Policy Brief- Issue 1

Issue of Access, Digital Divide and Specific Populations in the use of internet

Overview :

The term ‘access’ here implies access to internet and broadband available to students and teachers in the school. The issues involved in access are……

i) Quality of access ( in terms of speed and connectivity)

ii) Constraint factors like availability of resources (no of broadband connections, no of workstations etc),time limit, flexibility of timing and so on

iii) Inhibitive attitudes towards use of internet

iv) Inability to access internet resources for want of requisite skill sets

v) Inequality i.e. absence of policy in the school, to promote fairness in access of internet

‘Digital divide’ is the gap between ‘student-teacher populations who are able to access and use the internet effectively’ and ‘who are unable to do so’.

Current status of the issue in our school :

1)The current status of digital divide and the status of access implied in iii) & iv) above, is summarized in Tables 1 and 2.

2) Assuming that status of access implied in factor i)( speed and connectivity) above remains the same, the status of access as implied by ii)( time limit, flexibility of timing and so on) is summarized by the paragraph…..

In our school, students up to grade 10 have supervised internet access at scheduled times, about 1.5 HRS per week. The high school students are allowed to stay back after school, and use the internet with teacher’s permission. The computers are mainly in the computer laboratory, adequate in number, and have good connectivity

(by Indian standards).Hence we definitely need to address the issue of students getting inadequate access, in spite of having the necessary hardware and software.

Policy Options :

Since the issue of access and digital divide in our school arises mainly on account of ‘inhibitive attitudes’ and ‘lack of enabling knowledge & skill sets’, in students of specific socio-economic background (Ref Table1) as well as teachers belonging to specific age group (Ref Table 2), the solution lies in ‘educating’ these specific or otherwise, student-teacher populations.The term ‘educating’ here includes ….

i) creating awareness of the many benefits of internet use by organizing focused programs , events, workshops, seminars or such other related activities

ii) addressing fears and doubts in their minds, through discussions held to educate them on how to avoid or prevent or protect themselves from the dangers inherent in the use of internet

iii) teaching specific skill sets for making effective use of the internet, during the events specified above

This goal can be achieved by adopting the following policies….

A) 1) Setting standards for students in achieving proficiency in the use of internet on gradewise basis

2) Restructuring the student schedule to include more computer time

3) Structuring targeted activities into the curriculum of each subject which require the use of internet

B) 1) Setting standards for teachers in incorporating web enhanced activities into their lessons

2) Setting standards for teachers to master desired skill sets in the use of internet

C) Organizing focused workshops, seminars, programs and other events for the specific student and teacher populations identified in Tables 1 and 2.

Reference: Tables 1 and 2 below...

	Family Income	Parents’ level of education	Nature of Access At home	Parents’ attitude to Use of Internet	Student attitude Towards internet	Student’s Proficiency In internet use	% of students per Class of high school
1	Low	Not high school graduates	No access	Ignorant	Some are interested, While others are ignorant of its potential	Poor knowledge	30 to 40
2	Average	High school graduates	Some have limited access. Very few have broadband.	Not very favorable	Most are interested in Improving or gaining Internet skills	Poor to fair	20 to 30
3	Above average	College graduates	Most have access; many have broadband	Cautious; wary of harmful site content, sites and networks.	Very much interested	Fair to good	20 to 30
4	High Income	Post graduates and doctorates	Unlimited access with some parental control	Favorable	Highly motivated	Good to very good	10 to 20

In our school, students up to grade 10 have supervised internet access at scheduled times, about 1.5 HRS per week. The high school students are allowed to stay back after school, and use the internet with teacher’s permission. The computers are mainly in the computer laboratory, adequate in number, and have good connectivity

(by Indian standards).So, we definitely need to address the issue of students getting inadequate access, in spite of having the necessary hardware and software.

The status of digital divide and the access issue in our school is tabulated in Table 1 of the attachment.

We also have a digital divide amongst our teachers, which is summarized in Table 2 of the attachment.

Age of Teacher	Frequency of internet use In the classroom/lesson	Proficiency in use Of internet
20 to 30	At least once a week per Class	Good
30 to 40	About 2 to 3 times a month	Fair
40 to 50	Occasionally	Fair to poor
Above 50	Negligible	Poor