Teacher Bytes - The digital divide

The Internet, we are told, heralds the shrinking of the world and the creation of the global village. It is true we have access to information on a scale unparalleled in history. However, far from having an intercultural resource reflecting our diverse cultures, we have replicated the world power structure. If anything, the growth of the Internet has had the effect of a widening of an already vast knowledge divide.

Today, there are 360 million people worldwide who access the Internet. Everyday, almost 100,000 new users log on, most of them based in the developed world. Nearly 80% of Internet users have their home there. In contrast, only 3 million people are online in Africa, out of a population of 800 million. Meanwhile, in South Asia, home of the subcontinent's new 'digirati', teledensity - phones per 100 people, rarely exceeds 2 percent. Millions will live their lives without ever using a telephone, let alone log onto the Internet.

American-based sites dominate the web. Yahoo, Geocities, AOL and MSN are among the most accessed sites in the world. All of the most popular portal sites are either US or British based. News sites, directories and hotlists favor Western sites and their authors' value systems. As educators, we need to critically select the resources we use. Instead of creating contexts for learning using the most popular sites, we can access many quality sites that are either authored by people in the developing countries or offer an alternative perspective. While it is true that much of the poorer countries' online presence is controlled by a local elite, accessing materials about and from developing countries goes some of the way towards redressing the information imbalance.

What follows are some web addresses that that can broaden our cultural resource base.

The Bangkok Post in Thailand carries a section devoted to English language learning, exploiting local and world stories that appear in its pages.

The New Internationalist is a monthly magazine that focuses on issues of world development. Some of the texts have been graded for language learners and a few of these could be used here in the UAE.

The New Internationalist is part of the One World Network, a portal to many sites that inform and campaign for world development. One of their partners is Inter World Radio, which allows you to download and save regularly-updated audio files containing news and features.

Woyaa and New Africa are portal sites to the African continent. Another interesting African Site that can be exploited in class is the African Indigenous Science and Knowledge Systems

Hotlinks: Information on Internet demographics and the digital divide - http://www.euforic.org/resource/en/column/0007-wijkman.htm http://www.nua.net/surveys/how_many_onlineindex.html http://www.oneworld.net/ips2/july00/14_01_066.html
http://www.iicd.org

Issue 2		The Digital Divide The Internet, we are told, heralds the shrinking of the world and the creation of the global village. It is true we have access to information on a scale unparalleled in history. However, far from having an intercultural resource reflecting our diverse cultures, we have replicated the world power structure. If anything, the growth of the Internet has had the effect of a widening of an already vast knowledge divide. Today, there are 360 million people worldwide who access the Internet. Everyday, almost 100,000 new users log on, most of them based in the developed world. Nearly 80% of Internet users have their home there. In contrast, only 3 million people are online in Africa, out of a population of 800 million. Meanwhile, in South Asia, home of the subcontinent's new 'digirati', teledensity - phones per 100 people, rarely exceeds 2 percent. Millions will live their lives without ever using a telephone, let alone log onto the Internet. American-based sites dominate the web. Yahoo, Geocities, AOL and MSN are among the most accessed sites in the world. All of the most popular portal sites are either US or British based. News sites, directories and hotlists favor Western sites and their authors' value systems. As educators, we need to critically select the resources we use. Instead of creating contexts for learning using the most popular sites, we can access many quality sites that are either authored by people in the developing countries or offer an alternative perspective. While it is true that much of the poorer countries' online presence is controlled by a local elite, accessing materials about and from developing countries goes some of the way towards redressing the information imbalance. What follows are some web addresses that that can broaden our cultural resource base. The Bangkok Post in Thailand carries a section devoted to English language learning, exploiting local and world stories that appear in its pages. The New Internationalist is a monthly magazine that focuses on issues of world development. Some of the texts have been graded for language learners and a few of these could be used here in the UAE. The New Internationalist is part of the One World Network, a portal to many sites that inform and campaign for world development. One of their partners is Inter World Radio, which allows you to download and save regularly-updated audio files containing news and features. Woyaa and New Africa are portal sites to the African continent. Another interesting African Site that can be exploited in class is the African Indigenous Science and Knowledge Systems Hotlinks: Information on Internet demographics and the digital divide - http://www.euforic.org/resource/en/column/0007-wijkman.htm http://www.nua.net/surveys/how_many_onlineindex.html http://www.oneworld.net/ips2/july00/14_01_066.html http://www.iicd.org
© 2002 TeacherBytes. The author takes no responsibility for the content of any site mentioned in Teacher Bytes.