User:Kmcoms/sandbox

The Digital Divide in Israel refers to the societal split between demographics and individuals, access to and understanding of how to use ITC's. While the spread of Information Communication Technologies in Israel has had many positive effects socially and economically, it has the same time created disparities between demographics within the country.

Government and private sector initiatives have attempting to close the gap, with some success. Guidelines have been developed to assist governments in accurately measuring the impact of these initiatives.

Age
Online shopping sees more older users, while entertainment has primarily young audience. Older people are significantly less likely to use social media.

Gender
There are a number of differences in internet use, and in some instances, access, between males and females in Israel. Male users have a notably higher usage volume than female users. Usage volume refers to the number of unique visits user makes to a website. There are a significant demographic divides found in users of particular content types online. Information and search, entertainment, and dating are all male-overrepresented while health is female-overrepresented. Women are less active than men in rights and government.

Language
There is a divide in usage volume across languages: Hebrew speakers’ volume is 2 times higher than that of Arabic speakers and 2.4 times higher than Russian speakers.

Location
There is a geographical disparity in usage volume: in the central region of Tel Aviv, 5 times greater than those in more remote areas in the Northern and Southern areas of Israel.

Level of Education
Level of education correlates with both access to internet and usage type. Those with higher-level education are overrepresented in the fields of Government and rights research, news, career related information, research and education, and finance. Those with lower income levels are overrepresented in entertainment, communication tools, messaging, chat and social networks. In a 2006 study, 71% of pHD's had internet access, while 58% of bachelor's and 46% of high school graduates have access.

Many argue that English has become the internet's “official language”. Over 55% of home-pages for the internet's most visited websites are written in englush, putting Israel’s 98% native Hebrew-speaking population at a significant disadvantage. Those who know English are will be able to access and appreciate more of the internet.

Level of Income
Those with higher levels of income are overrepresented in travel and tourism.

Culture
One study found 48% of Israel's Jewish population has internet access, while only 14% of the Arab population is connected. However, a later study found 53% of the Arab population and 64% of the Jewish population to be online. Other differences found in this study include a higher percentage of Arabs using internet chat rooms, and a higher percentage of Jews using the internet more often. Arabs are 2.2 times less likely to use social media.

eHealth Literacy
eHealth is a fairly recent concept, referring to the ability to use new information and communications technology in order to improves or maintain one's health. In order to understand how to effectively use the internet to uncover relevant health-related information, one must be eHealth literate. Those with access and digital literacy skills will have more available digital health resources. The Internet is a source for keeping healthy, whether through the ability information and best practices or being able to connect with doctors, Neter and Brainin surveyed Israeli society attempting to determine whether or to what extent a digital divide in eHealth literacy exists in Israel. They found that younger and more educated people were higher in eHealth literacy. Health status and gender did not affect knowledge of eHealth. Those higher in digital literacy generally were found to be higher in eHealth literacy, searching more often and with a greater variety of sources. People who rank higher in eHealth literacy employ the strategies found online more often than those less literate. They also use more complex strategies for searching and more carefully determine the quality of information.

Israel Internet Association
The Israel Internet Association, or ISOC-IL, is a nonprofit organization based in Petach Tikva, Israel The organization aims to address an improved upon the issue of digital rights among Israeli citizens. The organization helps fund a number of initiatives, including A Computer for Every Child.

A Computer for Every Child
In 1996, the Government of Israel collaborated with leading Israelis in the private sector to establish the A Computer for Every Child project<ref name="Prime Minister's Office A Computer for Every Child". The aim of the project is to narrow the digital divide in access by providing lower-income families with computers, software and literacy lessons. Since its establishment, the organization has delivered more than 74,000 computer kits to 360,000 people.

Currently, the project is funded by the Prime Minister’s Office, Local authorities, donors and through fundraising conducting by the National Association for Social Development. Microsoft Israel has been a key donor, distributing thousands of computers, as well donating its software, including the Windows operating system, Word, and PowerPoint.

According to a survey conducted by Gila Cohen Zilka for the Journal of Information Technology Education, 41% of children received laptop computers from the program, while 59% received desktop computers. Relative gender-parity was also apparent in the survey, with 286 boys and 298 girls receiving computers.

In narrowing the digital divide relating to access to ICTs and digital literacy skills, Zilka finds A Computer for Every Child to be a highly effective initiative. The children provided with computers demonstrated a marked increase in access to ICTs, as well as mobile use. Frequency of online browsing also increased significantly, with the increase being greater for those with laptop computers. Similarly, YouTube viewing saw a big rise, again more so for those with laptops than with desktops. Children with laptop computers also used the internet to search for online content more often than those with desktop computers. In the area of literacy, however, children with desktop computers demonstrated better know-how of word processors than those with laptop computers.

On the basis of her research into the A Computer for Every Child program in Israel Zilka concludes that providing desktop or laptop computers, even to children who already have computer access while at school, does help in narrowing the gap in ITC literacy and access. Furthermore, it is evident that laptop access can bring children up to pace faster in terms of usage.

