Unequal Access to Info Tech Painfully Persists - Equity, Disabilities, Information Literacy

Bridging Digital Divide

#vwwt2000 PREDICTION #19 OF 20 from year 2000

Access, Disabilities, and Information Literacy
Access to computers, related information resources, and “information literacy” will become higher societal priorities. More educational institutions will recognize and respond to the need to provide such equitable access for all --- regardless of wealth or disabilities. Many colleges and universities will develop programs for defining and regularly revising access and information literacy goals; and for helping students, faculty, administration, and staff to achieve them. Eventually, colleges and universities may only need to offer guidelines about the expected information literacy competencies of entering students, and to provide some modest remedial services for the few who require them.

[UPDATE  Not even close!   Still waiting!  
The "Digital Divide" and "Information Literacy" are still painfully important challenges in 2011, even as they elude precise definitions.  In 2000, I didn't do any better than anyone else anticipating the changing roles of the Internet, cell phones, and new mobile devices - especially the iPhone and iPod and their emerging competitors.  Nor did we foresee the possibilities of "social networking media" such as Facebook and Twitter and information gateways such as Google and Wikipedia.  


Unequal access persists as a painfully familiar increasingly important challenge.  
But in 2011 the most important UNANTICIPATED challenge is the overabundance of online information and tools available to those who DO have adequate access and the ability to evaluate and manage these resources.]

- 19th of 20 predictions from "A New Vision Worth Working Toward: Connected Education and Collaborative Change," Steven W. Gilbert, 2000-2006, First version published via AAHESGIT listserv January, 2000; PDF of full article

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