Tuesday, June 4, 2002
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Larry Irving 
Technology Gap Among Colleges Perpetuates 'Digital Divide' in Society, Expert WarnsBy JEFFREY R. YOUNG
The "digital divide" in American society is getting worse, not better, and it is being perpetuated in part by a technology gap between elite and minority-serving colleges, says Larry Irving, a technology consultant who is a former U.S. assistant secretary of commerce. Mr. Irving helped prepare the 1995 research report for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration that first sparked widespread public debate about the digital divide -- the disparity in access to electronic resources by whites and minority groups -- and he remains outspoken about the need to develop more public programs to bring technology access to minority communities. In a speech last month, he criticized the Bush Administration for cutting back on programs meant to help narrow the digital divide. The speech took place at a conference jointly sponsored by the National Communication Association, a scholarly society, and Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, a public-interest alliance of computer scientists and others concerned about the impact of computer technology on society. Mr. Irving is president and CEO of the Irving Information Group, a technology consulting company based in Washington. Q. Is the digital divide still an issue? A. There's absolutely no question that it's still an issue. ... As you start walking through the statistics, it's pretty clear that there's still a gap. And while growth is fastest among low-income [people] and blacks and Hispanics, the gap is actually getting wider because they started at a lower starting point. Q. Do you think academics are doing enough to study this gap? A. No. And I think a lot of the studies, candidly, have been very sloppy. There have been a number of studies saying the divide was going to be cured, [but those] people were doing random surveys or telephonic surveys. Well, random surveys are just junk, and I don't think anybody credible will accept a random survey on something that's this critical of an issue, or they should not. Telephonic surveys are also junk, particularly when you consider that 10 to 15 percent of blacks and Hispanics, and up to 25 percent of low-income blacks and Hispanics, don't have a telephone. So what you get is a group that is more affluent and more likely to use technology. So you see these rosy pictures that are premised on faulty data. What really is annoying to me as a nonacademic is how when you get a really lousy, slipshod, awful, self-promoting study that doesn't show the facts, other academics are loath to criticize their own, and so it stands out there. Q. What are some other issues for colleges? A. Another big issue for colleges is the differential in rates [of technology infrastructure] between the various types of colleges. ... If you look at private universities, the people who come there have greater exposure to and experience with the Internet and computer technology than students in high schools generally. And when they come to the universities, the students at a Stanford, or a Northwestern, or a Columbia, or a Yale, in many instances, have access to better technology, and use technology more extensively than computer-science majors at minority-serving institutions, such as HBCU's [historically black colleges and universities], or Hispanic-serving institutions, or the tribal institutions. [At those institutions], you have older technology, you have worse infrastructures, and you have technology that's not integrated into the course structure, as it is at some of the private elite universities. Q. So you see a kind of digital divide among colleges? A. There is a digital divide among colleges, and we don't have the same kind of data on it [as we do on the digital divide more broadly]. I have a real fear that the divide that exists on colleges could be exacerbated. You have major universities that are getting involved in the next-generation Internet, while you have tribal colleges, minority-serving institutions, [and] poor rural colleges that really aren't online and haven't figured out a way to elevate themselves into what the mainstream of our elite colleges are doing with regard to how to use technology for teaching, for learning, for connecting their faculty, and for a host of other purposes. Q. Could a college digital divide exacerbate the broader digital divide? A. Yeah. Here's what happens. You grow up in a house where you don't have technology, you go to a school -- a high school, a junior high -- that has very little technology. Then you go to college, and you are again outside of the mainstream or the cutting edge or even on the same path that other students are going. ... Then you go out into the work force without the skills that the work force is looking for. And it just puts people in more and more of a hole. ... These are critical issues for our nation. Q. Some researchers have argued that the rhetoric of the digital divide could do more harm than good by promoting stereotypes that African Americans and other minorities simply aren't interested in technology. What do you think of those arguments? A. Part of that has to do with marketing, and I do think that there's a disconnect. If you go into a mainstream magazine, you'll see all kinds of computer ads. [But] go into a magazine geared to blacks or Hispanics -- even business magazines [for those markets] are almost devoid of technology ads. Geek chic never really played in the black community. They ought to get folks like Kobe Bryant. ... Why is Kobe Bryant doing Nutella and Sprite [ads], but he's not doing technology [ads]? ... You've got a community of 70 million people, the majority of whom are English speaking, who have $1.5-trillion of spending power, and 60 percent [of them] don't have Internet access, and 60 percent of them don't have a computer. And nobody has really said, "This is a market we want to market to." And this is absolutely crazy.
Background articles from The Chronicle:
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 California may require universities to quit considering GPA's weighted for AP courses Nontraditional students dominate undergraduate enrollments, U.S. study finds Philadelphia City Council passes bill holding some universities accountable for off-campus students St. Mary's College, in Indiana, found to have violated crime-reporting law CollegisEduprise seeks to raise $75-million in stock offering Technology gap among colleges perpetuates "digital divide" in society, expert warns A digest of recent corporate news in distance education |
Copyright © 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education