Bridging the digital divide

I am continually amazed at how little the issue of accessibility to technology is discussed in the corporate eLearning world. It's often an assumption that anyone who wants to can just hop online and surf the internet.
The fact is, there are thousands of communities who still don't have dial up! The term coined for this,by media justice advocates, is "Broadband Redlining". Basically the large ISPs refuse to supply internet service to rural areas where it wouldn't be lucrative for them to lay down the infrastructure. From a business perspective, this makes sense, but from a social and ethical perspective it's extremely unsettling. How is it that in the age of information, such a large part of the population could be left out? On the positive side of this situation, there are companies that address this issue of the 'digital divide'.

Last night in Dr. Kapp's RFP class, we talked about how collaborations are becoming increasingly popular in the eLearning industry. With companies and organizations boasting a specific area of expertise, it follows that a creative collaborative effort of two or more experts, could provide very useful solutions to many social challenges.

This article, http://tinyurl.com/3ahos9, talks about such a collaboration. SmartForce eLearning partnered with the non-profit, Technology for All , several years ago. The goal is to eliminate the digital divide by supporting community based technology centers in the most under-served areas of the country.

Technology for All is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower under resourced communities through the tools of technology. They do this by partnering with local community-based organizations, corporations, foundations, technology providers and public agencies. Through these collaborations, they create educational, economic and personal opportunities for low-income individuals and the communities in which they live.

I was inspired by seeing this example of how creative solutions can be offered to help with some complex socio-economic issues, and I hope to find many more.