The digital divide

The term “digital gap” refers to the disparity between regions that have access to modern technology and others that have limited or restricted access to this contemporary technology. In our situation, the primary issue is computer-assisted information and how digital diversity has altered the lives of many people in the twenty-first century (Thompson, W. E., Hickey, J. V., & Thompson, M. L.) (2016). The digital divide exists between several groups, such as those living in rural and urban areas, socioeconomic categories, and the industrially developed nations and third-world countries. And it is transparent between the educated and the uneducated individuals. Due to this, one laptop per child (OLPC) has impacted the world by trying to narrow the digital divide.

Keywords: OLPC, Digital divide

Digital Divide

Literacy is an element to create a gap between the digital divide. This is shared between many societies and being literate is important in one’s career, political participation, self-guided learning, and finally to internet usage. Due to this, the OLPC is a non-governmental initiative that is aimed at promoting literacy different societies by providing a laptop to every child in the developing countries. This will make the children’s education in the world to be a priority rather than just a privilege. According to the founder of OLPC Nicholas Negroponte, he explained the project to be an educational and not a laptop project. Some questions led to the development of this project which are; what locked potential from every child would be unlocked and what problems could be solved if every child had a computer. All these questions led to the development of the XO laptop that is solely meant for children’s learning purpose (Kane, C., Bender, W., Donahue, N., & Cornish, J. (2014). The mission of this project is to provide a means that the children will be self-expressing themselves, and a learning platform to around two billion children from the developing countries.

The chronic global crisis of individuals and societies are profound where the children are consigned to isolation and poverty where they are hid from the learning light and how it could impact their lives. Having separate access to the marketplace is a difficult task caused by the rise of digital services such as the virtual classrooms, video conferencing, and videos on demand (Norris, P. (2001). All these require high access of technology which must be taught at an early age to cope with the current trends. In the developing countries, this is difficult to achieve when trying to implant the concept among the grown-ups, but it can be changed when the children become part of this changing technological society.

OLPC is a success in narrowing down the digital divide even though there has been a problem in the recent past about the project. There has been a positive feedback on the effectiveness of OLPC project from over two million laptops that were distributed in more than forty countries (Beitler, D., & London School of Economics and Political Science, (2013). The digital disparity between the rich and the poor kids have been reduced greatly and this is increasing the capital of the disadvantaged children.

Conclusion

Therefore, the development of OLPC has since decreased the digital diversity by empowering the children to have a general knowledge of technology. This has helped their society, the government and the global institution in general.

References

Beitler, D., & London School of Economics and Political Science,. (2013). An ethnography of the one laptop per child (OLPC) programme in Uruguay.

Kane, C., Bender, W., Donahue, N., & Cornish, J. (2014). Learning to change the world: The social impact of one laptop per child. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Norris, P. (2001). Digital divide: Civic engagement, information poverty, and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Thompson, W. E., Hickey, J. V., & Thompson, M. L. (2016). Society in focus: An introduction to sociology.