[DD] - Digital Divide - Edutopia

**The following articles are smaller articles/parts written by the same author. They all relate to each other.


“The New Literacy: Scenes from the Digital Divide 2.0” by Richard Rappaport – Edutopia


Many students in our educational system will grow up on the “sunny side” of the new digital divide and are receiving an “elite” education very different from the education of many of their peers. The “elite” schooled will grow up with teachers and other students who easily can maneuver and use Web 2.0 tools such as wikis, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, tagging, podcasting, forums, video sharing, social bookmarking, and virtual worlds. Other students will be stick on the dark side of the new media digital divide which will cause these students to be out of touch with the skills and tools listed above due to the beliefs of many teachers and others who view new media as intimidating and unimportant in the educational realm.

“A Short History of the Digital Divide” by Richard Rappaport – Edutopia


In 1995, the National Telecommunications & Information Administration stated that inequalities of online access can, and will, cause an issue in the future since at least 60% of all new jobs were going to require skills and fluency on computers as well as on the Internet.


“The Ultimate School Reform” by Richard Rappaport – Edutopia

Connie Yowell, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s director of education, has found that students are using digital media/new media tools everyday at home and learning quickly by using tools such as wikis and blogs. She warns that if we ignore this shift in the way our kids are learning, we will begin to see a new divide, one between teachers and students. We are in a new age of learning, one where students are communicating and collaborating in ways that will dramatically shift the role of teacher and student. The Internet is more than just a place for inane game play and time wasting.