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Reflection: As a librarian, where my organization’s territory crosses urban and rural areas, I am quite familiar with the concepts of the digital divide. However, I was not very familiar with digital inequality at all. After reading the articles, reports, supplemental reports I uncovered, and the new book, Without a Net, I have a very different perspective on how to resolve the complex issues surrounding the digital divide and digital inequality.
Before this assignment, I would have said putting the tools in the hands of those who needed them and helping provide assistance in making the services more affordable, would be the way to go. Now, I see that it takes a complex set of options and solutions in order to tackle digital inequality. There are very valid reasons for why people have not yet taken full advantage of the Internet, and for many, lack of skill and training is a large reason. Giving everyone a device and affordable access will not solve that issue.
I enjoyed bringing in a lot of the new research that has been released in the past couple of years, especially as it deals with libraries and how they are confronting the digital divide and digital inequality.
This assignment addresses three AECT Standards, including:
- 3.2 Diffusion of Innovations: Diffusion of innovations is the process of communicating through planned strategies for the purpose of gaining adoption.
- 3.4 Policies and Regulations: Policies and regulations are the rules and actions of society (or its surrogates) that affect the diffusion and use of Instructional Technology.
- 4.2 Resource Management: Resource management involves planning, monitoring, and controlling resource support systems and services.
This assignment addresses the diffusion of innovations standard through researching and explaining several options to resolve digital inequality issues.
This assignment addresses the policies and regulation standard by examining the reasons why people don’t have access or don’t access the Internet, a large part of today’s technology world, especially in education.
This assignment addresses the resource management standard by developing and evaluating several solutions to addressing the digital divide, taking advantage of already existing resources.