Week 11, Activity 2. The Global digital divide

The Goldern Triangle refers to 'accessibility', 'quality' and 'cost' in education. It has been argued that you cannot increase one without decreasing at least one of the other factors. However the use of ICT may break this rule.

The revolutionary feature of educational technology in general – and of open and distance learning and ICTs in particular – is that it can break open the iron triangle. You can increase access, improve quality and cut costs – all at the same time. This is because of the economies of scale and consistency of quality that come with using media. That is the big miracle.

http://www.col.org/resources/speeches/2006presentations/Pages/2006-08-23.aspx

One of the possibilities of meeting the Education For All (EFA) goals is to use ICT. However exists a global digital divide which means the population of many countries do not have access to these techonologies.


Activity A2: Looking at the global figures

Using statistics from the Internet World Stats website (http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm) we can see that there is a digital divide between the rich and the poor continents. Over the last 10 years we have seen a growth in all countries.

 The figures do not deliniate the amounts and types of access each country has (although this is understandable as it would be very difficult to assess). An internet user is defined very loosely and does not show the real picture in terms of internet use potential. Having an internet cafe in town does not mean you would be able to afford it, and if you did you maybe could only afford 10 minutes a day. Nor does it take it take into account internet capability of the users.