Talk:Digital divide in the United States

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Lack of Definition
The page thus far has lots of good statistical data on indicators for a digital divide in the United States so far. However, some characteristics described are not well defined if at all, such as the the term "Digital Society" and "Digital Literacy". I am aiming to develop definitions for these terms based from publications related to these topics and possibly developing other sections further with more recent data and constructing sentences to create paragraphs using the existing data to develop a way to read the article as an article and not just a list of bullet points. I will start looking at the following pages for helpful information and encourage others to do the same.

Internet in the United States

Publications on Internet and Technology - Pew Research Center

Mobile Access 2010 - Pew Research Center

Technology - whitehouse.gov

Internet use in the contemporary media environment - Human Communication Research 2001

Interaction between States and Citizens in the Age of the Internet: "e-Government" in the United States, Britain, and the European Union - Governance 2003

narrowing the digital divide in low-income, urban communities - New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 2004

[http://crl.acrl.org/content/71/3/203.short Is There an Information Literacy Skills Gap to Be Bridged? An Examination of Faculty Perceptions and Activities Relating to Information Literacy in the United States and England - College & Research Libraries 2010]

The need for a digital rights management framework for the next generation of e-government services - Electronic Government, an International Journal 2004

E‐government and developing countries: an overview - International Review of Law, Computers & Technology 2004

Internet adoption and usage patterns are different: Implications for the digital divide - Information Economics Policy 2008

Internet Usage Statistic: How We Spend Out Time Online (INFOGRAPHIC)

Adrpibgal (talk) 03:46, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

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Too much irrelevant information
Hi Wikipedia users, There seems to be so much information (particularly in the second half of the article) that's not specific to the U.S. at all-- it's more theory-based than country-specific. I am going to start going through and removing some of it, because it seems like it would do more good at the digital divide main page. I will copy and paste everything I delete into here. So if anyone feels strongly enough they can add it back in. Lucymobe (talk) 21:44, 21 February 2020 (UTC)

Digital literacy
Digital literacy has been defined as: "The ability to use digital technology, communication tools or networks to locate, evaluate, use and create information. The ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers. A person's ability to perform tasks effectively in a digital environment... Literacy includes the ability to read and interpret media, to reproduce data and images through digital manipulation, and to evaluate and apply new knowledge gained from digital environments." Developing issues regarding digital literacy in the 21st century do not necessarily only pertain to the binary ability or inability or lack of computer skills anymore as the utilization of computers and other electronic/digital communication devices and heavy adoption of internet resources has steadily increased over the past couple of decades. Due to the exponentially increasing computing power of electronic devices becoming commercialized a new type of digital divide between the new generation of "media-savvy, multitasking" youth and their preceding generation(s) has emerged which has been coined the Knowledge Divide.

Currently, much of the developed digital literacy levels attained derive from self-exploration and learning by doing. A majority of people also acquire information technology skills from required school coursework or from their workplace.

Some strategies proposed to help react to this new form of the digital divide include providing digital literacy workshops for parents and educators who may have fallen behind the computer skill level of their children and/or pupils. Other proactive strategies include developing preservice teachers to 'think with technology' with minimum threshold standards that include:
 * 1) "Demonstrating a sound understanding of technology operations and concepts.
 * 2) Planning and designing effective learning environments and experiences supported by technology.
 * 3) Implementing curriculum plans that include methods and strategies for applying technology to maximize student learning.
 * 4) Applying technology to facilitate a variety of effective assessment and evaluation strategies.
 * 5) Using technology to enhance their productivity and professional practice.
 * 6) Understanding the social, ethical, legal, and human issues surrounding the use of technology in PreK through 12 schools and apply that understanding in practice."

Some groups have proposed changing traditional English or writing class curricula to integrate lessons on digital literacy and teach their students how to navigate through our increasingly more digital and information technology integrated environments to potentially provide an educational safety net for students who may not have as capable electronic devices or as fast or speedy broadband connections as others. There is also a general consensus on the emphasis of improving existing resources within public libraries and schools to keep citizens up to par with the ever-increasing speeds and capabilities of new technology and further expansion and development of the Internet.

