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

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perc

en

tile

s of

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e 1

96

0 t

ask

dis

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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