"Technology Divide"

The "digital divide" is all about technology, right?
And closing the divide means ensuring that everyone, whatever the income, ethnicity or location, has access to the ever-expanding world of electronic information.
Build it and they will come.
Some experts are optimistic. Technology access is steadily growing, and dreams of "wired schools" have become reality. They say computer ownership eventually will mirror that of televisions.
Yet, others are less convinced and argue that computer sales have slowed, and people still are left behind.
But both camps agree that universal access will close the divide.
But now, a growing body of research shows that in reality, access is just the beginning. We read accounts of wired schools where expensive technology stands idle or home-use programs where computers are ignored in favor of television or video games.
The talk now is not about "access" but about "computer fluency" or "technological literacy."
And that's a much harder nut to crack.
For a year, my research partner -- Dr. Jane Jorgenson of the University of South Florida Communication Department -- and I have studied a small "digital divide" project in rural Pasco County.
"Homereach" was developed at Northwest Elementary in Hudson, whose many low-income students qualify it for federal Title 1 funds.
Staff used those funds to buy 25 Imac computers to place in homes, allowing selected children to practice math and reading skills daily using an Internet connection to access educational software packages.
Homereach was designed for academic enrichment, but staff also hoped it would help bridge the digital divide by enabling entire families to use the information superhighway.
They provide training sessions on Internet usage for parents and work closely with families to develop their skills.
Through interviews with families, we learned just how hard it can be to create an information transformation.
Happily, some families embraced the technology and now use the Internet for everything from leisure to job searches.
Others remain unconvinced.
Even with training, they found the computers intimidating and the Internet an alien world.
Some families use the computer only for assigned lessons, and others gave up entirely.
In many ways, Homereach is a model program. It offers as much energy to training as to technology. Even so, some families are hard to motivate, and the least educated are the hardest of all.