Education innovator Futurelab has proposed a new ‘charter for change’ to tackle the digital divide which continues to present a serious threat to a successful digital society in the UK. The charter comes as part of Futurelab’s focus on digital inclusion as a research theme, launched this week.
Detailed in Futurelab’s latest report: ‘Beyond the digital divide: Rethinking digital inclusion for the 21st century’, the charter lists basic entitlements that every individual in today’s digital age should expect. It challenges the Government to act now to ensure that everyone can make informed and empowered choices over ICT use and their access to technology.
The report argues that a revitalised policy needs to be developed to address the people from all sectors of society who are now disadvantaged by technology. Keri Facer, Research Director at Futurelab, comments: “We need to move beyond the assumption that simply providing hardware and offering access to ICT will bridge the gap. As ICT increasingly becomes an integral part of everyday life it is important that people understand the possibilities technology offers so that they can decide how and when they want to use these resources.”
Futurelab’s charter for change proposes a set of four entitlements that individuals should expect:
- ·Entitlement one: all individuals are able to exercise an empowered and informed choice about their use or non-use of ICT.
- ·Entitlement two: all individuals have ready access to the requisite social and technical support, skills and know-how to support their use of ICT.
- ·Entitlement three: all individuals have ready access to ICT-based content and services which are relevant and useful to their needs and interests.
- ·Entitlement four: all individuals have ready access to a full range of ICT hardware and software.
Keri Facer continues, “The digital divide is an entrenched social problem that is not going to disappear. ICT use is now an integral element of thriving in 21st century society. We are appealing to policy makers, technologists and other stakeholders in the UK as a digital society to work together to help resolve this issue.”
Over the coming year Futurelab will be undertaking a programme of research into digital inclusion, aiming to build partnerships with other organisations and individuals tackling these issues. As part of this programme, Futurelab is also launching a new Literature Review entitled, ‘E-inclusion: Learning Difficulties and Digital Technologies’. This report reviews research into the use of digital technologies by people with learning difficulties in educational settings. It provides development guidance to those concerned with the policy, practice and design of digital technologies for use by teachers, parents and learners with learning difficulties in education.
Both reports can be downloaded free of charge from the Futurelab website:
- Beyond the digital divide: Rethinking digital inclusion for the 21st century’: www.futurelab.org.uk/research/opening_education.htm
- E-inclusion: Learning Difficulties and Digital Technologies’: www.futurelab.org.uk/research/lit_reviews.htm