In the past decades we have seen many major improvements and changes in ICT technology. These include educational, social, cultural and economic benefits. But in the less economically developed areas of the world, there has not been as much technological advances compared to other parts of the world. An example of this would be Africa, many of the countries in Africa are vastly less economically developed compared to Europe, or North America. Out of the 841,546,000 million people, a mere 1.6% are Internet users. In the UK, the figure is 69%.
Two different sides of the Digital Divide, the ones who are on the beneficial side of the divide. Such as the UK and North America. For we use technology for many everyday things, not just for work. We use them to communicate, educational purposes such as online learning sites and games. Using this technology we can keep up with the latest important news and reports, with the use of news sites. Then there is the other side of the divide, Continents such as Africa. A good example to study Digital Divide would be Afghanistan, where 580,000 people have access to Internet in the whole country. The population of Afghanistan 32,738,376, only 1.7% of those have internet access.
The countrys economy is a factor of the Digital Divide. Afghanistan has external debts of $8 billion. To make matters worse there is an unemployment rate of 40% ! 53% of the country live below the poverty line. This is likely that the people who live below the poverty line or will not have the resources for a computer or other technological objects.
You may ask, "what is being done to bridge the digital divide?". Well there are now organisations and projects being set up worldwide to help bridge the Digital Divide. The organisation ‘One Laptop Per Child’ is a U.S. non-profit organization set up to oversee the creation of a cheap, affordable educational devices for use in the undeveloped and developing countries. The company’s focus is on the development, construction and deployment of laptops to promote children's education in developing nations, who normally would not be able to afford even a moblie phone. This will aid these students and offer them increased knowledge for when the technology becomes available for home use to the whole population.
With all these many different organisations and projects in place some people ask, are they really making any difference? After doing some research I have come across a story of how the ‘One Laptop Per Child’ association has helped children in Brazil, below I have listed the link to the story, feel free to view.
Source: BBChttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7647114.stm
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