The Digital Divide in Educating African-American Students and Workers

Abstract

As Bill Bradley recently observed, “A pair of strong hands are not what they used to be. Now those hands have to be able to use a keyboard.” In 1997, over half of all workers directly used a computer keyboard on the job. Workers who use a computer at work are paid more than those who do not, and are more highly sought after by employers. The Commerce Department’s 1999 report, Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide, highlighted that African-American workers are less likely than others to have access to information technology at home and at work. The Commerce Department report did not address the issue of training African-American students and workers to use computer technology. This paper seeks to fill that void by exploring the magnitude of the racial divide in the use of computer technology among school children, and considering the consequences of the digital divide. The key findings are summarized below.