New Digital Divides in Higher Education

The introduction of the Internet and its growing use in our societies in the 1990s was accompanied by major concerns on the existence of what was commonly labelled ‘digital divide’. The possibilities that individuals did or did not have to access the web were, and continue to be, a determining factor with major personal, professional and social consequences. As a result of public and private policies on the introduction of technological infrastructures in most countries and, in particular, owing to significant progress in mobile phone technology, today the digital divide is being bridged at great speed when considering access. In the field of education, and higher education in particular, swift progress has been made in the provision of universal access and the use of information and communication technologies, at an institutional level and for communication between teaching staff and students. In spite of this, the real impact of specific use of the Internet on teaching and learning processes is proving to be more difficult and complex due to differing perceptions not only between generations but also educationally, between students and teachers. At present we can verify that the digital divide, as understood until today, has been narrowed considerably. And yet, as a consequence of this increased access to the Web, others have opened up, other kinds of social divide which, in some ways, are much more troublesome than the initial gap. We are dealing with divides caused by the varying levels of benefit obtained from the potential of the Web, whether for personal and social activities or for learning purposes. It is clear that the Internet is becoming more and more consolidated and that it is establishing itself as a major arena for the development of new kinds of social relations with most of us taking our first steps online as simple observers. Search engines have contributed to the general conception of the Internet as an immense repository of information where we can find exactly what we are looking for, while the reality is that we are only finding what others have decided we should find. Today the Internet gives much more than a screen displaying an email inbox or a search engine. Today the Web is a place for exchange, for the creation of shared knowledge, social relations, for reaching personal, economic, social and educational goals, etc. But it is not the evident transforming potential that should worry us, but our capacity to understand and use it. There is, therefore, a new digital divide between those who have a specific idea and use of the Internet and those who do not. And the trend is for this divide to widen between certain social groups and generations. What is clear is that the conceptual divide in the use of the Internet determines the benefits obtained and the capacity of individuals and groups to grow and have an effect on society. There already exists a divide between those people who routinely use the Web in a generalised way (from reading newspapers to participating in social networks or buying cinema tickets) and those who hardly ever use it, despite having access to it. We are however interested in revealing the clear inequality in opportunities among those people – and institutions – who have understood the Web’s potential for transformation and those who have not. New Digital Divides in Higher Education