Divide

							Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 38(3), 309-311, 2001



LEARNING TO BRIDGE THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris,
ISBN: 92-64-18288-8, softback, 137 pages, £12-00 sterling, 2000.

As information and communication technologies (ICT) come to play more significant
roles in our lives, there is a growing amount of evidence to support the existence of a
‘digital divide’ between those who have access to appropriate resources (the ‘haves’)
and those who do not (the ‘have-nots’). The Web sites at http://www.digitaldivide.gov
and http://www.pbs.org/digitaldivide are typical of many that provide documented
evidence for the existence of digital divides. The primary causes of these divides are
both complex and varied - may be a lack of resources, perhaps an absence of
opportunity or just a lack of motivation. Nevertheless, the divides exist and their
exact nature is likely to vary considerably between different groups, communities and
nations. This OECD publication looks at some of the current issues and problems that
are arising as a result of ‘the digital divide’. The book builds on a set of papers and
ensuing discussions that took place at the 5th NCAL/OECD Roundtable meeting that
was held at the University of Pennsylvania in the USA in December 1999. This
meeting was organised by the US National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL) and was
attended by an international community of delegates from both OECD and non-
OECD countries.

The book contains nine contributions, each one of which addresses a particular aspect
of the digital divide. In the opening chapter, Stephen McNair outlines many of the
background issues that need to be understood in order to comprehend how and why
the digital divide has arisen. He then goes on to outline a policy agenda that
governments should consider in order to ensure that individuals and communities are
not excluded from participation in society and in the economy. The eight key areas
identified by McNair are: access to all hardware and software; changing roles for
teachers and learners; the promotion of lifelong learning; quality assurance; enhanced
citizenship based on ICT; making available brokering services and agencies;
Government support for encouraging and directing research relating to the impact of
ICT on learning; and changes in the role of policy makers in education.

The second contribution to the book is called ‘Different Educational Inequalities: ICT
an Option to Close the Gaps’. It’s author (Guillermo Kelly-Salinas) explores the
different origins and manifestations of learning gaps - such as socio-economic
selection, generation gaps, regional gaps at the national level, academic performance
inequalities within educational institutions, and gaps at the international level. He
goes on to identify elements and strategies that are crucial to the design and
implementation of ICT policies for improving coverage, quality and relevance of
educational services. His essay concludes with a brief description of the Mexican
television-assisted ‘Telesecundaria Programme’ as an example to illustrate a
successful innovation in bridging the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

In the third chapter of the book (entitled ‘The Digital Divide: Making Knowledge
Available in a Global Context’), Nolan Bowie (a Senior Fellow at Harvard
University) discusses the importance of providing access to information and
knowledge within a ‘networked society’. He then compares the ‘haves and have-nots’
situation within the United States with the corresponding situation in the rest of the


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Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 38(3), 309-311, 2001


world. He sees the elimination of the digital divide within the USA as being of
‘strategic national importance … to neglect the digital divide poses a danger to the
entire economy and society’ (p. 45). He goes on to suggest that even though no one
organisation or solution exists for bridging the digital divide, it is possible to identify
a range of skills, experiences and resources necessary for the task - beyond the basic
provision of hardware and software. Bowies’ contribution to the book includes a
short description of a US initiative (called PowerUp) that is intended to combat the
digital divide in the USA.

Following the first three contributions to the book, the fourth chapter presents a
synthesis by the OECD secretariat. Based on Roundtable discussions, and other
supporting documentation, this synthesis deals with emerging trends and issues
relating to the digital divide and explores its nature within the context of learning.
This is the first of two syntheses included in the book; the second is presented as
chapter 7.

In chapter 5, Richard Venezky discusses the causes and consequences of the digital
divide within formal school education. Depending upon the characteristics of the
individual situation involved, Venezky partitions the problem into three classes,
which he refers to as the ‘missing link’, ‘wasteland’ and ‘foreign language’. He goes
on to suggest that the divide is not a ‘single problem’ that can be fixed with a
programme of massive school aid and technological supports. It arises partly because
of a lack of specific types of resource and partly due to chronic differences (both
‘within school’ and ‘within home’) that will not yield to any single remediation. In
order to resolve the problem Venezky recommends the provision of assistive devices
(including speech recognition for the disabled), low-cost communication for schools
in remote areas, redesign of both hardware and software for women and girls, and
more training for teachers, more technical assistance for parents, and more academic
supports for students from high poverty and language minority backgrounds.

