Digital Literacy - The Digital Divide

The Digital Divide

Digital literacy and digital access have become increasingly important competitive differentiators. Bridging the economic and developmental divides is in large measure a matter of increasing digital literacy and access for peoples who have been left out of the information and communications technology (ICT) revolutions.

The United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID) seeks to address this set of issues at an international and global level. Many organizations (e.g. Per Scholas for underserved communities in the United States and InterConnection for underserved communities around the world as well as the U.S.) focus on addressing this concern at national, local and community levels.

Scholar Howard Besser contends that the digital divide is more than just a gap between those who have access to technology and those who don’t. This issue encompasses aspects such as information literacy, appropriateness of content, and access to content. Beyond access, a digital divide exists between those who apply critical thinking to technology or not, those who speak English or not, and those who create digital content or merely consume it. UCLA and many other universities are trying to address these issues and ultimately narrow the gap by emphasizing the importance digital literacy.

Community Informatics overlaps to a considerable degree with digital literacy by being concerned with ensuring the opportunity not only for ICT access at the community level but also, according to Michael Gurstein, that the means for the "effective use" of ICTs for community betterment and empowerment are available. Digital literacy is of course, one of the significant elements in this process.