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| Format: | Recurso educativo Open Access |
| Language: | en |
| Published: |
2006
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ755126 |
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Table of Contents:
- The Gap: Once a Hot Topic, the Digital Divide Seems All but Forgotten, while the Poor, Mainly Black and Hispanic, Are Still Being Left Behind Carvin, Andy Information Technology Access to Computers Minority Groups African Americans Hispanic Americans Low Income Groups Racial Discrimination The year 2006 marks the 10th anniversary of the advent of the digital divide--a major societal challenge that, sadly, has been pushed aside and forgotten in recent years. According to "A Nation Online," the last major federal study on the subject published in 2004, Caucasian and Asian-American households were more likely to be online than African-American households, which in turn were more likely to be wired than Latino households. And while overall Web use rose for each demographic group--about 60 percent of U.S. households were online, up from less than 20 percent in 1997--the hierarchy of access has remained essentially the same for the last decade. The author of this article concludes that while there is still positive work being done, the challenge remains to get the digital divide back on the national agenda. The disparity in technology access must be viewed as a national threat--to our economic competitiveness, our civil rights, and our national creed of equal opportunity. While it may be true that seven out of 10 Americans are online, we shouldn't pat ourselves on the back just yet. Not as long as disenfranchised, underserved Americans remain on the wrong side of the divide.