The guest speaker in this video clip is the chairman and CEO of the Alliance for Digital Equality, Julius Hollis. Hollis explains the empowering benefits of technological access. Hollis claims he fears “that a large segment of our society will be essentially dysfunctional and disenfranchised from our economy because of the lack of understanding of how informative the digital technology is in terms of broadband” (Hollis, 2010). When a portion of our society is detached from the current digital technology, the country suffers. Below average use of modern technology is synonymous with below average economic and educational contributions due to the fact that so much of the business world relies on heavy technology use. Hollis emphasizes the importance of “digital empowerment programs” to educate Hispanic and African American communities with limited access to broadband and other technology (Hollis, 2010). Hollis suggests that “if we fail to act in a progressive way, then we are in fact creating a situation which will be disastrous for our societies in years to come” (Hollis, 2010). In this statement, Hollis claims that the current digital divide is a national problem that will be a detriment to the nation as a whole if something is not done to solve the problem.
Even though the digital divide is a separate topic from the issues we have recently been discussing in class, it unfortunately ties in very closely with the concept of Standard English and English Only classrooms.
Earlier in class we discussed the idea of Standard English and the expectations to use this form of English in most professional settings. In my opinion, Technology is a sort of offshoot of Standard English. If someone goes into a job interview, they need to be able to talk the talk of technology. An individual needs to know how to efficiently not only use the internet, but modern software and upcoming technologies as well. If someone is raised within a household or community that only offers limited access to the internet and the technology that comes along with it, that person is at a serious disadvantage for gaining employment. Technology is a language that students must know how to speak if they hope to succeed in today’s business world and the MSNBC clip discussed above supports the claim that minorities, those with either strong dialects or those with English as a second language, are some the people most hindered by the digital divide. Unfortunately, these are also the people that are neglected by our educational systems as we discussed in class the last couple of weeks. A change needs to be made in our educational system both to accommodate to African American dialects, English as a second language learners, and students with limited access to technology if equality within the classroom is ever going to be achieved.Witt ,A. (Interviewer) & Hollis, J. (Interviewee). (2010). Internet divide remains for minorities. MSNBC. Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/34793083#34793083.
Here’s a link to Alliance for Digital Equality, Hollis' organization's website: alliancefordigitalequality.org
Also, here is another clip regarding the digital divide and urban communities:
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