Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
week to sign in and get an unemployment payment. These visits served an important so-
cial function for the unemployed people. It gave them an opportunity to visit with other
people and keep their spirits up. Once the PCs were introduced, the workers were sup-
posed to “sign in” and receive their payments over the Internet. Many of the workers did
not like the new system. It appears that many of the PCs were sold on the black market.
The unemployed workers simply went back to reporting in person to the social welfare
office.
For IT to make a difference, social systems must change as well. The introduction of
information technology must take into account local culture, which includes language,
literacy, and community values.
Warschauer's second criticism of the term “digital divide” is that it implies everyone
is on one side or another of a huge canyon. Everybody is put into one of two categories:
“haves” and “have nots.” In reality access is a continuum, and each individual occupies
a particular place on it. For example, how do you categorize someone who has a 56k
modem connecting his PC to the Internet? Certainly that person has online access, but
he is not able to retrieve the same wealth of material as someone with a broadband
connection.
Third, Warschauer says that the term “digital divide” implies that a lack of access
will lead to a less advantaged position in society. Is that the proper causality? Models of
technological diffusion show that those with a less advantaged position in society tend
to adopt new technologies at a later time, which is an argument that the causality goes
the other way. In reality, there is no simple causality. Each factor affects the other [28].
Rob Kling has put it this way:
[The] big problem with “the digital divide” framing is that it tends to connote
“digital solutions,” i.e., computers and telecommunications, without engaging the
important set of complementary resources and complex interventions to support
social inclusion, of which informational technology applications may be enabling
elements, but are certainly insufficient when simply added to the status quo mix of
resources and relationships.” [28, pp. 7-8]
Finally, Warschauer points out that the Internet does not represent the pinnacle
of information technology. In the next few decades, dramatic new technologies will be
created. We will see these new technologies being adopted at different speeds, too.
For the past several decades, the rate of tuition increases at universities and colleges in
the United States has exceeded the inflation rate, making a college education increasingly
difficult for students from poorer families. Free massive open online courses (MOOCs)
are often promoted as a way to make higher education more affordable, which would
help all students, but particuarly those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. In 2012
Colorado State University-Global became the first university in the United States to
grant credit to students completing a particular MOOC in computer science [68]. Other
universities are likely to follow. Is solving the problem of ever more expensive higher
education as simple as providing access to online courses?
