Why is it so important to recognize and address the digital divide? In our better moments, we all feel that the United States should not be a country of social injustice and that every man or woman, no matter his or her race, age, background, religion, ability or disability, should have the same opportunities. But nearly 65% of college graduates have home Internet access, while less than 12% of households headed by someone with less than a high school education have Internet access. 86.3% of households earning $75,000 and above each year had Internet access in late 2000 compared to only 12.7% of households earning less than $15,000 per year. Those that have the technology — both physical access to it and the exposure and training to know how to use it — can use the technology to make more money, buy more or better technology, etc.

Over 60% of today's jobs require technology skills. Lack of access to the tools of today's workplaces leads those without the technology to be stuck in place, to never be able to make enough money to afford the technology and training that would make employment in areas requiring the use of technology even possible.

• The latest statistical report on the digital divide and the state of Internet use and access in the United States is Falling Through the Net: Toward Digital Inclusion. This U.S. Dept.of Commerce report is revised every one and a half to two years. The latest report highlights changes in Internet access from December 1998 to August 2000. (This report is in Adobe Acrobat® PDF format and requires the Acrobat® Reader plugin for your Web browser.)
  
  
• Read Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994-99 from the U.S. Dept. of Education's National Center for Education Statistics.

1. The share of households with Internet access rose by 58% from December 1998 to August 2000. If the share of households with Internet access was 26.2% in December 1998, what was the share in August 2000?
   
   
2. There were 116.5 million Americans online — either at home, at work, at school, or in a local library or community center — in August 2000. That is 31.9 million more Americans online than in December 1998. How much of an increase was that stated as a percent? How many more people would be online since August 2000 if there were only a 1% new growth in use?
   
   
3. While both numbers above show an increase, the percent increase in individual Americans online is less than the share increase of users with Internet access in their homes. List several reasons why these two statistics do not need to match. Also think about how percentages work on smaller versus larger numbers. Take an arbitrary 10 lions and 25 tigers. How big of a percent increase is needed to get to 50 lions and 50 tigers? The lions need a 400% increase, but the tigers only need a 100% increase.
   
   
4. The gap in Internet access is narrowing between urban and suburban households and those in rural areas. Rural areas have trailed the nationwide Internet penetration rate (see problem #1 above). In August 2000, 38.9% of rural households had Internet access. That number was 22.2% in December 1998. What was the percent increase in rural Internet access?
   
   
5. Refer to this bar graph, which shows data from August 2000. In December 1998, there was a gap in Internet usage between men and women. That gap has now disappeared for the overall U.S. population. However, the data shows gender gaps among Asian Americans, Blacks, and Hispanics. Describe what you see in the data.
   
   
6. The digital divide in Internet use as viewed by race/ethnicity is a story of good news/bad news. The good news is that Black and Hispanic households have made substantial gains. Black households were more than twice as likely to have home access in August 2000 than in December 1998. Hispanic households also saw huge growth in access, rising from 12.6% to 23.6%. However, there is bad news. Summarize the gaps you can see in the bar graph. The gap in Internet access between Black households and the national average was 15 percentage points in December 1998. What is it now? The gap also widened for Hispanic households compared with the national average.
   
   
7. Use this pie chart to answer the following questions. For U.S. households that already own a computer, what are the top three reasons given for never accessing the Internet? Surprisingly, the "don't want it" category increased 5 percentage points from December 1998 to August 2000.

1. People who don't use the Internet often don't know what people who do use the Internet use it for! Take a look at this chart of Daily Internet Activities taken from a recent report from the Pew Internet & American Live Project. How many of these activities do you do on the Internet? For a more detailed report on what it's like for today's teens online, read Teenage Life Online: The rise of the instant-message generation.
   
   
2. The digital divide is being recognized and, with enough effort, solved in many communities around the United States. East Palo Alto is a poor community in the heart of California's Silicon Valley. Read how corporate donations have place computers in classrooms where kids had never used computers before. Pittsburgh has been addressing both the physical lack of modern or even working technology as well as a lack of staff training in how to use or maintain computers. Boston has made great progress in pushing equity in technology as part of the city's education reform movement. Read about the successful Digital Bridges and TechBoston projects.
   
   
3. To some, "throwing computers at the problem" is not the solution — or not the complete solution — to the digital divide. Read other interesting perspectives in "Digital Deconstruction" by MSNBC.com's Brock Meeks and "Solve the Digital Divide by Closing the Power Divide," a talk at the Wireless Vision Congress by Mark Lloyd.