Avoiding a new digital divide

The Digital Divide was once considered to refer to the separation of people with access to technology and those without. But, as the machinery and technologies have developed at a rapid pace, so has the meaning of this term.

As the opportunities to join in the technology driven twenty first century increases continually, new hurdles spring up which threaten to keep a digital divide firmly in place.

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach has described that in the past “we just tried to keep up, with new technologies often simply bolted onto traditional curriculum practices. However, today, with three decades of digital experience under our belt, the time is ripe to begin instituting true change”. To visit the article, please click here

This means that the role of student and teacher is dramatically readjusting. Whilst students often embrace these new ways of learning, teachers can be hesitant of new technologies.

K. Bechtel highlighted how “students in the low technology use classrooms are not seeing the benefits of technology, the opportunities created with technology, or improving their own skills at using technology. …..Two classes next door to each other could be providing their students vastly different educational opportunities depending solely on the level of technology experience knowledge of the teachers. Thus the divide continues”. Full article can be found here

Therefore if a student is inadvertently shown how fear can be associated with technology, they will in turn learn to be weary of it. Whereas if they observe their teacher demonstrating limitless learning opportunities with enthusiasm and excitement, they will be excited by it, and see it as a key tool in their life.

This leaves the teachers with a big responsibility. If less confident teachers can overcome their concerns, they can begin to shatter the digital divide and join in the exciting transformation that sees the face of learning change forever.

In order to make this transition into the world of online learning, teachers can be guided with assistance of companies like Taecanet. (www.taecanet.com). Taecanet offers a quality, e-learning service which places teachers in control of what their students learn and when they learn. But it does so by ensuring it is simple to operate, and offers continual guidance and assistance so that the teacher’s first step into the digital world of e-learning is a seamless one.