spires@ncsu.edu
References• Hargittai (n.d.). Second digital divide: Differences in people’s online skills. Retrieved
from http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_4/hargittai• Hitch, C. (n.d.). Improving your technology utilization: A quick review can help you
determine whether your school is making the most of its technology budget. Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/638?ref=search
• James, E. (2000). Learning to bridge the digital divide: Computers alone are not enough to join the e-economy. Digital literacy is too essential too. Centre for Educational Research and Innovation.
• Internet World Stats (2012). The digital divide, ITC and the 50x15 Initiative.• Lenhart, A. (2012). Digital divides and bridges: Technology use among youth. Pew
Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/PewInternet/digital-divides-and-bridges-technology-use-among-youth
• Spires, H., Bartlett, M., & Garry, A. (2012). Digital Literacies and Learning: Designing a Path Forward. White paper funded by the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation: NCSU
• Spires, H., Lee, J., Turner, K., & Johnson, J. (2008). Having our say: Middle grades students' perspectives on school, technologies, and academic engagement. Journal of Research in Technology in Education. 40 (4), 497-515.
• Spires, H., Morris, G., & Zhang, J. (2012). New literacies and emerging technologies: Perspectives from middle grade teachers in the US and China. Research in Middle Level Education, 35(10), 1-11.
• The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited (2012). Smart policies to close the digital divide: Best practices from around the world. Retrieved from http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un-dpadm/unpan049753.pdf
• Trucano, M. (2010). The Second Digital Divide. Retrieved from http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/the-second-digital-divide
• U.S. Department of Commerce. (2011). Exploring the digital nation: Computer and Internet use at home. Retrieved from http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/exploring_the_digital_nation_computer_and_internet_use_at_home_11092011.pdf.
• World Bank (2012)• Zickuhr, K., & Smith, S. (2012) Digital differences. Pew Research Center’s Internet &
American Life Project
Recommended