The Digital Divide
What Is Digital Divide?
The notion of the digital divide identifies a gap of access to and the usage of information and communication technology (ICT) between groups defined by their social, geographical, geopolitical criteria etc. (U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 1995). The early definition of the digital divide focused on whether people can or cannot have access (Bompaine, 2001). The focus has then shifted to the inequality of access to the broadband connection (Hilbert, 2013) and the skills to take advantage of the Internet (Blau, 2002; Karen, 2003; Graham, 2014).
Digital Divide and Participatory Culture
A participatory culture is defined by Jenkins in 2009 as "a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby experienced participants pass along knowledge to novices" (p. xi). Jenkins creates this notion to shift the focus of the digital divide discourse from "questions of technological access to those of opportunities for participation and the development of cultural competencies and social skills needed for full involvement" (p. xiii).
Jenkins cited a 2005 report in the United Kingdom referring to children's online experience. He concluded that:
"By those with or without access, though "access" is a moving target in terms of speed, location, quality and support, and inequalities in access do persist. Increasingly, children and young people are divided into those for whom the Internet is an increasingly rich, diverse, engaging and stimulating resource of growing importance in their lives and those for whom it remains a narrow, unengaging, if occasionally useful, resource of rather less significance.
Those youths who are most advanced in media literacies are often stripped of their technologies and robbed of their best techniques for learning in an effort to ensure a uniform experience for all in the classroom. On the other hand, many youths who have had no exposure to these new participatory cultures outside school find themselves struggling to keep up with their peers." (p. 18)
He thus argued that, to close the digital divide there will need to be more opportunities for people to learn the skills and content that is "most beneficial" (p. 18) rather than depending solely on technology.
Digital Divide and 5G
Not only the high cost but also the limited coverage of 5G may cause a new digital divide. Since 5G needs many more towers to send and receive signals, it is economically and technically challenging to provide immediate full coverage.
Steven Pattheeuws (2015) described this new divide as a vicious circle in his article A new digital divide with 5Gs. He argued that because "in areas without access to 5G, customers and businesses will lag behind in the adoption of new technological 5G applications. This will lead to decreasing economic development and lower investments in these areas, which, in turn, will lead to a lower demand of 5G. Urban areas on the other hand, will see increasing investments in 5G" (2015).
To know more about this topic, you can click on Pattheeuws's article or watch the video in which NBC's Dasha Burns explained this situation.
Digital Divide in Canada
Who is covered by broadband and mobile networks across Canada?
In the previous sections, we talked about the definition of digital divide and how the concern of it has shifted from the access to the technologies to the knowledge and skills that facilitate people's participation to the culture (Jenkins, 2009).
This section will show you some data of how Canadian households access to broadband internet and mobile services. From the graphics above and below, we can see the digital divide of access exist not only between the rural and urban areas, but also between the Northern and Southern regions as well as the First Nation reserve areas.
These data and descriptions are derived from Communications Monitoring Report 2019 provided by Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission:
"Broadband Internet services
Availability of 1.5 Mbps broadband in OLMC (official minority language communities) and rural communities was closely aligned to the provincial average, while availability in First Nations reserve areas in certain provinces was significantly lower. There were four provinces (Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) where broadband availability was greater in First Nations reserve areas than the provincial average, which may suggest that these communities were well served in 2017. However, in First Nations reserve areas in the North and in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, broadband availability was much lower than the provincial figures, suggesting that these communities were less well served overall.
The availability of 50/10 Mbps unlimited broadband was noticeably different from availability at 1.5 Mbps. Across Canada, 50/10 Mbps unlimited was available to 84.1% of Canadians. However, only 37.2% of rural communities and 27.7% of First Nations reserve areas had access to the faster speeds of 50/10 Mbps unlimited, demonstrating a divide between the various communities for faster broadband services. In the northern territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut), 50/10 Mbps unlimited broadband is unavailable altogether, which further illustrates the urban-rural divide in terms of access to service, especially at the faster speeds.
Mobile services
Mobile services via LTE were available to 99.0% of Canadians at the end of 2017. In rural communities, OLMCs, and First Nations reserve areas, LTE was available to 95.9%, 99.0%, and 72.8% of the population, respectively.
The largest difference in coverage between the provincial average and the First Nations reserve areas was seen in Manitoba. Only 19.5% of the First Nations reserve areas in Manitoba had access to LTE, compared to 93.4% of Manitobans in general. Two other provinces that also showed noticeable differences in access to LTE were Newfoundland and Labrador and Ontario where 67.9% and 62.3% of the First Nations reserve areas are covered by LTE, respectively, compared to their overall provincial figures of 94.7% and 99.7% respectively" (2019).
Activity
You may have experienced the digital divide in your personal life or in the schools already. We would like to hear your narratives to make this discussion closer to our lives. Please feel free to put a note in the Padlet below.
If implementing this OER in a group, you can use the questions below to create your own Padlet. If working individually, use the questions below as reflection prompts.
*These are the Padlet contributions from the summer of 2020 by graduate students of the ETEC 523 course at University of British Columbia.
Extended Topics of Digital Divide
The digital divide has been a hot topic for a decade. It has derived many concerns for the digital gaps between gender, families with different socioeconomic statuses, regions, nations and so on. We only present some general ideas of the digital divide and the state of accessing broadband internet in Canada.
When drawing beautiful pictures of how technology can enhance education, we should never forget that many people can barely access broadband internet in Canada and worldwide, especially in rural areas, northern regions, and indigenous reserve areas. Our team wants to emphasize this risk of making these people left behind.
If you are interested in specific topics of the digital divide, we selected some great lectures from TED. You are more than welcome to click and enjoy these insightful and inspiring ideas.