Digital society
A digital society can have a variety of different meanings in a variety of contexts. For the purpose of this page, a digital society can be seen to be synonymous to an information society which according to Z. Karvalics László, a digital or information society defined as "A new form of social existence in which the storage, production, flow, etc. of networked information plays the central role." In a digital society there exist newly combined institutions for government and the economy denoted respectively as e-government and e-commerce. Both utilize electronic resources and tools to eliminate the geographical barriers for communication and making transactions between citizens and their respective government entities and businesses.

In the U.S., despite the Internet becoming commercially available to American citizens in 1995, a national official government task force "targeted at improving the quality of services to citizens, businesses, governments and government employees, as well as the effectiveness and efficiency of the federal government" was not established until July 2001. This task force then helped to pass the E-Government Act of 2002 which legislatively aimed to "[establish] a broad framework of measures that require using Internet-based information technology to enhance citizen access to Government information and services." The specific improvements the task force intended to make with the United States federal government included:
 * "Simplifying delivery of services to citizens;
 * Eliminating layers of government management;
 * Making it possible for citizens, businesses, other levels of government and federal employees to easily find information and get service from the federal government;
 * Simplifying agencies' business processes and reducing costs through integrating and eliminating redundant systems;
 * Enabling achievement of the other elements of the President's Management Agenda; and
 * Streamlining government operations to guarantee rapid response to citizen needs"

The means by which e-government becomes established on the local/city/county level, state, and national level all vary but can be more easily described with "a broad model with a three-phase and dual-pronged strategy for implementing electronic democracy [as] proposed by Watson and Mundy." The first phase consists of the initiating the utilization of the internet and electronic tools and resources to enable such things as web-based payment. The second phase consists of mass infusion of digital utilization such that citizens are enabled to routinely obtain presentation, reviews, and make government payments online as well as have open access to government information such as city council minutes and/or news on newly enacted legislation or public notices. The third phase consists of citizen customization where ideas become intertwined in discussion over whether the structure of government institutions is and/or should persist to be fundamentally hierarchical or can be better modeled by a simple hub-and-spoke sort of complex social network.

The Federal Communication Commission has projected that expanding access and broadband services in the United States would cost about $350 billion.

The United States' most recent efforts to help improve the ubiquity and efficiency of e-government on the national level include Executive Order 13571 (Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service), Executive Order 13576 (Delivering an Efficient, Effective, and Accountable Government), the President's Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, OMB Memorandum M-10-06 (Open Government Directive), the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), and the 25-Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal Information Technology Management (IT Reform). These efforts have been outlined and summarized to describe how they each will contribute to achieving the overall goals and reasons for developing e-government by the Digital Government Strategy made available online on May 23, 2012.

E-commerce has made a distinct impact on the United States economy as it has outpaced the overall economy growth based on year-to-year percentage change, accounting for 4.4 percent of total retail sales in 2010 and an estimated $169 billion, an increase from $145 billion in 2009. Since the year 2000 through 2010 the percent of total of retail sales that can be held accountable for by various methods of e-commerce has been steadily increasing in linear fashion and has been projected to reach levels around $254.7 billion. The utilization of e-commerce has become so rampant that legislation on taxing products bought from the internet within the United States has been established such that taxes are taken from products bought online if there exists a nexus within the state the product is received in.

E-commerce is one of the solutions proposed by many groups that may help improve the lack of information technology adoption within rural communities. Prior experience with the Internet, the expected outcomes of broadband usage, direct personal experience with broadband, and self-efficacy as well as age and income have been found to have direct effects on broadband intentions. Taking these factors into account, successful methods of presenting how information and communication technology can improve the livelihoods of rural community citizens will most likely depend on promotional efforts made by rural community institutions that connect potential users with previous broadband adopters to stress the benefits of broadband usage and bolster the self-efficacy of novices.

Within the capabilities approach
An individual must be able to connect in order to achieve enhancement of social and cultural capital and achieve mass economic gains in productivity. Even though individuals in the United States are legally capable of accessing the Internet, many are thwarted by barriers to entry such as a lack of means to infrastructure or the inability to comprehend the information that the Internet provides. Lack of infrastructure and lack of knowledge are two major obstacles that impede mass connectivity. These barriers limit individuals' capabilities in what they can do and what they can achieve in accessing technology. Some individuals have the ability to connect, but have nonfunctioning capabilities in that they do not have the knowledge to use what information ICTs and Internet technologies provide them.

