The digital divide: real or imaginary?

Abstract

There has been much written about the existence of a gap between generations when it comes to technology use and knowhow. This gap has been called the "digital divide." Since the early 1990s the prevalence of home computer use and ownership has increased to become the norm. Along with this, children are being exposed to computers at all levels of the education system from pre-school to tertiary study. This exposure has, in part, lead to the premise that this current generation are "good" at using computers. This paper examines the concept of the digital divide from the perspective of a class of students enrolling in an introductory computing class in a New Zealand University in 2009. The mean age of this class was 20 with the most represented age group being those who are younger than twenty. This study found little evidence of the traditional digital divide.