The digital divide provides a number of educational advantages for those in the better half of the digital divide. A study identified three overall patterns of technology Access and use: 'performativity', 'workability', and 'complexity'(Warschauer et al, 2004). This study highlights the fact that updated resources make a huge difference at school sites, and that they affect every level of technology access and use.
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Performativity is focused on the students’ ability to complete a technology task without making a connection to the original learning outcome (Warschauer et al, 2004). In schools where the technology is outdated, students often spends large amount of time in the preparation stage of the project, detracts the student from their original learning goal. Meanwhile a student in schools where technology is constantly upgraded often spends little time on the technology itself and thus performs better in meeting their original learning goal.
The second pattern observed by Warschauer et al. (2004) is the 'workability' issue. Teachers working in schools equipped with better and more reliable equipment are less often faced with additional workload caused by unreliable machines. Therefore, they can spend more time using the technology to aid their teaching, instead of rectifying problems caused by the lack of technology
The 'complexity' issue in education using ICT often overlaps with the issue of 'workability' (Warschauer et al, 2004). Teachers involved in the study mentioned the difficulty in assigning technology- related projects because they need to consider the varying levels of home computer access. In America for example, the Pew Internet Project conducted in 2004 found that 83% of online teens access the internet primarily from home, compared to 11% who go online most often at school (Callison, 2004). A separate survey conducted earlier in 2003 by U. S. Department of Education found that 52% of student who access the internet from only one location comes from low income families. Students whose household have good access to the internet tend to be more productive in completing projects because they can work on them from home. Whereas student who lack this access have to be contented with traveling to school within the time frame when the computers are available to work on their projects.
--Philips young 10:49, 28 Oct 2005 (EST)
