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##  The Digital Divide and Its Implications for the Language Arts. ERIC             Digest D153.                                                                 

The term Digital Divide came to public attention after a 1995 study             by the Markle Foundation revealed that the "same divergence found in            society along cultural and racial lines is found online and                     offline". Lloyd Morrisett, the former president of the Markle                   Foundation, called it a "digital divide" between the                            information "haves" and "have-nots." The major obstacles to using               the Internet were found to be cost and knowledge. (CNET News.com,               March 14, 1997) These findings have been supported by Novak and                 Hoffman, 1998, the first study to collect data on race and                      ethnicity, and by three U.S. Commerce Department and the National               Telecommunications and Information Administration reports (1995,                1998, 1999). The Digital Divide has been called the Civil Rights                issue of the new millennium. (Carvin, 2000) 
These findings                    fostered a wave of initiatives by the U.S. President and by                     corporations and non-profit organizations. On April 4, 2000                     President Clinton announced that over 400 companies and non-profit              organizations have signed a "National Call To Action" plan to meet              two critical goals: 
1. Provide 21st century learning tools for                every child in every school. 
2. Create digital opportunity for                every American family and community. 
While these initiatives                  address a basic problem - that of the cost of computer ownership and            Internet access - this is only one aspect of a set of related                   issues. Local and community information, content for limited                    literacy users, and multilingual and multicultural content have,                thus far, not been prominent online. Thus, content-related barriers             may turn out to be more difficult to overcome than those of computer            access. (Lazarus and Mora, 2000) 
In addition, knowledge of how to             use the Internet was found to be a second major factor contributing             to the digital divide. And this is where the education community has            a crucial responsibility. Even when access to rich Internet content             is technically available, teachers must have a high degree of                   commitment and skill to actually take advantage of the opportunity              which the resource provides. INTERNET ACCESS AT SCHOOLSIn                 1997, 78% of public schools had Internet access but only 27% of                 instructional rooms had access. (NCES, 1998) Public schools with a              high-percentage of low-income and minority students were less likely            to have Internet access than those with a low percentage of                     low-income students and minority students. WHAT DO CHILDREN GAIN              FROM USING THE INTERNET IN THE

LANGUAGE ARTS CLASSROOM?A                 large number of the available publications exploring Internet use               consist of classroom resources for teachers -- Web guides, lesson               plans, recommended strategies, instructions for searching. Due to               the short time that the Internet has been available in schools,                 there are no comprehensive studies on the relationship between its              use and language arts achievement. 
A major source of information              about the advantages of Internet use in the classroom are                       enthusiastic teachers who relate their experiences. As one first                grade teacher concludes having used online projects throughout the              academic year, "the only limitations to using                                   telecommunications (with young) students are those we impose                    ourselves by failing to empower them." (Oakes, 1996). 
Among the               educational benefits language arts teachers describe are those                  involving the development of research skills, integrated learning,              interactivity, writing for real purposes and authentic audiences,               handling difficult topics in new ways, multicultural learning,                  collaborative problem solving, etc. (Sosenke, 2000; Taverna, 2000,              etc.) 
They perceive that using the Internet leads to student                  empowerment, and increased motivation and interest. It helps at-risk            and multilingual students develop literacy skills, and fosters                  family involvement. Teachers also report enriched self-esteem and               sense of accomplishment in their students. (Medrinos, 1997; Clovis,             1998, etc.) Moreover, through use of the Internet students acquire              skills needed for our age. Welter, 1999, warns that if students are             left without the necessary skills to use advanced technology, it may            render them incapable of participating effectively in a modern                  socioeconomic system. THE DIGITAL DIVIDE AS A PEDAGOGICAL                     ISSUEDespite the rapid growth of wired schools in recent years,             surveys suggest that use of technology to affect classroom practice             tends to be limited to small groups of teachers who are excited by              the potential they believe technology has to motivate their students            or to access new resources. (Glennan, 1996) Studies indicate that               teachers' use of the Internet varies greatly according to their                 perception of the value of the Internet for instructional purposes.             Many educational institutions and individual teachers simply may not            be ready for the transformation of teachers' roles and teaching in              general which are necessary to the effective use of the Internet.               Nellen, 1998, for example, offers three pieces of advice that may               not be equally appealing to all teachers: (1) Become a student, (2)             Morph into a cybrarian, and (3) Empower students. 
Becker makes the            following observation regarding the adoption of technology: "It may             be, then, that diffusion of Internet use to larger numbers of                   teachers will reach a barrier when most of the remaining                        non-participants hold beliefs that are not as compatible with                   Internet use as constructivism seems to be-in other words, teachers             who believe in a skills-based curriculum, organized in a fixed,                 externally-determined sequence, and who teach a uniform aggregation             of content which all students should master." (Becker, 1999) 
In               his study of teacher use of the Internet, Becker found that teachers            assigned to "high-achieving" classes were more likely to use the                Internet and to find it essential in their teaching than teachers               with "average" classes. Teachers of "average" classes were more                 likely than were teachers with "low" classes to use it. 
