Chapter 2: An Examination of the Digital Divide and its Dividing Factors in Formal Educational Settings

In the mid-1990s, the term Digital Divide was coined to characterize a growing social inequity between those individuals who had access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) resources and those individuals who did not. Over the past 20-years, the notion of the Digital Divide has expanded beyond mere access to ICT resources to include the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of individuals to use ICT resources to improve their quality of life. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a working definition of the Digital Divide, a brief history, a model to examine the Digital Divide in the context of formal educational settings, and a lens to focus the research that examines the “dividing factors” of the Digital Divide. Specifically, this chapter will examine the factors used to characterize the Digital Divide in formal educational settings: Socio-Economic Status (e.g., high income versus low income), education level (e.g., parents’ educational level), gender (e.g., male versus female), age (generation X versus baby boomers), geography (e.g., rural versus urban), and race/ethnicity (e.g., white/Caucasian versus Hispanic). The chapter concludes with recommendations for policy-makers, educators, educational researchers, and educational administrators to address this social inequity in our society.