Global digital reality

• Main Author: Gerald White
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Digital Education Research Network 2013
• Subjects: Canada; New Zealand; Norway; Iceland
• Online Access: http://apo.org.au/node/36299

In education, the transformation that is occurring from the print to the digital era has many twists and turns. Some early adopters may have retreated for fear of reputational damage, often encouraged by sensationalist media reports or student safety concerns, or persuaded by eager developers selling their skills and products, whereas others have driven innovative uses of digital networks to capture the use of collaboration, online services and digital resources for their benefit. These considerations provoke questions of an overall perspective about the take up of digital technologies globally and how ICT take up may be linked to education. The ITU has been collecting and publishing statistics about international telecommunications for 39 years, mostly during an era of analogue communications. However, in 2013, the ITU released its sixth report about the take up of digital technologies in information societies. The report, Measuring the Information Society: 2013 for which an excellent 42 page Executive Summary is openly available, is a valuable and revealing document. Its release is relevant, at a time when information about the merits of fast and slow broadband networks continues to be debated, in a number of countries. Interestingly, ‘around half of the world’s population lives within reach of a 3G network’ (p. 1) which accounts for about 2 billion people which is a 30% global take up rate. Household internet connections are less than half of the mobile take up figure, with fixed line connections even less and decreasing. These numbers confirm a global trend towards the use of mobile digital services. The countries that dominate a digital index that measures digital access, use and skills include South Korea, all five Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland), the Netherlands and the UK. Australia follows further down the list at 11th position, with New Zealand 16th and the US 17th. Surprisingly, one of the early digital network adopters, Canada, is at 20th place. Whether or not there is ...