Digital Divide

More time on this ‘quick summary’ of the digital divide. It is a hugely interesting area of research, which has many links into information literacy. A lot of the research deals with bridging the technological gap between those how can and do afford the technology and those who can’t – aka the haves and the have not’s. This is reflected in different contexts i.e. between nations and also with societies. An interesting reflection is that in countries such as the UK, access to the technology is narrowing (divergence of technology: mobile internet access, internet access through your Xbox etc), this is re-focusing the question away from the technological ‘haves’ and ‘have not’s’ towards those who have the skills to use the technology namely … information literacy (or ICT skills).

Here is an interesting quote from the Oxford Internet Survey 2007 :

The 2007 Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS) reports that in 2000 only about one third of Britons had access to the internet; by 2007 over two thirds had access to the internet, of who four out of five used a broadband connection. The OxIS also observes that in 2005 internet users were more likely to use a search engine and specific webpage’s they may bookmark to look form information, however, by 2007 they were much more likely to primarily use search engines (p.66).