On the                other hand, Becker and Ravitz, 1999, find that using the Internet               can change teachers pedagogical beliefs and lead to more                        constructivist practices. They point out three facilitating                     factors: (1) Positive attitude among peers, (2) Information and                 social support resources, and (3) Appropriate educational                       resources. CONCLUSIONIn the early years of the Internet there             was an expectation that the availability and easy access to online              resources of unparalleled abundance would increase educational                  equity throughout the socioeconomic spectrum. In fact, research                 suggests that patterns of technology access often mirror existing               inequalities rather than mitigate them (Schofield, 1998) and if                 corrective steps are not taken, technology may worsen rather than               solve equity disparities. (Serim, 1999) REFERENCESBecker                  H. (1999). Internet use by teachers. Center for Research on                     Information Technology and                                                      Organizations                                                                   
http://www.crito.uci.edu/TLC/FINDINGS/internet-use/report.htm                 
Becker, J. and Ravitz, J. (1999). The influence of computer and               Internet use on teachers' pedagogical practices and perceptions.                Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 31(4),                           356-84 
Carvin, A. (2000). Mind the gap: The digital divide as the             civil rights issue of the new millennium. Multimedia Schools, 7(1),             56-8. 
Clovis, D. (1998). Use technology to help multilingual                  students meet national standards. Multimedia Schools, 5(5),                     52-4. 
The Clinton-Gore administration: A national call to action              to close the digital divide.The White House. Office of the Press                Secretary, April 4,                                                             2000. 
http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/New/html/20000404.html 
CNET              News.com, March 14,                                                             1997 
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-317366.htm 
Falling                through the Net, NTIA. July 1995; July, 1998; July                              1999. 
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fallingthru.html                       
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/net2/                                        
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fttn99/contents.html 
Glennan,              T. and Mehmed A. (1996). Fostering the Use of Educational                       Technology: Elements of a National Strategy. RAND                               report. 
http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR682/contents.html               
Internet access in public and private schools. Indicator of the               month. The Condition of Education, 1998. NCES, Washington, DC. [ED              426 694] 
Lazarus, W. and Mora F. (March 2000). Online content for             low-income and underserved Americans: The digital divide's new                  frontier. The Children's                                                        Partnership. 
http://www.markle.org/news/proj_index.html 
Medrinos,           R. (1997). Using educational technology with at-risk students: A                guide for library media specialists and teachers. Greenwood                     Professional Guides in School Librarianship, Greenwood Press,                   1997. 
Novak T. and Hoffman, (1998). Bridging the digital divide:              The impact of race on computer access and Internet use. Project                 2000, Vanderbilt                                                                University.                                                                     
http://www2000.ogsm.Vanderbilt.edu/papers/race/science.html                   
Nellen, T. (1998). Surfing the Internet: Sink or swim! English                Journal, 87(2), 105-7. 
Oakes, C. (1996). First grade online.                  Learning and Leading with Technology, 24, 37-9. 
Serim F. (1999).              Beyond Y2K: Bridging the digital divide. Multimedia Schools,                    6(5). 
Skarecki, E. and Insinnia, E. (1999). Revolution in the                 classroom, Learning and Leading with Technology, 26(7),                         22-4. 
Schofield, J. and Davidson, A. (1998). The Internet and                 Equality of Educational Opportunity. [ED 428 720] 
Sosenke,                    F. (2000). World tours. Learning and Leading with Technology, 27(5),            32-5. 
Taverna, P. and Hongell, T. (2000). Meet Harriet Tubman. The            story of a Web site. Learning and Leading with Technology, 27(6),               42-5. 
Welter, C. (1997). Technological segregation: A peek through            the looking glass at the rich and poor in an information age. Arts              Education Policy Review, 99, 2-7. 
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Digest #153 is                      EDO-CS-00-04 and was published in July 2000 by the ERIC                         Clearinghouse on Reading, English and Communication, 2805 E 10th                Street, Bloomington, IN 47408-2698, Telephone (812) 855-5847                    or (800) 759-4723. ERIC Digests are in the public domain and may be             freely reproduced. Additional copies may be ordered by contacting               the ERIC Document Reproduction Service at (800)                                 443-3742. 
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This project has been funded at least in part               with Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education under                  contract number ED-99-CO-0028. The content of this publication does             not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department            of Education nor does mention of trade names, commercial products,              or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.                   **Title:** The Digital Divide and Its Implications for the Language Arts. ERIC             Digest D153.                                                                 **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Available From:** ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication, Indiana              University, 2805 E. 10th Street, Suite 140, Bloomington, IN                     47408-2698 Tel: 800-759-4723 (Toll Free); Web site:                             http://eric.indiana.edu/.                                                    **Descriptors:**  Access to Information, Computer Uses in Education, Educational                 Technology, Elementary Secondary Education, Equal Education,                     Internet,  Language Arts                                                    **Identifiers:** ERIC Digests,  Technology Utilization                                        
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