As an educational technologist whose specific area of interest lies in the attitudes and experiences of minority learners with educational and communications technologies (ECT), the concept of the "Digital Divide" - with all of its dimensions: the haves and the have-nots, the knowers and the know-nots, the doers and the do-nots (Tapscott, 2000) - has drawn much of my scholarly and professional attention over the years.
But when I bring up this issue in class, some of my undergraduate students (it is never the graduate students, for some reason!) have expressed the view that the Digital Divide may not be an issue - or at least, that it may not be as big an issue as it is made out to be. The fact that talk of the Digital Divide first arose during the Clinton administration seems to be contributing to some of this skepticism. Now whether this historical coincidence is due to the prevalence of liberal policy/media views during President Clinton's years in office or merely because the Internet and information technology first started becoming a major global force during his Presidency can be debated endlessly.
However, what fascinates me in the meantime is how some the students I meet seem convinced that the Digital Divide is no more than a load of Left-Wing hogwash engineered to help push forward a socialist agenda in information technology policy. I have even had students refer to it as the "so-called" Digital Divide in speech and in writing. Meanwhile, they appear to view former FCC chair Michael (Colin's son) Powell's idea of the Digital Divide meaning not much more than a "Mercedes divide" as an appropriate characterization of the issue. (Powell said, "I think there's a Mercedes divide ... I'd like to have one, but I can't afford one.")
References:
Tapscott, D. (2000). The digital divide. In R. Pea (Ed.), The Jossey-Bass reader on technology and learning (pp. 127-154). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
