DIGITAL DIVIDE IN EDUCATION ONLY IN U.S

Digital divide in education only in U.S

Digital divide in education only in U.S

The global digital divide is a term used to describe “great disparities in opportunity to access the Internet and the information and educational/business opportunities tied to this access … between developed and developing countries”. Unlike the traditional notion of the "digital divide" between social classes, the "global digital divide" is essentially a geographical division.

Over 30 years ago, “Hans Singer (1970) introduced the concept of international technological dualism, by which he meant essentially unequal developments in the area of science, technology, between rich and poor countries” (James, 2004, p. 11-12). Today, the "rapidly growing disparities in the utilization, expenditure, and availability of technology" (Pick & Azari, 2008, p. 91) on a worldwide scale is known as the Global Digital Divide. The global digital divide involves "economic, educational, and social aspects" (Pick & Azari, p. 92) that influence the levels of information communication technology development in each country. A 2002 World Economic Forum report on the global digital divide found that, "88% of all Internet users are from industrialized countries that comprise only 15% of the world's population" (Pick & Azari, p. 93).

The global digital divide versus the digital divide

Within countries around the world there is a gap that exists among those that have access to information and communication technology (Azam, 2007), including computers and the Internet, and those that do not. This term has been coined the “digital divide”. In addition to access, it is noted that the ability to use these technologies, as well as find and produce relevant content, define the “digital divide” as well (Azam, 2007).

The "global digital divide" is distinguishable from the "digital divide", in that “Internet has developed unevenly throughout the world” (Guillen, M. F. & Suarez, S. L. 2005, p. 681) causing some countries to fall behind in technology, education, labor, democracy, and tourism. The concept of the “digital divide” was originally popularized with regard to the disparity in Internet access between rural and urban areas of the United States of America. The “global digital divide” relates to disparity among less developed nations from developed nations. Unlike the case in many classical economic analyses of income disparity, there is no claim in this case that the developed nations' advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) have fed off the labor or resources of developing nations. Conversely, there is generally no claim that developing nations are faring absolutely worse because developed nations are doing better.

The geographical divide

It is argued that developed nations with the resources to invest in and develop ICT infrastructure are reaping enormous benefits from the information age, while developing nations are trailing along at a much slower pace. This difference in rates of technological adoption has been blamed for widening the economic disparity between the most developed nations of the world (primarily Canada, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Western Europe and Australasia) and the underdeveloped and developing ones (primarily some Latin American countries, Africa, and ...