Criticisms
As is evident by policies enacted, agencies created, and policies administered listed above, the United States has been active in closing the access gap in the digital divide, but studies demonstrate that a digital divide is still present; that is, access is becoming universal, but the skills needed to effectively consume and efficiently use information gained from ICTs are not.

Second level digital divide
The second level digital divide, also referred to as the production gap, describes the gap that separates the consumers of content on the internet from the producers of content. As the technological digital divide is decreasing between those with access to the internet and those without, the meaning of the term digital divide is evolving. Previously, digital divide research has focused on accessibility to the Internet and Internet consumption. However, with an increasing number of the population with access to the Internet, researchers are examining how people use the internet to create content and what impact socioeconomics are having on user behavior.

New applications have made it possible for anyone with a computer and an Internet connection to be a creator of content, yet the majority of user-generated content widely available widely on the Internet, like public blogs, is created by a small portion of the Internet-using population. Web 2.0 technologies like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and blogs enable users to participate online and create content without having to understand how the technology actually works, leading to an ever-increasing digital divide between those who have the skills and understanding to interact more fully with the technology and those who are passive consumers of it. Many are only nominal content creators through the use of Web 2.0, like posting photos and status updates on Facebook, but not truly interacting with the technology. Some of the reasons for this production gap include material factors like what type of Internet connection one has and the frequency of access to the internet. The more frequently a person has access to the Internet and the faster the connection, the more opportunities they have to gain the technology skills and the more time they have to be creative. Other reasons include cultural factors often associated with class and socioeconomic status. Users of lower socioeconomic status are less likely to participate in content creation due to disadvantages in education and lack of the necessary free time for the work involved in blog or web site creation and maintenance. Additionally, there is evidence to support the existence of the second-level digital divide at the K-12 level based on how educators' use technology for instruction. Schools' economic factors have been found to explain variation in how teachers use technology to promote higher-order thinking skills.

Knowledge divide
Since gender, age, racial, income, and educational gaps in the digital divide have narrowed compared to past levels, some researchers suggest that the digital divide is shifting from a gap in access and connectivity to ICTs to a Knowledge divide. A knowledge divide concerning technology presents the possibility that the gap has moved beyond access and having the resources to connect to ICTs, to interpreting and understanding information presented once connected. Generations of youth within the 8 to 18 age range called 'Generation M' have grown up alongside the exponential growth of the Internet and personal computer and because of this, in many situations, 'Generation M' has surpassed the technological knowhow of their parents and teachers simply because of their extended experience with technology, which usually started in early stages of life. From their foundational experiences 'Generation M' has developed innovative ideas and products based on these continually improving electronic resources and tools which have helped augment the span and quality of information and knowledge transmission. Thus the digital divide in the United States is no longer just a matter of lack of access as mentioned previously but a sort of race where the generations that created computers and the Internet must now keep up with the improving skill level of 'Generation M'. The exponential development of ICT has also developed situations where there is a great disparity in ICT skill levels among people of the same generation due to the differences in internet connection speeds in addition to differing levels of access and availability which can dictate the type and overall amount of media and information people are able to consume.

These differing groups can be classified based on ICT skill level by the following or in similar terms:
 * Athletes – technophiles; those who are very keen on technology and usually have early adopter or innovator behavior and take pleasure in utilizing the internet and other information technology
 * The laidback – those who are attributed with a lack of clarity of the potential benefits of the internet and information technology adoption who mainly use the internet and computers for search and email exchange
 * The needy – those who require external help to help develop an initial inertia for starting to use the internet and information technologies in meaningful ways.

Modification of Warning Tags/Templates?
What still needs to be cleaned up before removing the warning tags/templates? I tried to help clean up the sections before "Purpose of Connectivity." Any thoughts or suggestions? Moofinberry (talk) 23:27, 13 November 2020 (UTC)Moofinberry

Wiki Education assignment: Media Smart Libraries
— Assignment last updated by Kelseycronin (talk) 23:25, 15 June 2022 (UTC)

Draft:Digital divide in Education
Please consider incorporating material from the above draft submission into this article. Drafts are eligible for deletion after 6 months of inactivity. ~Kvng (talk) 18:32, 29 June 2022 (UTC)

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