The elephant in the room

Far too many futurologists, authors and commentators are ignoring the issue of the digital divide. Several books I have read recently on new and emerging technologies provide a healthy balance. They eulogise about the benefits, and are circumspect about the dangers of technology. Yet few acknowledge that many members of society are still technologically peripheral. The digital divide will not go away, but it cannot be ignored. Some even talk about the 'digital dividend', which to me sounds very much like a neat side step around the main issue. Avoiding the issue is not helpful. Call it what you want - digital exclusion, techno-marginalisation, analogue culture. It's the elephant in the room, and those who hold the purse strings are steadfastly looking away from it. Not everyone can participate in the digital society. Some people don't have mobile phones, and many more are not, nor ever will be, on Facebook, regardless of the hype Zuckerberg and his pals periodically peddle.

Some don't have access to the tools that enable this kind of participation. But to be fair, the digital divide is not always about lack of money, even though most accounts cite this as the prime cause. Some people avoid participation in the digital world even though they have the resources to fully participate. They become refuseniks, techno-luddites, laggards. Still others simply don't have the skills or literacies to meaningfully involve themselves in the digital society. It's not always about money. Not only are there the 'haves and have nots', there are also the 'wills and will nots' and the 'cans and cannots'.

Regardless of the causes - whether the divide is socio-economic, psychological or practical - the fact is, many people around the globe will not be subscribing to the digital citizen club any time soon.

Those of us who work at the 'chalk-face' are limited in what we can do to bridge the digital divide but we are not completely powerless. Many people choose to create that gulf between themselves and the connected world. For any number of reasons, they refuse to participate. Those who are lacking skill or confidence are another matter. We should make it our duty to help such people to gain the confidence they need, and that is exactly what many teachers are doing. The big challenge to all teachers and trainers now is this: How do we continue to develop 21st century learning, when there are always those few who are stuck (for whatever reason) in the last century?

Most of the problems are caused by lack of provision. Lack of broadband infrastructure. Lack of training opportunities. Lack of finance. The digital agenda of many western governments is falling sadly short of its intended outcomes, because the issues are far more complex than anyone could have imagined. Those in authority need to wake up and acknowledge that the digital divide is one of the key threats to lack of progress and that there are many causes. So just how long will it take until people wake up and notice the elephant in the room? Will they continue to ignore it until it fouls the carpet?

Image by Tom Clearwood


The elephant in the room by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.