In 2013, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu announced A Computer for Every Child would be expanded to offer tablet computers to children, in addition to traditional computers.

Some, such as Haaretz' Lior Dattel, are critical of the Prime Minister’s involvement in the program, pointing out that he promised during his first term in office that “every” child would receive a computer, a promise which he has yet to fulfill.

Some Palestinians have also criticized the program, on the basis there are more pressing educational needs. Head of the East Jerusalem parent-teacher association, Abd al-Karim Lafi, stated: “In Israel they talk about a computer for every child. We are only asking for a chair for every child.”

Progress Measurement Tools
The Israeli Government has in the past and continues to run initiatives with the goal of increasing Internet usage in low usage areas of the country. However, Fisher & Bendas-Jacob argue that while governments dedicate considerable resources into closing the digital gap, they have not allocated appropriate funds toward the development of tools with which have not to gauge the impact of their efforts. It is critical, the authors argue, for any government that is serious about closing the digital gap to develop and implement measurement methods. As such, they suggest three methods which would allow a more clear understanding of internet usage increases, thus allowing better implementation of government programs.

The first suggestion measurement tool is Online Skills Instrument. This tool analyzes the user's proficiency in internet browsing; Their proficiency level is determined based on the amount of time to locate information, as well as the user’s ability to pinpoint information on the page that is not easily accessible. Fisher & Bendas-Jacob detail five specific levels of proficiency: At the lowest end, the user who is not able to locate any information at allis categorized as having Poor-Slow Internet Skills. Next, if the user can find several easy-to-locate websites at a relatively brisk pace, they are categorized as possessing Poor-Fast Internet Skills. If the user can locate hard-to-find websites, albeit slowly, they are placed into the Good-Slow Skills. Intermediate Skills sees the user locating moderately difficult to find websites at a fair pace. Finally, if the user can both browse fast and find the more difficult websites, they are considered to have Good-Fast Skills.

This tool is used under specific conditions in order to collect reliable data. Tasks ranging from easy to hard are posed to groups of thirty, who all use an identical-model computer with the same high-speed internet connection. All participants answer each question simultaneously. After all tasks are completed, the researchers evaluate the number of correctly solved tasks per subject, as well the time each successfully solved task took to finish.

In order to accurately ascertain whether the digital divide of ICT access and digital literacy is in fact being closed, the government make use of reliable tools that can evaluate those participating in a given program. To do so, Fisher & Bendas-Jacob suggest assessing participants before, during and after the “internet intervention”. They then developed a method is called The information and attitudes questionnaire. The questionnaire seeks to determine changes in digital literacy and access, factors that affect internet use, changes in web browsing proficiency, and changes ideas and attitudes about the internet. The questionnaire will also help compare Israel specifically to global statistics.  The information and attitudes questionnaire, asks subjects questions in regarding computer and internet access, internet usage, and digital awareness. The computer and internet access section inquires as to how many computers the participant owns, how long they have owned it for, what operating system their computer runs, whether they have a wired or wireless internet connection, or why they do not have an internet connection at all.

The internet use section asks subjects how often they go online. Possible answers range from zero to more than fifteen hours.

The digital awareness section asks the user to “score” their self-perceived internet literacy, ranked from “very low,” to “very high.” They are also asked to select from a range of true to false values in response to proposed sentiments about the nature of the internet.

The third measurement tool proposed by Fisher & Bendas-Jacob is the Internet Anxiety Scale. This scale asks participants how worried they are about: whether having internet at home could be a negative influence on younger family members, whether connecting to the internet could harm their computer, whether internet will result in an invasion of privacy, whether a lack of technological literacy leads to a lack of concern about being online, whether the internet is too expensive, whether using internet could cause an addiction, and whether they might ‘lose their way’ online.

In developing and testing a measurement program based on the described tools, Fisher & Bendas-Jacob found that improvements of an Israeli government initiative could be accurately measured. They argue that the tools they have developed for determining levels of improvement in internet access and literacy are of equal importance to government initiatives that seek to expose participants to ICTs.

Jews
The level of religious observance among Jews in Israel varies widely. The Haredi population is far less connected, not by socio-economic realities but more often by choice or tradition. 10.3 of the Haredi population has home internet, in comparison to almost 85% of the traditional or secular Israeli-Jewish population. More Haredi men are connected than are women.

Recognition in Israeli Press
The Israeli press has continued to cover this issue, with popular outlets like Haaretz and Jerusalem post having written of articles on the topic.

Nicholas John, an academic, has criticized the press in Israel far being too utopic about the internet. He asserts than many journalist were influenced by "Communications Serving Growth" a famous opinion piece written by former United States president, Al Gore. John thinks Israeli journalist agreed with Gore’s vision of the internet as a "solution to global and local environmental challenges," and as "[providing] the information required to dramatically improve the quality of life throughout the entire world." John does concede, however that concern did begin to emerge in the Israeli press about problems posed by the digital divide.