Turning from formal school education to adult education, chapter 6 (by Lynda
Ginsburg, John Sabatini and Daniel Wagner) explores the role of ICT in developing
adult skills within post-compulsory educational communities in the USA. An
important aspect of adult techno-literacy is the need for individuals and families to
understand and respond to the growing use of ICT in virtually all aspects of modern
life. The authors suggest that ‘technology-based’ education is likely to be the
‘direction for the future’. A number of large-scale US initiatives (such as
‘LiteracyLink’ and ‘CLASS’) are described; these are aimed at producing multimedia
instructional materials for adult learners. Some of the projects also include the
development of multimedia tools to support adult literacy teachers.

In the book’s second synthesis (which makes up chapter 7), the OECD secretariat
again present a summary of relevant Roundtable discussion and documentation - this
time, relating to the theme of bridging learning’s digital divide. Some of the
important issues discussed include: the ‘trade-off’ between equity and quality, teacher
training, new approaches to teaching and learning, new learning models, linguistic
issues and the roles to be played by government, education systems, communities and
market forces. The importance of appropriate research, evaluation and the exchange
of experience and exemplary practice are also stressed.



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The last two chapters in the book examine various national initiatives aimed at
overcoming and/or preventing the development of digital divides. Chapter 8 is
devoted to activities that are taking place in Sweden. Within this chapter Sten
Ljungdahl describes the Swedish approach to the use of ICT in education, equity and
lifelong learning. An important feature of Swedish education is the opportunities it
provides for people to return later in life to complete compulsory and upper secondary
education. Indeed, the Swedish municipal education system offers an infrastructure
for lifelong learning that enables people to satisfy their need to advance their
knowledge and development by providing opportunities to switch between study and
work throughout adult life. The foundation for this strategy is based on the principle
that all those leaving school and entering society should be adequately equipped to
relearn, to learn what is new, and to learn more - on a lifelong basis.

Some of the other national approaches to tackling the digital divide through
educational initiatives are described in chapter 9. Here, various authors outline
examples of the strategies and policies that are being used within Portugal, the United
Kingdom, Japan, the USA and Finland, respectively. Although there are many
similarities in the approaches being employed, there are also significant differences
that are unique to the individual countries involved. According to João Santos, the
Portuguese strategy, for example, is based upon four primary strands of activity.
These involve: actively promoting greater access to the Internet; expanding the
Portuguese ‘Science, Technology and Society Network’; implementing a national
programme of training and certification in basic ICT skills for all citizens; and
enabling greater Internet access to information produced by public authorities. The
UK’s contribution (written by Robin Ritzema) describes the ‘National Grid for
Learning’, the ‘University for Industry’ and the creation of a network of some 700
‘ICT Learning Centres’. In his contribution, Takashi Sakamoto describes how, in
Japan, there has been much important development activity aimed at promoting the
‘advanced information and communication society’. Within this context, many of the
progressive developments relating to the use of ICT in education have been motivated
by the ‘Educational Reform Programme’ (of 1998) and, more recently, by the ‘Virtual
Agency’. This agency is an inter-departmental government task force that has been
set up to oversee developments in the educational use of ICT within Japan through to
the year 2005. The contribution from the USA (written by Robert Muller) outlines
some of the policy and implementation changes that are needed at the federal level in
order to enable US citizens to bridge the skills gap associated with the digital divide.
In the final contribution to this chapter, Jouni Kangasniemi summarises two Finnish
educational ICT initiatives. These have been aimed at giving citizens the opportunity
to study, to develop their own knowledge and to make extensive use of information
resources and educational services.

Undoubtedly, ICT is a powerful change agent. It makes us re-think, quite critically,
the ways in which we do things (especially in education) and to consider both global
and local solutions to the problems that we face. ICT can also be used by individuals,
groups, organisations and nations in order to enhance their competitiveness. Of
course, when used in this way, it can also create digital divides. However, at the same
time, if used in ‘visionary ways’ ICT can do much to inhibit the development of these
divides and the widening gaps that can arise between those that have access to the
technology and those that do not. This OECD publication provides a useful source of
information about digital divides (within the context of learning) and what various


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Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 38(3), 309-311, 2001


countries are doing in order to combat them. A wide range of ongoing projects are
described and outlines are given of possible action lines for the future.

Philip Barker
University of Teesside, UK




Philip Barker                                                               Page 4