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Pew on the challanges of spreading broadband
Thursday, August 2nd, 2007
Pew has a new report [ PDF ] discussing the difficulty of encouraging broadband adoption in the US. An excerpt:
Non-internet users as a group are disproportionately old and poor. The median age of non-internet users is 59, and 25% report having household incomes under $20,000 per year. It is not, however, simply a question of money or age. Non-internet users do not have very positive attitudes about information technology. Many report worries about information overload and few link information technology to greater control over their lives. Moreover, non-internet users are apt to see the online environment as a dangerous place – that is, a place with inappropriate or irrelevant content. Given that these non-users are people with worries about information technology and not a lot of extra disposable income, luring them online won’t be an easy task.
This kind of information to me illustrates how it may be unrealistic to expect that OER can help the populations most in need if it is designed solely for online use. It shows why online educational resources and resources that can be printed and distributed offline are complementary and important elements of the OER ecology alongside fully online learning experiences.
